Otaru: The Shako (Mantis Shrimp) Festival

Since we're supposed to have record heat this weekend, I'd initially planned on doing yet another Bun Bo Hue post. But in the end, common sense prevailed and I decided that doing a short little post of our early winter visit to Otaru might be a cooler option.....

We had a fun time in Asahikawa on our first day in Hokkaido. On our second day we hit the rails again; this time to the charming port town of Otaru. We headed out with no firm plans, not quite sure of what to expect and in the end, in spite of the place being rather touristy, we really enjoyed ourselves. It's a short 30 minute train ride on the Hakodate Line from Sapporo Station to Otaru. As we walked out of the station, we were greeted by light flurries of snow....those little dots in the photo below.

Chuo Dori is the street that goes straight from the train station to the canal. It's lined with hotels and other interesting diversions.

Along the way, there are more than a few markets/shops where you can pick up seafood which they'll cook up for you.

At the intersection right before the canal stands what I was told is Hokkaido's Oldest Standing Commercial Warehouse, built in 1893, which now houses the Tourist Information Office, some souvenir shops, and a pretty interesting "Christmas Tree" made out of glass floats.

I'm fascinated by those because I'm old enough to remember finding the small glass floats from time to time on the beach back home!

Inside was a tower made of wine glasses. Otaru is known for their glasswork, so I guess this makes sense.

Meanwhile, outside was a certain character I remember reading about in Kat's post. That nattily dressed statue is of a famous firehouse dog named Bunko. According to this post, Bunko was a brave mutt who would help the firefighters and apparently rode to a thousand fires. I actually saw the children's book about Bunko! 

Crossing the street we reached the canal, but really had no plans.

It had warmed up to a balmy 34 degrees Fahrenheit.

Upon crossing the street and noticed a bit of hustle and bustle as folks walked into a parking lot. It looked like some kind of festival was taking place. Then I came across the sign and read the one little English sheet on the poster, "Looks Strange Tastes Good", then below, "Shako"......oooh, Mantis Shrimp!

I guess this was a mantis shrimp festival! Talk about my lucky day. Man, when was the last time I had mantis shrimp?

Things were just starting up when we arrived.......

But there was a fairly long line forming on the other side of the parking lot. The Missus, not one to miss an opportunity grabbed some money and went straight into the line.

I walked up to the front to have a peek......

And noticed the gentleman dumping baskets of mantis shrimp into a cauldron.

Yep, this was the right line.......

Miso soup with a very sweet mantis shrimp; quite nice! Of course, man (nor the Missus) lives on miso soup alone. We wanted something to warm us up a bit, even if it was only 1030 in the morning!

We could not ignore the simple three letters H-O-T....plus the Missus could make out some of the Kanji.

Nothing like a nice steaming cup of umeshu to warm you up. Just the right thing to make you almost forget about the cold!

Just then, there was a little commotion on the other side of the parking lot. It was a Taiko Drum Group!

Man, it was freezing......but check out the folks in shorts!

Of course, it's the "old timers" who really have a good time!

We stayed for the whole performance and slowly drifted away after. Here's the festival website.

We saw the interesting "fellows" above while headed to Sakaimachi Hondori. At first we thought he was just a rather eccentric local walking his dog. Then he whipped out a camera and starting taking photos. So I'm not so sure....does he travel the country with his faithful canine? Then the Missus read the dog's jacket which said "In Memory of....." with a caricature of a dog.....so does this dog wear a sweater in memory of this guy's previous dog? Hmmm....... Well, at least we were finding that Otaru was far from boring!

Thanks for reading!

Comments

[kat]

interesting festival!

[Kirk]

It was a lot of fun Kat!

[nhbilly]

Looked like it was well worth the sea food adventure.

[Kirk]

It was Billy! We enjoyed ourselves.