A mongoose hunts a snake! It is very famous but few people have seen a real fight between them. I also have never seen it and really wanted to enjoy it. Because I had heard that there were many attractions for fighting shows in Okinawa, I searched them on the web when I visited Naha City in the winter of 2010. Unfortunately, fighting shows were all prohibited on account of animal welfare, so I had no choice but to give up enjoying it. However, I found a signboard that read “We have a show featuring a mongoose and a habu, a poisonous snake, here!” while I was driving a rental car to Churaumi Marine Park. Wow! Just what I needed! Then, I turned the car into the parking lot.
The entrance fee was 500 yen per person. It seemed rather inexpensive for a fighting show because they were putting lives at risk on the stage! There were so many families in front of the stage when I entered the theater, so I sat down at the end of the row of seats. After a while, one old man, Mr. Uehara – the founder of this theater – came onto the stage and the show started. He opened a huge light-blue plastic bucket, which you may know as a typical Japanese garbage can, and pulled out a snake from it by hand. It wasn’t a habu and he showed how to handle it. After the introduction of the show, he opened the next bucket so carefully because it contained a habu. The viper was picked up by a stick with a hook and he grasped the snake’s rear head. Then it was safe and he walked toward the audience. All of the children were so excited and touched the living habu. Mr. Uehara went around the seats, then back to the stage. I was also very excited for the fight with the mongoose in the next step, but the first act was over.
Before act two started, the founder said, “Unfortunately, we can’t show you the fight between a mongoose and a habu because it is prohibited on account of animal welfare”. I was really disappointed and accepted it as the reason for the cheap entry fee. Instead of the real fight, they showed us a video of a fight which was recorded ten years before. In this documentary program, mongooses must slay habus. They are real hunters. After the video, he took a small cage from the back stage and introduced a little mongoose in the cage. Her name was Machiko-chan and she was his pride because she had never lost a fight against a habu. The common mongoose is a natural enemy of the habu. When I came back to the entrance, I found so many souvenirs that were made from habus, like the bone powder of a habu, habu snake liquor, habu extract candies, and so on. I realized that the real enemy of habu was the human species!
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