Drinking Sake Like a Fish

There are a lot of strange customs, things and people in Japan, but this one is really odd: forcing a fish to drink sake.

The fish were the drinkers in a strange ceremony dating back to the Edo Period in which lively carp are made to consume a large dose of sake as they symbolically take on people's calamities. After drinking the sake, the fish are released into a river. [...]
Filled up with sake, the carp at first turned belly-up on the surface of the water. But they soon recovered and swam off.

Link - via Spluch

The Japanese seem quite nuts ...

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After studying the culture for the past five years and now even living in Japan, reading about these sorts of things no longer surprise me. In fact, I'd be *more* surprised if something "odd" weren't always going on around here...

...But that makes it somewhat appealing to me. :)

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They also immerse live fish they're going to cook in alcohol too – at least they did on Iron Chef America. It was actually a little disturbing, because the fish didn't look happy about it. The announcer said that it usually isn't so violent, but I didn't believe him for a second.

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Is that blood pouring from the fish's gills? That must burn like buggery, it's no fun when you accidentally inhale your drink, but for the fish, it's being forced to.

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I love when things like this. I love when PITA has the piss annoyed out of them. ^.^

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What a waste of sake....

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@ Pudifoot

I do hope you mean PETA. ;)

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I don't recall the context, but the JAPANLAND book & DVD mention another Japanese festival where HORSES are forced to get drunk on sake....must take a bit more than the fish.

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I'm very tolerant of all cultures, but this is stupid and cruel.

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They're really nice to their beef though. They're fed rice and sake, and they get massages all the time. Happy cows make for the finest beef in the world.

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That's extremely cruel.

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Ali: I was hoping no-one would catch my typo. *sigh*

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Funny how some people think it's cruel.

Am I the only one that thinks they are extremely nice by giving a fish sake? I mean, how often will a fish get to drink sake?

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