“Do your masugeori here on the way past. I'll take something off for you.”
The fish seller had only just got her stall laid out. It was barely gone seven, and the ground was still wet where she had thrown the water.
마수걸이, masugeori, is the first thing you sell in a day. 마수 is the very first of anything. People who trade held that first sale apart from the rest: get it started well and the whole day would run well.
So the first customer gets the price cut, gets something extra dropped into the bag, gets kept talking a moment longer. The morning's profit is not the point yet. Being on terms with somebody is.
And it works, in its own slow way. You go back to the stall where that happened.
I bought a bag of bean sprouts and turned to go, and the thanks came after me down the row.
“You've set me up nicely. Come again.”
It was not yet eight in the morning.