Karoichi

Karo is Tottori city's fishing port, two minutes from the sand dunes, and Karoichi is the market building beside it — a hall of fishmongers, dried goods and produce selling what the boats brought in that morning. Tottori lands more matsuba crab than almost anywhere in Japan and from November to March the hall is full of them, alive in tanks, tagged with the boat that caught them.

Outside the crab season it is squid, flatfish, mozuku and the local white shrimp. Several stalls run counters doing kaisendon and grilled fish, and prices are set for people buying dinner rather than for tourists. It opens at nine, closes at five, and shuts one day a year. Together with the adjoining Karo port fish centre it is the most efficient place in eastern Tottori to eat seafood without a reservation.