The road, hemmed in on one side by empty warehouses and the other by a concrete seawall, ends abruptly in a desolate parking lot. Men step out of their cars and into the darkness, then slip behind the sliding doors of a warehouse. Inside, they huddle under floodlights and wait. A clock on the wall ticks to 3:10 a.m.

"Ready? Ready? Ready?" shouts a man whose arm is covered to the elbow by a black nylon bag. One by one, the men step forward and their hands disappear into the bag.

And so begins a surreal auction in this port city in southwestern Japan. The buyers grip the dealer's hand, and after a few seconds of secret gesturing felt only by the auctioneer, he yells out the winning bid.