Feast upon Your Freshly Caught Fish

Enjoy a sea-to-table experience in Yamagata

Imagine a piece of perfectly prepared seafood melting in your mouth. Now imagine that you caught this very fish just a few hours before, so you know how fresh it is.
Fish and other seafood fans will not want to pass up the opportunity to catch or purchase fish, then learn how to prepare it from a master Japanese chef. Any time of year is the right time to experience all that goes into creating your favorite sushi, sashimi, or other fish-based washoku (Japanese cuisine).

With their customized onshore and offshore tours of Yamagata Prefecture’s Shonai region, the local staff and guides at The Hidden Japan make this once-in-a-lifetime experience available to English speakers from around the world.

Day-long tours start from purchasing freshly caught fish at a local wholesale market auction, or taking a boat out to catch your own, then finishing by sitting down to a delectable seafood meal made from the fish you have brought in.

Shopping, of course, is possible in all kinds of weather, but going out on the ocean depends on the season and weather conditions. For the fishing experience, available from July to late November, local fishermen will provide their own boats and fishing equipment to use. Take this opportunity to experience what goes into the process of gathering the ingredients for an exquisite washoku meal.

After acquiring the fish for your feast, master Japanese chefs will exhibit their top techniques in creating sushi or kaiseki (multi-course) dishes of your choice. They will instruct you on cutting techniques and other methods to recreate your own washoku feast back home. You can also leave it up to them to delight your taste buds, if the preparation part isn’t what you’re looking for. Either way, you and your companions are sure to experience the marine meal of a lifetime here in Shonai.

The availability of certain types of seafood and fishing depends on the season; the fee for the various tours will also vary, depending on what you chose to do.

Access: From Tokyo Station, take the Joetsu Shinkansen to Niigata Station (about two hours), then take the Inaho express train to Sakata Station (two hours and 10 minutes).