Japanese festival food: shrimp crackers

Last summer at a festival I saw bags of shrimp crackers hanging from a food stall. It brought me back to the days when I used to live in Ibaraki. Because I often saw shrimp cracker food stalls at festivals in Ibaraki prefecture, but I actually don't see them much in Saitama Prefecture. I was delighted to see one last summer.

Shrimp crackers or Shrimp Sembei are called "ebi senbei" in Japanese or "ebisen" for short. They sell "ebisen" that is more like potato chips in supermarkets. But the "ebisen" in this photo and that you can sometimes find at festivals, is different. Its similar in shape (only) to the prawn crackers you can get in Chinese take away restaurants in Ireland and the UK! 

The shrimp crackers are made by mixing finely minced shrimp into the senbei dough before baking. Thanks to that the crackers have a pink hue. There are many different types. But generally they are thicker and crunchier than the prawn crackers back home which are light and airy. They taste very different too.

Having seen the shrimp cracker food stall at a festival last summer, I now wonder why they aren't as common anymore. Or perhaps they have always been more common in some prefectures, than others. I believe Aichi, for example, is known for shrimp crackers. Have you seen any shrimp cracker food stalls at a festival in recent years?