Everyone knows that Japan is a Foodie’s paradise, but Tateyama might just be sushi’s best-kept secret.  Sushi shops abound in the otherwise quiet town. On the whole, they are modest and unassuming – the point is the fish, the freshest you will ever eat.

With the sea all around it, Tateyama is blessed with an abundance of fish year round, and more, with incredible variety. You can see why: the areas near the coastlines are wide, shallow beaches that break suddenly into deep seas, so Tateyama gets the fish from both — those that swim the Pacific and those that favor the Bay; the aji that stay in the shallows and the aji that swim in the deep. In a north wind, the fishermen head for the south side. If it’s too stormy to ride the Pacific, they ply the bay. When a typhoon has just swept the peninsula, the next day’s catch in the sea will be prodigious. And every season brings its particular treasure.

If you stay the night, you can begin your fish day at your hotel with a breakfast of sashimi that will have come from the sea just a half hour before it’s served to you, giving you a taste of freshness unrivalled even at the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo.