= Sarah POV =
We went to the market in Ms. Jun's Jeep. She pulled into a parking lot next to the fishing port, and as we stepped out of the car, the smell of salt and the ocean hit me immediately.
"The auction started an hour ago, so we should hurry, there are many cuts that I'm hoping to get my hands on," Ms. Jun said, unloading two foldable platform carts from the trunk, pushing one towards me while she pushed the other one.
We quickly made our way to a warehouse that was on the other side of the large carpark. Ms. Jun led us through a side door and as we walked through long plastic flaps that hung over the door, the cool air-conditioned interior greeted us, along the sight of endless sprawling stations of huge frozen fish, amongst many other types of produce on auction.
There were fish in vats of ice everywhere. From Grouper to Sturgeons, eels to sting ray, they had everything on display, and all of it was in high volumes. Tall intimidating men were standing around and mumbling in low voices, negotiating and bargaining for a good price that suits both the seller and the customer's budgets.
Ms. Jun was already making a beeline for a particular place in the heart of the warehouse. As I quickly sped along behind her, I saw oysters, muscles, prawns and lobsters; it was truly a seafood paradise in here.
"Ms. Jun, come," I heard a tall man say. He was dressed in a blue jumpsuit with thick grey gloves and thick grey boots. He had a grey scarf wrapped around his neck and tucked into his suit and a white cap on his head.
Ms. Jun nodded and motioned me to take her cart and park it along a wall at the far end of the warehouse. I took both carts and did as I was told, admiring crabs and sea cucumbers along the way as I did so.
After I returned, I overheard Ms. Jun haggling.
"100," she said and pointed eagerly to the beautiful salmon that the fish monger had in one of the hug vats.
"50, 100 was already promised to the Ajishi," The fish monger said " I have tilapia and tuna as well," he added, waving over to vats about two metres away from where they were standing.
"Alright, let's have a look," Ms. Jun said and followed as the Fish Monger who led her down to the other vats.
As the two of them went off to look at the other fish, I spied the price tag on the vat. It said the fish was ￥1 300 per pound, and the fish looked to be able to be anywhere between 8 to 15 pounds… she wanted 100.
I quickly took out my phone and opened the calculator app and did some calculations. At 50 salmons that was still approximately ￥975 000 if she only got 50 salmons. What was she going to do with that much salmon?
I quickly called Nakajima to confirm last week's fish consumption.
"Hello?" Nakajima picked up after the second ring.
"His Mr Nakajima, sorry to disturb you. I'm with Ms. Jun at the fish market, and I wanted to confirm some figures with you so that I could advise Ms. Jun on the budget," I explained.
I heard Mr Nakajima chuckled " Ah, so you got roped into going to that dreadful place this time. Sorry, she usually drags me along, but today she started much earlier than usual" Mr Nakajima said apologetically.
"No, it's no trouble at all; I honestly didn't have much to do on my agenda anyway", I reassured him.
After a little chitchat, Mr Nakajima found the documents he needed and supplied me with the information. The cafe's fish consumption was, on average, 15 salmons, 12 tuna and 14 eels; depending on the dish, it could go up to 19. Even though overall, in a month, the salmon consumption does go up to 60, there was no need to purchase 50 salmons in one shot as Ms. Jun went shopping every week.
"Ah, you have been such a big help, thank you so much" I said after running the numbers with Nakajima.
"You're most welcome, good luck with prying Ms. Jun away from those fishes, she loves them too much!" Mr Nakajima said and we hung up.