Nemuro Sanma (saury) Festival: A highlight of fall

The Nemuro Sanma (saury) Festival is held every fall. Locals are accompanied by visitors from around Japan, all keen to taste Nemuro’s saury at its best. The biggest draw card is the charcoal stoves where visitors can grill their own saury to eat. The aroma fills the venue. Add in cuisine featuring saury and an area where visitors can try catching saury with their hands and you’ve got a true homage to this local fish.

This iconic event had humble beginnings: it started in 1993 with a free saury barbecue and fireworks organized by a community revitalization group, and apparently there weren’t enough visitors to eat the fish they had prepared. But they attracted more and more visitors each time, and in 2000 the Nemuro city government and tourism association got involved. The festival kept growing every year, innovating along the way. The format shifted from volunteers serving the saury to visitors grilling their own, and the organizers began raising funds by charging for the trays of saury. Above all, the event owes its success to the collaboration between local fishing businesses and other organizations in the community.
It took a village to create this festival that is now a highlight of fall in Nemuro.

Nemuro saury rolled sushi: A symbolic taste sensation

This kelp-wrapped rolled sushi is a striking sight. The vivid green shiso leaves and Japanese leek whet the appetite. With the sweetness of the saury, the umami of the kelp and the fresh taste of sweet sushi vinegar, this sushi offers a medley of flavors in every bite. This local specialty is a recent invention: it was first created in 2008. And it all started with the kelp.
As it happens, Hokkaido is Japan’s top supplier of kelp, and Nemuro is one of its hubs. But at that time, local consumption was low—it simply wasn’t on Nemuroites’ radar as a food.

To encourage more locals to eat the kelp the city caught, a kelp-wrapped rolled sushi was designed. Sushi is normally wrapped in nori seaweed, and the creators were sure that this novel twist would stand out as something unique to Nemuro. The sushi is made with Saomae kelp caught in Nemuro. To cement this as a Nemuro sushi, Nemuro’s famous saury was added, along with Japanese sardines, another fish that is increasingly being caught in Nemuro in recent years. After much trial and error, the Nemuro saury rolled sushi and Nemuro sardine rolled sushi were completed. The saury sushi is available during the high season for saury (August to November), with the sardine sushi served in its place for the rest of the year.

Both are served by six restaurants in Nemuro that form the Nemuro Saury Rolled Sushi Promotion Association. The preparation method is meticulously coordinated, with 10 requirements for taste, appearance and preparation process so that you’ll get the same great taste in every restaurant. United by their common goal of encouraging locals to eat kelp, these restaurants serve up these two quintessentially Nemuro taste sensations.

Lucky Saury Omikuji: Take home good fortune and a local specialty

Lucky Saury Omikuji are a unique feature of Kotohira Shrine. Visitors catch a toy saury with a rod and take the corresponding omikuji, a fortune written on a piece of paper.
The activity initially featured sea bream, a fish considered lucky in Japanese culture, but to Jou Maeda, now the guji (chief priest) of Kotohira Shrine, it seemed wrong not to use a local fish, and so Lucky Saury Omikuji were born in 2015. “Not many people knew that Nemuro was Japan’s top producer of saury,” he explains. “It seemed like a good opportunity to promote our industry throughout Japan.”
Mr. Maeda shared his idea at a gathering with representatives from other shrines, who were also fans of the idea. This sparked a wave of “Ezo Mikuji” activities at shrines throughout Hokkaido, each featuring a food or animal that the local community holds dear. Today, these themed mikuji can be found at 15 shrines in Hokkaido.

With papier‐mâché saury fit for ornaments and fortunes written in Hokkaido dialect, every element of Lucky Saury Omikuji will tickle you. This is one of a number of initiatives to make shrines enjoyable and encourage people to visit, and many tourists reportedly come to try their luck. There are even some items you can take a photo with to remember your visit.
“I want these omikuji to be a way for people to learn about Hokkaido and about shrines,” Mr. Maeda explains. Why not check out a number of the shrines and collect a variety of Ezo Mikuji?

Sanma-Bushi Ramen: An umami-rich star of Nemuro cuisine

Sanma-Bushi Ramen, a ramen dish made with dried saury, was created in 2003 by Taie, a store known for its Yakitori Bento. Saury back then were somewhat bigger than they are now. Stores wouldn’t take the smaller saury, known as jami-sanma, and the fishing vendors racked their brains about what to do with them.
Upon hearing their concerns, Taie president Toru Taie had the idea to make dried saury. After being grilled, the saury is bathed in hot water to remove the fat before being dried and flaked. This lengthy flavor brings out the umami of the saury. The flakes are then cooked in a broth to make dried saury ramen. At first the dish was only served at the Nemuro Sanma (saury) Festival, but it seemed a waste to only serve it once a year, and in 2019 it joined Taie’s product lineup.

You can choose between quick and easy cup noodles or a rich flavor sachet. Simple but oh so flavorful, you’ll find yourself drinking up every last drop. Add your favorite toppings as a finishing touch. Spinach goes particularly well with it!
Enjoy it at home or give it to your friends as a souvenir.