Kaki Matsuri (Oyster Festival)

With my love for oysters (one of the reasons why I loved Hiroshima so much!), it is no wonder then that I was quite eager to go to this year's Kaki Matsuri (oyster festival), which is held every year on the last weekend of January in Anamizu town (about half hour drive from our place). This festival is quite well known, and I've been told that people from other prefectures travel to Anamizu for it.

We arrived mid-morning on Sunday and it was already packed! And the food! I was in heaven over the variety of fresh seafood available (of course, the standard festival (greasy 'fast') food were also on sale for the fussy eaters). The town set up a few long rows of hot charcoal grills for the people to cook their purchases and eat them fresh off the grill. The best purchase of the day was a bag of 12 oysters for 1000 yen (~AU$10). The oysters were plump, juicy and very fresh. It certainly was an experience cooking the oysters in their shells and then shucking them.

Some of the food stalls; and people busy cooking their own food over the grill:


Our food on the grill; and Rob prying open one of the goodies:


An oyster cooking on the grill; and enjoying the oyster:


There was a stall set up by a Soba ya (soba noodles shop) and they had four guys making fresh soba. It was entertaining, but it was very pricey noodles. I think they were meant to be given as omiyage (souvenir) but we bought some for ourselves to cook at home.

Soba-making:




We also watched mochitsuki (traditional mochi pounding) complete with the usu.

Mochi-making: