Anamizu Oyster Festival 2012

We visited the Anamizu Oyster Festival last year and had a lot of fun, so when this year's event rolled around we headed back up to do it again. The Anamizu Oyster Festival is way up on the Noto Peninsula, and as one might expect oysters are prominently featured in the cuisine available from vendors. The primary form of consumption, however, is buying bags of raw oysters and grilling them yourself on one of the hundreds of wood-fired grills set up in the festival area for just that purpose.  The full picture set is on Flickr.

One of the teachers with a driver's license borrowed a school van and drove a bunch of us up to the festival, again leaving quite early in order to get the good seats.  The festival was the same place but it seemed to have a few more vendors than the previous year, because oyster pizza and fried custard doughnuts were newly available.

Our early schedule paid off and we got prime seats, under cover and near the stage.  We set to work grilling oysters like seasoned veterans.

I recommend only putting 2-3 per person on at the same time, or some of them will be overcooked by the time you've eaten the other ones.  The festival provides the gloves for grabbing oysters with, along with implements. Different people in the group brought different condiments like lemon and ponzu, but my favorite was probably just a little extra salt.

The local schoolchildren did taiko, but the stage was pretty bare for most of the day, which was better than the bad karaoke we'd been subjected to last time.  We did miss the "Mountain Song" guy (see previous blog entry) - we asked and he didn't take the stage until the second day of the festival. 

 We discovered a new and excellent form of rice ball - wrapped in pork strips and fried in sauce and juices.  The rice soaks up juices and the crispy pork holds it together somewhat during consumption.

 Some visitors to the school from New Zealand came along, and one of them took good care of his fish while it was grilling. I particularly enjoy the skepticism on the face of the Japanese guy watching.

 Ana got mango cotton candy.  We also ate about four of the fried custard-filled doughnut-like pastries, which were about as delicious and addictive as food gets.

After we'd eaten all we cared to, the driver of the minivan wanted to hit a coffee roasting place that also happened to be on the Noto peninsula, so we headed up there.  The best part for us, being non-coffee drinkers, was the scenery.  The Noto was covered in snow and looked very different than during our bike trips around it.

The roasting place was tiny, but cheerful.  Some of their blends exceeded $50/lb, though most were in the $15-20 range.  It sounds like they sell to restaurants and cafes across the prefecture and beyond, which must be the only way to stay in business when you're a tiny roaster located hours from civilization.

After the roasting place, we drove across the Noto again to a cafe that serves coffee made with the roasting place's beans. We crossed over some hills and mountains that seemed a lot tougher on a bike than they did in a car.  They had pretty good bagels and cakes, so we got a bit more dessert on top of the oyster breakfast / lunch.

This Oyster Festival is probably the penultimate travel experience for us in Japan; we leave at the very end of March.  We're planning to do one last time out into Japan in March, and there may be a few entries relating to moving and emptying out the apartment, but no promises. There is a lot to take care of before we head home!