Takenaka Hidemi & Hamasaki Kazutoshi, 54 & 44
Fishermen from Mogi, Nagasaki
Could you describe your daily routine?
Hamasaki: The day starts at 2am. After some preparations we ride out to the fishing grounds. That takes about three hours. There are many boats in the same general area. Really, we continue working until 6pm.
If we’re not out on the water, we’re fixing the nets or taking care of the equipment. If we’re lucky we sleep from 8 or 9pm to 1am, but normally we only get three hours sleep on fishing days. We splash our face with water if we get sleepy. But we get plenty of extra sleep on days we don’t go out.How much time off do you get?
Hamasaki: The weather decides that for us. If it’s too rainy or windy we can’t go out.. It depends on the season but that happens, on average, ten days a month. Still, we have things to do and usually work those days too. For leisure we do things with our families. I like to play pachinko. You could say that’s my hobby. I also occasionally like karaoke.Takenaka: I graduated from pachinko. It’s nice to go to a hot spring from time to time. We also like to drink sake. That’s our favorite hobby!
What are the good/bad points of your job?
Hamasaki: It’s a great feeling when you catch lots of fish. We catch tai (red snapper), amadai (tilefish) and sayori (hemiramph). It’s also nice to be out on the water when the sun rises. Hundreds of people come out to this little village (Mogi in Nagasaki) on New Year’s morning--you should see the cars! It’s beautiful.On the other hand, when I don’t catch lots of fish, my wife is a devil! (makes devil face and laughs). But she makes a great bento!
Takenaka: My bento’s not always so great.
Hamasaki: During good times we can make ¥300,000-500,000 in a month--but about half of that gets spent on supplies. A bad month could be as low as ¥30,000! Little by little, every year the amount of fish we catch is decreasing. I don’t want my children to be fishermen. They don’t have any interest anyway. I don’t have the money to send them to university however. It’s really a difficult life.the end