Odawara Minato Festival was held in Odawara Fishing Harbour on 7 August. Odawara Fishing Harbor in the most closest harbor from train station in Japan. It’s only 1 minute a walk from Hayagawa Station. Mainly, the festival is organized for people interested in fishing industry and for the seafood gourmets, but I’m sure that everyone can spend great time there. From all of the Japanese festivals I have seen by now, it was the most interesting one.

Full of attractions

Organizers of Odawara Minato Festival prepared a lot of attractions for everyone. No matter how old you are, you could find something interesting there. The first, which got my attention was „Dried fish preparing corner”. People who`s job is about filleting fishes, had been teaching people how to do it properly. For me, touching intestines of animals seems to be very awful, so I didn’t deal with it by myself. The attraction was the most popular with men, who could take the prepared fishes to home.

Minato Festival was like a big playground for children. Definitely, the most amazing place was a „touching pool”. Children dressed in a swim suits and gloves, had been coming into the pool and touching various kinds of sea animals. Parents had been watching the children from the outside and taking a lot of pictures of this unforgettable moments. When I was watching these excited children, I felt that I really want to come into the pool as well. Unfortunately, I am too old for the stuffs like that.. Near the pool there were aquariums of turtles, crabs and crustaceans. They were touched not only by children, what you can see on the picture below. : )
People, who wanted to extend the knowledge about the fishing, had been visiting „Let’s learn something about fishing harbor” corner. Specialists had been showing there how to use the microscope. A lot of parents wanted their children to go there, but most of the kids preferred staying in the pool.

Let`s eat and watch the performances!

In my country, fishes, prawns and the other seafood are not eaten like a usual meal In the Baltic Sea there are not a many kinds of fishes. That`s why the Minato Festival was great opportunity for foreigners like me, to taste a lot of unknown things. Every meal served there, was made from fresh ingredients and tasted really well. I bought some snacks and came on the first floor to watch performances on the main stage. Expect of local pop and rock bands, there were a Hula Dance Show as well. By slow and synchronic dancing, women dressed in the colorful costumes took the audience for the moment to Hawaii.

Summary

I emagined the awful smell of raw fishes and I wasn`t in a mood to go there. You know what? I was wrong. Smell of freshly prepared food and atmosphere around there were really great! You should definitely come there next year, even if you are not a fun of fishing. It`s one more thing, remember to get hungry before coming there!

Weronika Golubska

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* This article was written by a trainee from overseas. Please note that there might be spelling and grammar mistakes.