【蟹探し】兵庫で松葉蟹を買うなら何処がコスパ良い？｜蟹の水揚げ量が多い所を巡ってみた（浜坂漁港、香住西港、城崎）

【蟹探し】兵庫で松葉蟹を買うなら何処がコスパ良い？｜蟹の水揚げ量が多い所を巡ってみた（浜坂漁港、香住西港、城崎）

Matsuba Crab Male snow crabs landed in Kyoto, Hyogo, Tottori, and Shimane Firm flesh with a sweetness that intensifies with each bite and a rich umami flavor Recognized as a premium snow crab since the early Showa period, it later became a branded product Among these regions, Hyogo particularly boasts a strong live crab culture For eating or taking home live, fresh crabs, Hyogo is the best choice This time, I visited Hyogo’s major crab destinations and purchased fresh Matsuba crab at a great value Visiting Hyogo’s Japan Sea coast during crab festival season There are four main crab destinations From east to west: Tsuiyama, Kasumi/Shibayama, and Hamakita Among these, Hamakita, where we are now, has the highest Matsuba crab landings Kasumi, east of Hamasaka, is more famous for Kasumi crab (red snow crab) than Matsuba crab. For Shibayama and Tsuiyama, the best Matsuba crab is mainly gathered for Kinosaki Onsen. This time, I plan to visit Hamasaka, Kasumi, and Kinosaki to get Matsuba crab at a good price. First up is Hamasaka Fishing Port. I want to participate in the festival coinciding with the crab fishing season opening and buy live Matsuba crab. This is a major festival attracting over 20,000 visitors annually. People came not only from the Kansai region but also from far away places like Nagano. The ability to supply such a large crowd with fresh crab is thanks to the fishing boats here being much larger than those at other ports. The crab festival grounds are also quite large. Fresh crab sales and various events are planned. Free miso soup made with female snow crab (Sekogani) is also served. The event schedule is packed tight for the three-and-a-half-hour festival. It looks like a busy day’s Outlook calendar. The schedule listed a “Sekogani Meat Extraction Speed Contest,” and I got a lottery ticket. It seems to be held at that venue, but you can only participate if you win the lottery. Looking around, it’s crowded with people lining up for crab dishes. Here,you can buy cream croquettes and rice bowls featuring Sekogani. This line seems to be for buying Sekogani boiled in a large cauldron. It sold out instantly, and I couldn’t get any.
32
00:02:20,999 –> 00:02:23,999
Well then, I’ll just have the free Sekogani soup. I’m a bit concerned there aren’t many people in line, but let’s see… This is sold out too. I still haven’t eaten anything, but it’s time for the lottery draw for the Sekogani Meat Extraction Speed Contest. With 100 entrants and only 12 winners, the odds are under 10%—a tough gate to pass through. Well, I figured I probably wouldn’t win, but I listened for the winning numbers anyway. I won! Of course, I’ve never peeled a sekogani crab before. Still, it would be frustrating to lose without even trying. With an hour until the contest, I’ll brush up on peeling techniques via YouTube. Before I knew it, the second round of free sekogani crab soup distribution seemed to be starting. I missed the first round and didn’t get any, so I really want some this time. While I was lining up, they called us to gather. The event schedule is way too packed. The rules for the Sekogani Meat Extraction Speed Contest are simple: In 2 minutes, you dig out as much meat as possible from one sekogani. The person with the most meat wins. From the audience’s perspective, the participants are pure entertainment. There’s also a self-introduction and a statement of determination. I won But what made me happier was this prize. I hadn’t been told beforehand what I’d get, but it was a Sekogani Using the peeling skills I honed at the crab meat extraction contest, I enjoyed it deliciously at home. (Peeling it was super tedious, but I was happy!) I hadn’t eaten anything until now. The boiled Sekogani was sold out, and I left the line for the Sekogani soup lottery. Finally got my hands on a Sekogani croquette. It’s pricey at 400 yen, but since they’re handmade using hand-peeled Sekogani, it’s guaranteed