Episode 131 - Night Fishing Light

This photo was taken at Bikuni Port during my 2002 Hokkaido journey.

I was amazed by the large light bulbs hanging across the top of the fishing boat.

Whilst these bulbs made the white fishing boat look artistic (and probably charming at night) they were not hanging there for decoration purpose.

Fishing boats like this will turn on those bulbs at night. The purpose of this is to attract fish, which has a tendency to swim towards a light source at night. The fishermen can then catch the fish gathering near the boat.

The Chinese characters for Bikuni is the same as "USA" in Chinese. That's the reason why I was attracted by the road sign whilst driving along the coastal area in Syakotan Peninsula and stopped at Bikuni to take a short break.

I recall that the roads along the coastal area of Syakotan were finely paved. However, there were quite a number of road tunnels along the coastal line. These tunnels were probably built many years ago and the roads inside these tunnels were not wide enough to provide comfortable driving. The degree of closeness between my car and the cars in the opposite lane astonished me.