Spinning Squid Christmas Tree

Gather around the revered Spinning Sagittated Calamari Tree for a traditional Japanese Christmas.

squid-spinner tree

…at Nakaminato of the Ibaraki coast..there’s this place where they dry Sagittated Calamary. Because it is a still image it may not be clear that it actually is spinning around and around, ha, ha…
(machine translation)—Torajiro postscript, 2008 July 8

Note that the Squid Tree photo was taken in July—Talk about jumping the gun on Christmas drinking and decorations.

This Spinning Sagittated Calamari Tree is for spin-drying squid—Dried squid (Surume) that is lightly toasted is a favorite drinking snack here in Japan. Japanese fishermen dry squid until it’s leathery on this, “contraption by spinning it around at a pretty good clip” according to flickr post of Ben Garney.

squid spinner

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Taro

I'm a pale, alien, quadruped who has worked for 25+ years at "Maybe-the-Largest Inc." in Tokyo.

7 thoughts on “Spinning Squid Christmas Tree”

  1. THOMAS DILLON of The Japan Times put it best:

    …Dried squid can be as playful as string cheese and as addictive as a bowl of chips. Sometimes it’s so hard to put that next tentacle down. Plus you can chew on it forever and, unlike Juicy Fruit, the flavor never goes away. For years I used to carry souvenirs of dried squid to America whenever I returned home. Everyone absolutely hated it. Which meant I had to eat it all myself. Making dried squid, to my mind, the perfect souvenir….MORE

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