to be delicious. Unlike frozen croquettes with just a little red snow crab, this one is packed with Sekogani, overflowing with rich crab flavor. I made croquettes with my own sekogani too, but the ones I just ate were tastier. Now I’m lining up to get sekogani soup. My turn for the sekogani soup distribution arrived. It sold out just behind me, so I barely made it. The crab bodies are added whole, so the soup looks incredibly rich. They’re serving huge amounts for free, showing just how much crab is landed at Hamasaka Fishing Port. I took a big bite of the daikon radish soaked in crab essence. Like oden daikon, it’s deeply infused with umami—super delicious. At this venue, you can buy sekogani at a bargain price of 350 yen. We also got to eat the meat from crabs disassembled during the quick-meat-extraction contest. The boiled roe had a rich, delicious flavor like sea urchin. This is the seafood sales corner. Here, you can buy Matsuba crab cheaper than usual. It’s sold by reliable local companies like the Hamasaka Fisheries Cooperative and seafood companies (Ryoei Suisan, Watanabe Suisan, Yamayone). I heard we can buy live Matsuba crab here, but where exactly? Watanabe Suisan was selling live Matsuba crabs at incredibly low prices. 400g for 3,000 yen! Freshly landed Matsuba crabs are continuously brought in from the truck in the back. You can buy a 600g Matsuba crab for 5,000 yen. Compared to Imperial-grade Echizen crab (male snow crab, 1,100g+), which costs at least ¥40,000 even at the cheapest, this is a great deal. So I bought two 600g Matsuba crabs (¥10,000 total). They were so lively they resisted going into the box. We stayed in Hamasaka that night, and they were still lively and alive until the evening of the next day (just before cooking). We had the inn keep them in their refrigerator overnight. The stage area is suddenly getting noisy. It seems all the people who were scattered around earlier are now gathering at the stage. Oh right, it was time for the mochi-throwing. Oh no, I forgot! This festival’s mochi-throwing has prizes. If you find a paper slip inside a mochi, you can exchange it for a prize. Thousands of mochi are being thrown nonstop. I only managed to catch three. My wife caught six. Out of our total of nine, three seemed to have prizes. The prize papers had numbers assigned, but we had no idea what the prizes actually were. Still, judging by the long lines for prize exchange, I figured they couldn’t be anything special… So, what could the prizes be? Chikuwa fish cakes, a Hamasaka specialty. Warabi mochi. Yeah, I figured it would be stuff like that… Huh… I won a large box. Even without opening it, I could guess what was inside. Sure enough, it was a Sekogani. Unlike the prizes at the crab meat-extracting contest, this one was alive. The Hamasaka Crab Festival offers 600g live Matsuba crabs for 5,000 yen, which is quite cost-effective. Today’s Lodging Digest I stayed at the crab sommelier inn “Shofuso” and feasted on my fill of Hamasaka-produced Matsuba crab. Compared to places where Matsuba crab has become nationally famous and prices have skyrocketed, they offered it at a very reasonable price. Today, I’ll check the regular price for Hamasaka-produced Matsuba crab before heading to Kasumi and Kinosaki. I’ll compare prices at Marukai Watanabe Fisheries, where I bought Matsuba crab yesterday. They primarily handle Matsuba crab and other seafood from Hamasaka, selling seafood and offering dining in a building adjacent to the port. Large quantities of Matsuba crab are for sale, categorized by size like 700g or 900g. But I can’t see the prices. The ones outside are probably for inns and restaurants? Inside, there were matsuba crabs with prices, but a 600g crab was 6,000 yen—1,000 yen more than yesterday. Incidentally, matsuba crab is cheapest right after the November season opens, and tends to get pricier in December when the sea gets rough. The best time for flavor is apparently late November to December, so buying in late November seems like the best value. They