Nijo Market Sapporo (二条市場　札幌)

"いらっしゃいませ! [irasshaimase or Welcome!]" shouts every market vendor at Nijo Market.

Many of the older vendors shout the entire word constantly, like every 5 seconds. Some of the younger vendors seem to get lazy and just utter the last syllable (which sounds like "-seeeeeeeee")

Nijo market is located about 10 minutes outside of Susukino center in Hokkaido, and is sort of a smaller version of Tsukiji Market in Tokyo. Also whereas Tsukiji seems to primarly sell Tuna, Nijo seems to focus on selling crabs.

One vendor stops me and seeing that I'm obviously a STUPID GAIJIN (バカ外人) starts speaking English.

"Hello." says the vendor. "This crab, very fresh!"

The Alleys of Nijo Market. A collection of shops and restaurants in Sapporo Japan

A restaurant at the market serving fresh sashimi don (刺し身丼). The character 丼 (pronounced DON) simply means meat on top of rice in a bowl.

Another Don Restaurant (海鮮丼). The characters (海鮮 pronounced KAISEN) means seafood.

He hands the crab to me.. it's huge. It feels like it weighs like 2 pounds.

"How much?" I asked. I had no intention of buying it, but I was curious to see how much it would be.

"Five thousand yen. (roughly $40USD at 2022 exchange rates)" He replied with a smile.

I guess that's pretty good, considering the size of that thing.

However I then look at the sign in the ice (四五００円) which is 4500 yen in Japanese Kanji...

What the hell? I thought to myself? Am I getting the GAIJIN PRICE??? ?

Crabs. Sapporo's specialty

”すみません。質問がある。日本語の値段は４５００円です。何故ですか [Excuse me, I have a question. Why is the Japanese price 4500 yen]?????" I asked.

"ええ、日本語が出来ますか [oh you speak Japanese]？” ask the vendor who was sort of shocked.

”はい。出来ます [Yes I can speak it]" I replied in a somewhat rude, amused tone.

Fresh ikura (いくら), or salmon roe.

Fresh Octopus (タコ)

And these are Takoyaki(タコ焼き)。Fried doughballs with pieces of octopus in them.

"なるほど「ok I see.」" replied the vendor. ”じゃー４７００円です [In that case, it's 4700 yen]。”

"でもこの値段は４５００です [but the marked price is 4500 yen]!!!" I replied.

"そうでね。これは日本人の値段です。 [Yes but that's the native Japanese price]" he replied with a smile.

OK. I thought to myself. At least he's honest.

"だから、５０００円は外国人の値段ですか？[So 5000 yen is the foreigner price?]" I asked amusingly.

"はい。そうですね。　[Yes]" he replied.

”４７００円は何の値段ですか　[So what price is the 4700 Yen]?" I asked.

"これは日本語が出来るの外国人値段です！　[That's the foreigners who can speak Japanese price!]" he replied with a grin...