Hey y'all, this is Little Daryl here to tell you all about the ex-ci-ting sport of drift-net fishin'!
[Note: Here Be Inside Jokes. You Have Been Warned]
~Last weekend, I went on a bus tour offered by the city civics center. In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Nagaoka, the tour included fishing, two museums, and a mountain observation point. Best of all, it was free! This was done in an effort to promote tourism in the newly-expanded city whose borders, like a many-tentacled kraken of the deep, now stretch all the way to the coast. So, early one Sunday morning, I jumped on my bike and rode the to the meeting place, where a large crowd had gathered for the trip:
^ If you look carefully at the people in this picture, you might notice something interesting: we've been segregated! That's right, the Japanese people are on the right and the gaijin are on the left. They put us on separate buses, too. I think this was because the tour guides were using Japanese on one bus and English on the other...yeah, let's go with that explanation.
^ The day was absolutely gorgeous with blue sky and fluffy clouds. Not wanting to get burned, I was covered in SPF 50+ sunblock and wearing my sunglasses and fedora. Still, I had a strong urge to jump in the water and swim around. Later, I was very glad that I didn't, for reasons that will become abundantly clear...
^ The drift net had already been towed into the water, and all we had to do was pull it to the shore. There were about a hundred people, working on both sides of the net.
^ We all grabbed the rope and began to pull. It was hard work! How much rope did each person hold? About three feet. But not four, because that would be wrong.
^ Pulling the whole drift net to the shore took about half an hour.
^ Finally, we'd pulled the entire net to shore! Now to claim our prizes...and devour them! Our hard work paid off, and we managed to pull in a huge catch of...
^ Poachers! No, wait, they're jellyfish. Known as kurage (くらげ) in Japanese, these creatures currently infest the Sea of Japan. Our net was chock-full of these little guys.
^ Everyone got a kick out of messing around with the Jellyfish. They felt like...well, like Jell-o. Interestingly, I later found out that one of my students likes to eat jellyfish. I nearly vomited at the mental and gustatory images that this presented. He said that when he eats it, the jellyfish is flattened into thin strips. Although he claims the taste is delicious, I think this is one piece of Japanese cuisine that I'll decline.
^ How many of you girls could do this?