Scooping For Your Life in a Japanese "Perya"

Goldfish Scooping (Photo Credit)

Okay I admit, the title seems to be an exaggeration but really there is a lot of scooping going on in a Japanese "Perya". For those who may not know the term, it is a shortened form of "peryahan"- a Filipino word (maybe Spanish-derived) for mini-carnivals present in town fiestas or matsuri as they call it here in Japan. When I was young, I loved going to the peryahan and playing all those color and tossing games which I found to be uncommon here.

Typical Philippine carnival game where you need to toss coins into small squares
in order to win a price (Photo credit)

Scooping games, on the other hand, will never be absent in any of their matsuri or even mini fairs. Primarily they are scooping for goldfish which they call kingyo in a traditional game they call as Kingyo-sukui (sukui means scooping). It is not easy but rather tricky because you have to catch the fish using paper nets (poi) which could easily tear if handled wrongly. The goal is to catch as many as you can and put them in a bowl until the poi completely breaks. Don't ask me for any tips though because my best record so far is catching only 2 fast swimmers. :(

Scooping for bouncy balls

Scooping for long fishes (sorry I do not know what they are called)

If you still cannot imagine how they actually do it, you can check out this video below of a previous Japan Goldfish Scooping Competition (Yes they have those too).

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