A few weekends ago, Nick and I tried getting tickets to catch salmon at the Rokkasho Salmon Festival. Unfortunately, we arrived to the festival too late to purchase tickets; however, we discovered that there would be another Salmon Festival in November! The Oirase Salmon Festival would take place November 21 & 22, and there were still tickets available!
The drive to Oirase is an easy 30 minute drive. We arrived at 10am when the gates opened.
The food looked tempting, but we'd just filled up on Mister Donuts at the Shimoda mall nearby. The donuts were so buttery and delicious! It's a little too tempting having donuts that close to us.
Speaking of donuts... :)
The first catch of the day started at 10:30am. The temperature was just above freezing; and the water temperature wasn't too different.
Nick had his game face on. He was the only one wearing a wet suit out of the hundreds of people there. He certainly got some attention because of it. And he stayed fairly warm!
Each ticket holder could catch one fish in a 3 minute time period.
The announcers counted down from 10 in Japanese as the salmon catch began...
Even though I'd bought a ticket to catch a fish, I chose to stay on the sidelines while the mad throng of people made their way into the water first. I definitely wanted to get some photos of Nick doing his first salmon catch. Plus, I didn't want to get pushed, or slip while entering the water. I was happy to wait a few minutes.
It wasn't even 60 seconds before Nick caught his fish! He was screaming like a little girl. :)
He made his way over to a man holding plastic bags to bag his salmon. He dropped the fish off with me, and ran back for fish #2.
I told him he could catch one for me, since I had a feeling I wouldn't be very good at it. His second catch was huge! Nick thought it weighed at least 20lbs.
Look at that look of pure joy! Nick made it look so easy, so I finally decided to make my attempt.
Here I go!
I stuck my hands in to realize that our gloves that I'd bought were garden gloves and definitely not water proof. I immediately stood back up because the water was so cold!
I bent over one more time to feel 4 or 5 fish slip between my hands. It was so much harder than I imagined. I don't know how Nick did it! After about 25 seconds, I'd had enough. I was grateful Nick had actually caught one for me.
Before we exited the pool area, a man approached Nick with an Hawaiian lei. After a few seconds, we realized that Nick had won the style award because of his wet suit. Hahaha! They motioned him over to a platform for him to be interviewed.
The woman asked Nick if it was his first time to the festival, and if he would be back.
This is him answering, "Oh, I'll definitely be back every year!" Haha!
Nick with the 2 salmon he caught, and his award. He was a happy camper!
There were a few other awards including: catching the smallest fish, and catching a fish with a yellow ribbon.
Thankfully, they gut and cut the fish for you there for 300 yen per fish. My fish kept jumping off the table.
I snapped a few more photos of the yummy food as we left the festival.
These little cake-like pastries are filled with custard or apple filling. Mmmm. :)
You can't leave a Japanese festival without having a chocolate covered banana on a stick.
I would definitely choose the banana over fish on a stick any day.
Nick and I had SUCH a blast at the salmon festival. Since Nick told the interviewer that we'd be back every year, we have to keep our promise now. :)
Can't wait to come next year. And with a baby no-less!
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