Eating and drinking on a boat while watching Ukai (cormorant fishing) in Ozu is precious
Ozu is a small town in shikoku in Japan. There is a wide, lazy river called Hijikawa meandering through the town and the people live with the river. In summer (from 1st June to 20th September), cormorant fishing is seen on the river and tourists visit this town to see it.
At twilight, excursion boats start to go down the river and people enjoy dinner while eating river fish, local food and drinking sake on the boats.
When it gets dark about one hour later, the boats come to Hijikawa bridge and cormorant-boats slowly row down after them from up stream in the darkness.
Bonfires hang at the nose of the boats and cormorants fish in the light. The contrast of shadow and light is quite romantic. Once cormorants catch fish, usho* controls cormorants with the ropes that are attached to the bird necks and pull them up to the boat. The usho makes the bird drop the fish on the boat. The cormorants receive the cheers of people for their hard work. At the end of the excursion, you can view Ozu castle lit up on the top of a nearby hill. It feels like as if you have been transported to the Edo period.
new vocabulary:
*usho -a man who controls cormorants on a boat
