Fresh Fish = Live Fish

I went to a fish market today with Lindsay, one of my coworkers today. We're going to Hagi tomorrow so it was a stop on the way back from checkign the bus schedule. Quite an interesting market, all the people with small boats would unload their catch directly and put it live into bins and sel directly to the public; the men were unloading the boats while the women would sell, gut and tend to the fish. There was almost every conceivable type of sea creature for sale, octopi, squid and cuttlfish, crawfish and shrimp, crabs, eels, lots of halibut, one or two types of rays and some things I couldn't identify. You would walk along and the women would point at various fish anouncing their edibility and price. It's been a unseasonably cool here, so I was amazed at their resistance to cold, sitting there, no gloves, hands soaking wet with sea water, filleting and sorting fish. The prices were quite reasonable too, ¥500 for a small halibut, but I think it was gut it yourself. That's fine of course for regular fish, but I would have no idea what to do with a shrimp or octopus. I think that sometime though I should like to go down there and get the fixings for a seafood dinner, but perhaps I should find someone who could help first. Someone who knows their way around a fillet knife. On the way home we stopped at a French (seeming) bakery, Quatre Saisons. I got a curry donut. Tonight is the bounenkai (end of the year party) with karaoke of course. Tomorrow, a trip to Hagi, which I'm quite looking forward to.