Stuff I've Seen - Toyama

Toyama Castle is in Matsukawa Park

The park has a small section of gardens with a couple of small waterfalls

One side of the park has a small bench and a sculpture

Sitting on the bench allows you to take this photo

The moat/canal on the other side of the park

Namerikawa is a small fishing town to the north east of Toyama.
The railway station sign depicts Hotaru Ika, or the Firefly Squid,
which is one of the main things fished in Toyama Bay at this time of year. 

You can also tell it's a fishing town because the foot path contains little
tile inserts of sea creatures, like this jellyfish...

this crab...

Flying fish... and a dozen others.

There are number of banners advertising the Hotaru Ika museum

2 out of the 3 different banners depict some of the ways the squid can be eaten

The museum has a little cartoon Hotaaru Ika mascot, because of course it does...

Inside there's a miniature of the museum and part of the bay

Including depictions of the netting boats

There are posters with information about the squid, its lifecycle

The waters they inhabit

And displays of the different ways to eat the squid

many, many ways

Hotaru Ika

There's a pool filled with deep sea water

Where you can touch the squid

There's a giant isopod

And from late March until whatever date the Hotaru Ika season ends in May
there's an hourly live show

The cute mascot asks you not to take pictures or video

That's because the live show involves a finale where they make the room pitch black and annoy the squids so that you can watch them glow in the dark.

That may or may not be what this picture indicates

So here's a promotional picture I took a photo of.

Anyway, time to go...

 

The shore outside the museum

The town's cute little bus service

I spotted one of the sidewalk pictures back in Toyama. No fish.