A festival to savor blowfish has attracted visitors to Shimonoseki City in the western Japanese prefecture of Yamaguchi.

The annual festival takes place around February 9. This year, it was held on Tuesday.

In Shimonoseki, the fish is said to bring happiness and called "fuku," the Japanese word for good fortune.

About 20 food stalls lined the Haedomari market, where the puffers are normally auctioned. The market handles the largest amount of the winter specialty in Japan.

Visitors bought delicacies such as raw blowfish sashimi and fried blowfish, which were sold about 20 to 30 percent cheaper than the usual retail price.

A blowfish hot-pot dish was prepared in an 80-centimeter-wide pot. The ingredients simmered in a miso-flavored blowfish broth. The dish was offered free to visitors, who consumed six hundred servings in less than an hour.

Another section offered visitors a chance to try to catch more than 30 live tiger puffers.

A woman in her 60s said blowfish hot pot makes people feel warm. She said the fish she tried at the festival tasted even better than the one she had eaten at home.