Webmaster visited Iyoboya Salmon Museum (Iyoboya-kaikan) in Murakami City this week. This is a museum/aquarium on salmon.
Access: Tokyo (shinkansen 2:15) Niigata (express train 0:48) Murakami (walk 0:20) @
Admission:￥600 for adult. Closed on year-end holidays.
A figure of salmon near the entrance
Video theater near the entrance showing the ecology of salmon and the culture of Murakami City related to salmon.
One of the main exhibitions is this underwater observatory of Miomote River. It’s 50m long with ten windows.
Unfortunately, the water was not clear because of a heavy rain in previous few days. These fishes are not salmons.
Salmon is born in a river and swims down to an ocean. Four years later, they come back to the same river in autumn for breeding and they die. If you visit there in the season, you may see the salmon in breeding. The photo below was taken in October last year.
A large aquarium of young salmon which hatched out between October and December last year. Can you see many salmons are swimming? They are about 10cm long.
This is a small salmon nursery. Visitors can observe salmon is hatching between October and January. It is not the season now. Other fish are kept here.
Freshwater lives of Miomote River and others are also exhibited in small aquariums along the walls.
Specimens of salmon family in the world.
Aquariums of ito trout (Hucho perryi) and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss).
Cultural aspect on salmon is also well exhibited.
Fishing gears used in this region.
Tradition of food
Labels of the tins of salmon
Products of salmon skin (in the world).
Murakami City is an old castle town and known as the town of salmon. Other tourist attractions shall be reported in the following blog.
End.