also sold other items besides Matsuba crab. Bay scallops were priced at about half what you’d pay in Osaka. Even the slightly pricier red flounder was ridiculously cheap—it makes buying it at Osaka supermarkets seem foolish. It was such a steal I bought two. They seemed to sell various other items besides seafood too. By the way, the local Hamasaka specialty chikuwa fish cake has a complex umami flavor that’s delicious. If you just want crab dishes, they also offer a good value lunch. It’s a smaller Matsuba crab, but at this price, I think it’s cheap. Time to head to Kasumi. Hamasaka is about 20km from Kasumi, but the expressway opened at the end of 2017. It’s the Sanyo-Kinki Expressway, and this section is free to use (as of 2025). Along the way, there’s the Amarube Railway Bridge, a famous sight, so stopping by is an option. Exit at Kasumi IC and you’ll arrive at Kasumi West Port right away. The day after the Hamasaka Fishing Port Crab Festival was the Kasumi Fishing Port Crab Festival. Kasumi Fishing Port is actually more famous for red king crab than snow crab. It’s branded as “Kasumi Crab” (they catch about 20 times more than snow crab). Looking at the overall scale, Hamasaka’s crab festival is bigger. They were holding a rock-paper-scissors tournament; if you made it to the end, you could win a prize. How about the merchandise? To cut to the chase, Matsuba crab was priced about 1.2 to 1.5 times higher than in Hamasaka. I suppose since the Matsuba crab catch is only about one-fifth of Hamasaka’s, it ends up being more expensive. They were selling Matsuba crab on the right side, but it was on a small scale. Kasumi crab seems to be the main focus here. The turban shell fishing looks fun. I’d love to join the kids, but I’d probably just look suspicious, so I’ll pass. Rather than a Matsuba crab festival, it felt more like a Kasumi festival, with sales of local specialties. The Sekogani soup was free in Hamasaka, but here in Kasumi, it was sold for 100 yen. Time to head towards Kinosaki. Arrived in Kinosaki. This is the back area with Kounoyu and the ropeway. It’s packed with tourists. On the left is the main building of Kinosaki’s long-established inn, Nishimuraya, and its restaurant, Sanpou. I’ll check the crab dish prices later. Parked the car and strolling through the hot spring town. The price of Matsuba crab sold here was 1.5 to 2 times that of Hamasaka. This is the long-established inn, Nishimuraya, I mentioned briefly earlier. In winter, they serve crab dishes, making it one of the rare places in Kinosaki where you can eat live Matsuba crab. In the past, it was affordable enough to stay if we tried hard, but prices have become steep lately. However, at “Sanpō,” produced by Nishimuraya in 2019, you can just eat Matsuba crab. It’s a dining spot, but it also has a souvenir shop and a salon. As a side note, the salon offers all-you-can-drink beer for 1,000 yen, which is a good deal (as of 2025). Further back lies the dining area serving crab dishes. Reservations for crab seem to be required at least three days in advance. The crucial price: lunch featuring one Matsuba crab is 38,500 yen. Dinner is 44,000 yen. As expected of the famous hot spring town Kinosaki, the prices are quite steep. Just a general observation, but I think Matsuba crab gets cheaper the further west you go from Kyoto. In Hyogo Prefecture, the distance from Kyoto increases in this order: Tsuiyama (Kinosaki), Kasumi, and then Hamasaka. Also, the crab quality is superior in the branded areas of Hyogo and Kyoto. Personally, for Matsuba crab, I think Hamasaka, the westernmost fishing port in Hyogo, offers the best value for money (balance of price and quality).

・松葉蟹は京都、兵庫、鳥取、島根で獲れるオスのズワイガニ
・これらの府県の内、特に品質にこだわっているのは京都と兵庫
・一方、京都産の松葉蟹は非常に高価（間人蟹）
・兵庫は松葉蟹の価格と品質のバランスが良い
　特に兵庫の中でも京都から遠いほど（鳥取に近いほど）、経験的に価格が安い傾向がある
・今回は兵庫の中でコスパ良く松葉蟹を買えるところを探してきました

以下は本動画を詳しく紹介する【旅行記】
⇒作成中

タイムスタンプ
00:00 【導入】概要
01:15 浜坂漁港
08:00 浜坂で活きた松葉蟹を購入できるところ
10:10 香住西港
11:30 城崎温泉
12:23 エンドロール

以下は動画内使用の音楽
◆Music: SaMZIng – Daydream
◆MOMIZizm MUSiC（もみじば）｜フリーBGM