下灘と鱧祭り

　愛媛県を走るJR予讃線の有名な駅に、下灘駅がある。海を目の前にしたきれいな駅。鉄道が好きな人以外にも大人気で、若者も多い。駅ではあるが、ほとんどの人は車で来る。だから、駅の数台しかない駐車場は必ず埋まっていて、近くに用意された駐車場から歩く。

　僕がこの駅を初めて訪れたのは大学3年生の秋だった気がする。ネットでエモい感じのこの駅を見つけて、青春18きっぷで名古屋から2日くらい掛けてたどり着いた。当時の僕は免許も持っていなかったので、普通に予讃線に乗ってきた。松山駅まで来るだけですでに結構エモかったので、実は下灘駅に着いてもそんなにエモくなかった。ただ、やはり絶景だった。平日で人もそんなにおらず、ホームの椅子でぼんやりできた。去年のGWに行ったときは椅子で映える写真を撮るために順番待ちが発生していた。

　ちょうどその日、近くの漁港で「ぴちぴち鱧祭り」が開催されていた。たぶん鱧がよく揚がる港だから。漁港の駐車場に屋台が出ていて、鱧汁とか鱧フライ？が100円とかで食べれた。めちゃくちゃうまかった。

　ステージでは、地元のおじさんたちが歌っていた。「ゆずの香り」というバンドで、ドラムボーカルだった。ブルーハーツの「青空」を歌っていた。すでに旅情が高まり過ぎている僕にその歌は、魂を感じた。分かっているのか分かっていないのか、よく分からないが、おじいちゃんとかおばあちゃんとか子供とかが長椅子で聴いていた。それがめちゃくちゃエモかった。

　あれ以来、下灘駅は3回訪れたが、鱧祭りには行けていない。今もやってるのかな？また行きたい。

Shimonada Station is a famous station of the JR Yosan Line running through Ehime Prefecture. A beautiful station in front of the sea. It's very popular with people who don't like railroads, and it's also popular particularly with young people. Although it is a train station, most people come by car. So the station's parking lot, which only has a few cars, is invariably filled, and we walk from the other parking lot nearby.

I think I visited this station for the first time in the fall of my junior year of college. I found this emo station on the internet, and took two days to get there from Nagoya by the Seishun 18 ticket. I didn't have a driver's license at the time, so I took the Yosan Line as usual. It was already pretty emo just coming to Matsuyama station, so actually it wasn't so emo when we got to Shimonada station. However, it was a great view more than I thought. It was a weekday and there were not so many people, so I was able to sit in the chair on the platform in a daze. When I went to GW last year, I had to wait for my turn to get a good photo on chair.

On that day, there was a "pichi pichi hamo hamo festival" going on at a nearby fishing port. Maybe it's because it's a good place for catching a daggertooth pike. There was a food stall in the parking lot of a fishing port and I found some hamo soup and hamo fries. I could eat it for 100 yen or so. It was very, very good.

On the stage, the local older men were singing. They are an band called "Scent of Yuzu" and the drummer was also a vocalist. He was singing "Blue Sky" by the Blue Hearts. The song was felt soulful, because I already stirred my heart of traveler too well. I'm not sure if they understood or not, but there were elderly gentlemen and ladies and children listening on chaise longues. It was extremely emo.

Since then, I've visited Shimonada station three times but haven't been able to go to the hamo festival. I wonder if they still hold it? I want to go again.