There is an aquarium in the far corner of the auction area that is maintained by the wholesalers. The brokers get all kinds of orders for fish, from still-living fish to ones already scaled, cleaned, and cut, and this aquarium is important for fulfilling these orders. Large fish are brought here via Shikoku and Kyushu on giant trucks, but this aquarium can only hold 2 to 3 at most. The fish to be auctioned off are brought in and then quickly packaged and replaced with the next fish.

Speaking of freshness, there is a special auction here called “Oikake.” Imagine some fish are caught in nets at the shores of Hiratsuka at 3 a.m., then by 7 a.m. the fish has been unloaded, packaged, and brought here to the market. This fish can’t be sold that day and would have to be sold the following day. However, if this all happens an hour earlier – say the fish is caught at 2 a.m. – it can make it in by 6 a.m. and can be sold that day. At first, the fishermen were against this idea, but the market employees explained it could be sold at a slightly higher price, and the fishermen worked to meet these demands. So why is it called “Oikake?” Because this word in Japanese means “to try to catch up to something.” It describes how the fishermen work hard to catch the fish in time for the auction. If this were the Toyosu Market in Tokyo, which is farther away, they wouldn’t be able to make it in time, so this is something that can only happen here at the Yokohama Central Wholesale Market due to its proximity to the ocean. Fish that had just been swimming in the ocean the night before are at the market by sunrise. This makes for the freshest fish available at the market, and they’re so popular they sell out almost instantly.