RIDE REPORT Kaga city to Tsuruga

National Route 305

Last updated  June 2, 2002

All pictures are the property of Erdoboy. ®

On the way back from the Toyama Echu-Daimon Kite festival, I stop for a break along the Fukui coastline. The rock formations here in the Sea of Japan are quite  impressive. 

The route to follow is National route 305. Click the map to see a LARGE copy of the fabulously scenic route.

If you have the 600 yen required, take the Kono seaway, (blue line on the map.) At places you will be riding over the ocean.

Octopus tentacles hang to dry on the street in this small fishing town. You can't get much yummier than the rich purple of a good tentacle. 

Or can you?

Sardines are skewered and hug to dry in an old & traditional way. The shop smelled heavily of fish, in a very traditional way. In fact it seemed that the tradition here was older than time itself. Days later I can still smell the tradition where it got on my clothes.

Wash it up.

A rubber clad worker, we'll call her Mabel, washes nori or seaweed in the first of 3 fresh water baths. The 3 step process is used to remove the salt from the seaweed and excess fresh water from the town cistern as the water is left running for.... hours .....on end.

What a chance! To pose for a picture for this gaijin the washing of the weed can take a back seat. I am now convinced that the "peace" symbol is a genetic reaction, born into all Nihon-jin.

Always being a leg man, I had to pull over when I saw this scene. This shop was preparing crabs for shipment into the city. The towel clad gentleman told me that these were not such a high quality crab and as such would not fetch a premium price. By that he means that they will only cost about $12 for one (1) crab.

In typical Japanese fashion, the crab legs are carefully placed in the crate to maximize space usage and picture perfect presentation. Now, look at the picture above again and see if I am wrong.

With a large steely knife the crab is cut in half to remove the waste products....

With the body shell removed a few scrapes quickly removes the "gunk." Then the left legs go in the right bucket and the right legs go in the left bucket. Why? Because that is the way it is done. Day after day. Apparently by separating them it is very easy to make sure people get the legs they want.

on the job at hand that he probably won't notice if I reach out and grab some of these......

oh, wait he does.. have a BIG KNIFE!!

One last crab holds out and tries to persuade the shop owner to make him the exception.