Salmon Festival in Yang-yang.

Yang-yang Salmon Festival 2007
The ABBA trio (and their hilarious male back-up dancers)
Dried salmon, anyone?
Where the action is--the salmon catching grounds
Hey man, where's the hot chocolate? It's freeeeezing out here!!

(I would like to dedicate this post to my brother-in-law, Kevin, who absolutely loves to fish and who I know would have had a blast at this festival were he here.)

One of my middle school students told me once that because Sokcho is a tourist city, there are more festivals in this area than in any other part of Korea. I don't know if that is true, but we've had some pretty unique and entertaining festivals here recently (they've been happening so fast, I haven't even gotten around to blogging about the Mushroom Festival in Yang-yang or the Seorak Fall Festival in Sokcho!).
All week long (heck, all month long!) we English teachers have been eagerly anticipating the Salmon Festival in Yang-yang. We'd heard tell tales (and seen pictures) of our predecessors catching live salmon in the river at this festival with their bare hands. And now, it was about to be our turn. Having never attempted something this primal before, we were all pretty excited.
We headed down to Yang-yang (a town just south of Sokcho) on the bus with about 10 other Sokcho teachers. We were ready--we'd brought towels, a change of clothes, extra shoes and socks, and of course, our cameras (to capture the winning moment!). But nothing had prepared us for the level of cold! It was very chilly and windy yesterday, and we were about to jump into a frigid river to chase salmon?!! Insane! But the will is more powerful than the body, my friends...
We arrived early in order to register and check out the rest of the festival. A lot of it was similar to other festivals around here--many tents grouped on the edge of the river, selling handicrafts, clothing, jewelry, and food. There was a main stage with entertainment (a guy performing magic to Yanni-esque music and a dancing/singing trio in multi-colored winged jumpsuits who sang ABBA songs in Korean!!--frickin' sweet--I about lost it when they started to sing "Dancing Queen"). Since this was a salmon festival, they had tents selling dried salmon, whole salmon, salmon cutlet, salmon-painted t-shirts, everything possibly salmon-related. We also saw a ton of foreigners there--it looked like several had come over on the ferry from Russia. It's very unusual to see so many foreigners in these parts...we're always a bit intrigued and curious when it happens...so many whiteys being let out of their cages...
But of course, the zenith, the glory, the wonder and ecstasy of the day came during the salmon chase in the river. They rounded the group of us (about 40) up and herded us down to the bank and over the bridge, where we waited breathlessly for the starting signal (a sounding gong) before we splashed into that icy water. We were ready! Paul, Toby, Ruthie and I were ready to get in there and get our paws on some salmon! But it wasn't as easy as the Koreans made it look. Even with gloves on, those buggers are slippery! I had my Tevas on and was trying to move quickly to forget the coldness of the water, but in the process was scaring all the fish away. Ruthie was a maniac! She just pursued one and flopped on top of it in the water (a method which served her well--she caught the largest salmon of us all and she was the first one finished!!) I looked up and saw several folks out of the water, already brandishing their prizes with satisfaction. So, I carefully inched over to the side and very slowly padded through the river, following the moving fins in the water. Whenever one would stop and rest, I would reach in slowly to grab it. After doing this with several salmon, I finally caught one unawares and put my strongest death grip on it's tail. It fought me as I waded out of the river--but I had done it! Caught a salmon with my bare hands :) I searched for the rest of our party and the lot of us posed for many cameras, cold and shivering, but beaming proudly at our accomplishment.
After that exhilaration, we took our salmon back up to the festival, where the staff individually inked them for us and made a print of each caught salmon on rice paper for us to keep as a memento.
Ara, Ruthie, Paul and I then headed back to Ruthie's place, where Ara helped us (taught us how) to gut and filet our salmon. We learned all about the anatomy of our fish, how to cut them, prepare them, and store them. (My brother-in-law Kevin would have been soooooo proud!) Paul actually cut his salmon himself! It was cold and chilly still, but we were all so happy and glowing inside a toasty apartment, content with how much fun we'd had (Ara was particularly proud of Ruthie for catching such a big salmon--especially since our friends had taken bets on our performance and she'd won him some cash!). After disinfecting the sink and the knives and setting aside our salmon steaks in ziploc bags, the four of us headed out to a cozy neighborhood chicken place, where we polished off 3 tasty birds (each prepared differently) and a pitcher of beer.

It was a damn good day and one I won't soon forget!!