Shirahama Ama Festival (白浜海女まつり).

Shirahama's Nojimazaki Lighthouse in the distance.

Yet another adventure began on a surprisingly cool evening in the southernmost tip of the Boso Peninsula - near the Nojimazaki Lighthouse in the Shirahama district of Minamiboso City.

The highlight of the show! The ama swimming performance.

I had heard of this event a number of times before and always wanted to go, but never had the chance. This festival is held in honor of ama (海女), to encourage the continuation of ama tradition, and to pray for the safety and success of those involved in the fishing industry.

Ama lady breaking it down...dancing the Shirahama Ondo, a traditional local folk dance

Ama are female divers who traditionally gather pearls...I may be wrong, but in the southern Chiba area I believe they gathered seaweed, shellfish, and the like.

Ama on standby before the swimming performance.

This isn't a very clear photo, but you can kind of see their uniforms! In the wiki link I posted above, the article mentioned originally they only wore loincloths. This is the modern version, I suppose.  I remember there was a restaurant in Kamogawa I went to, and they had a giant picture of an ama on the wall as decoration. It was nice, but it looked like she had just come back from a dive, and apparently they don't wear anything underneath these...

Fireworks + ama!

Getting back to the festival though, during the swimming performance they shoot off a bunch of fireworks, including the awesome 水中花火 kind! (I am still trying to figure out if they actually explode in the water, as their name seems to imply, or if they explode on the surface of the water...) They were so close that burnt paper flew into our faces...it was very windy that day too though.

Delicious grilled CORN!

Backtracking though, I must admit that (as usual) part of the reason I was lured out here was for the delicious food! A friend had gone the day before, and information about all the amazing food that awaited me renewed my resolve to go! This lovely corn was bought from a local farmer called Ansai Nouen (安西農園). I had actually bought from them at a totally different event a year (or two years?) ago, but they totally remembered my friend and me! And they were super nice!

Satomi pork (里見和豚), a local brand of pork, seasoned with rosemary. Mmmm....

My main target was Odori Kitchen, which I visited a couple months back! They only had a couple items, but everything was amazing....even their edamame seemed to be special! Their chef works magic...

Lovely Shirahama evening.

I'll admit, Shirahama is pretty far...even if you already live in Chiba. But it's so lovely, and has so much great food - it's totally worth the trip!!! The Shirahama Ama Festival is only held once a year, but here are a couple sites if you're looking for more information (both are in Japanese though, sorry):


http://www.mboso-etoko.jp/shirahama/event/amamatsuri.html
(More photos and details about the ama swimming performance)


http://www.chibanippo.co.jp/c/siteseeing/2012/07/88110
(Better description of the Ama Festival overall)