HYOGO –
A winter seafood festival at Kasumi Fishing Port in northern Hyogo Prefecture is drawing visitors eager to enjoy Matsuba crab, a prized seasonal delicacy from the Sea of Japan, with a lively competition challenging participants to eat a crab worth 15,000 yen in just five minutes.
The annual crab festival celebrates the arrival of Matsuba crab season, offering visitors freshly landed live crabs and grilled crab sets at discounted prices. Limited quantities of sekogani crab soup, made using female snow crabs, are also available, giving visitors an opportunity to sample one of the region’s traditional winter specialties.
The festival’s main attraction is the “Matsuba Crab Eating Skills Contest,” in which participants compete to see who can eat an entire Matsuba crab worth approximately 15,000 yen as quickly and neatly as possible within a five-minute time limit.
Contestants must demonstrate both speed and skill, carefully extracting the delicate crab meat while avoiding waste, turning the enjoyment of a luxury seafood delicacy into a competitive event.
The winner expressed mixed feelings about having to rush through such an expensive meal, saying, “It was my first time eating so much Matsuba crab, so I wish I could have enjoyed it more slowly. I’m happy because I now have something to take home for my children.”
Matsuba crab, the regional name for male snow crabs caught in the Sea of Japan, is one of the most highly regarded winter delicacies in western Japan, attracting seafood enthusiasts to fishing communities along the coast during the colder months.
Additional crab festivals are scheduled to take place at fishing ports across northern Hyogo Prefecture, offering more opportunities for visitors to enjoy freshly caught seasonal seafood and experience the region’s winter food culture.
Source: Kyodo
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