In the third weekend of November, I went to the 8th Annual Oirase Salmon Festival (おいらせ鮭まつり). I heard all about it so I just had to check it out for myself. Oirase is a small town in southeastern Aomori Prefecture, near Misawa and Shichinohe. The family-friendly, salmon-themed event features the usual things like food vendors (especially salmon cuisine), live music, and festival games for children. These are great but the best activity is definitely the salmon catch.
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| Salmon Festival Grounds |
The salmon catch is a fun activity which challenges people to catch feisty salmon with their bare hands, and then keep their catch and bring it home. It’s set up at a shallow pool filled with large adult salmon, and takes place a few times throughout the day. Anyone can join, regardless of age, by purchasing tickets for one of the time slots (In 2013, tickets costs 1000 yen each, or about $10). Buying one ticket allows you to catch and keep one salmon, two tickets allows for two salmon, and so on. A single individual may buy multiple tickets for him/herself if desired. Besides the tickets, boots and gloves rentals are available for a cheap price and necessary unless you bring your own.
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| They have no idea what's coming |
In regards to the actual salmon catch, it lasts just five minutes. Needless to say, the goal is to successfully catch a salmon for yourself before time expires, but there are also extra rewards for catching the largest fish, smallest fish, and catching with the most style. Once the five minutes is up, participants must exit the pool whether they were able to get a fish or not. However, unsuccessful participants can later exchange their ticket for a salmon, just the same. Lastly, fish cleaning is available (again for a small fee) and recommended unless you really want to do it yourself.
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| Running out into the pool at the starting bell |
On the day I went, I bought a single ticket and walked over to the pool area. I was lead over to one side of the pool and waited for the catch to begin with the other participants. On the opposite side, spectators watched in anticipation. The starting bell rang and I hopped into the pool. Most of the poor salmon went into panic mood and frantically swam around looking for and escape. I’ll admit that I felt a little bad about the whole thing as it doesn’t seem very humane, but at least they aren’t getting a sharp hook through the mouth. On the flip side, it’s pretty entraining to see many of the participants screaming and prancing around as they try to catch a salmon.
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| Man catching three salmon |
For the first few minutes I was looking for the biggest fish possible, but then decided just to grab whatever I saw because I didn’t want to be left empty-handed. Personally, I didn’t find this to be difficult, despite what others had said. The pool is shallow enough and the salmon are plentiful, so it was just a matter of quickly grabbing one as they swam by. I ended up with a relatively-small salmon, but I was thrilled with the catch and it was such an interesting experience when all was said and done.
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| Here's my catch! |
Apparently, Oirase has an Annual Baby Salmon Release every March. During this event, people release baby salmon into the river so they can breed and return as adults in autumn, when they can then be caught for the Salmon Festival. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find much about the origins of the festival. Nevertheless, it was a unique experience!
