By 4:00 in the morning gigantic markets like Tokyo's Tsukiji, Osaka's Kuromon, and Hakata's Yanagibashi are churning with action. Thousands of fish stalls have been set up and box carts, fish wheelbarrows, vans, trucks, and huge sixteen-wheelers jam the streets and alleys. By 4:30 the city's top sushi chefs arrive with their drivers, and crowds of bustling fish brokers, auctioneers, wholesalers, and traders eye the catch and chatter in loud besshari (an inversion of shaberi, “talk”), the earthy market slang. These early morning markets, known in vendor jargon as seriichi (competition markets) and ichiasa (from asaichi, “morning fair”), are hotbeds of linguistic creativity. While the city sleeps, thousands of exotic slang words surge through the stalls as tons of fish exchange hands, millions of yen flow from one pocket to another, and chefs whose reputations are at stake fight each other tooth and nail for the best fish at the best price. By 5:00 the auctioneers—tankashi (curse masters)—launch into their loud tataki (banging), the hard sales drives that artfully pitch the retailers against each other.
