Eisa and other entertainment is on tap at Awase Fishing Port on Wednesday.

Payao is a Okinawa City Fishery Association owned shop selling fresh fish at Awase Fishing Port, and it’s the focal point of a festival this Wednesday.

Payao Festival 2015 takes place on April 29^th, a Japanese holiday, starting at 10 a.m.  Admission is free at Awase Fishing Port, 1-11 Awase, Okinawa City.

First 5,000 visitors to the festival are treated with a free serving of seafood curry.

Payao directly sells a variety of fresh seafood that were caught daily at a “payao”, a Japanese word derived from English “buoy”. The system is named after a fish aggregating device, an artificial floating raft where fish congregate and is popular in the Okinawa ~ Philippines area. The payao is located on the a sea bed off-shore Awase Fishing Port.

This store and the adjacent seafood restaurant are very popular with not only people from around the area but across the island, and Izakaya chefs will come to the store in the mornings to get fresh seafood.  Tour companies even bring mostly Chinese and Taiwanese tourists by busloads for a lunch.

The festival is offering seafood curry free to the first 5,000 people attending, beginning at 10 a.m.  The local band Ryugu-no-Tsukai performs live at 11 a.m., and the big tuna cutting show is at noon.  A KPAS street dance performance is slated for 1 p.m., and the Akabanashinka original Eisa performance starts at 1:50 p.m.  In addition, police motorcycles and fire truck will be on display.

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