Photo updates from Japan

On May 29, 2011
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Comments (4)

I know, I know – I promised to write a bunch while on my “sabbatical” in Japan, and I haven’t been delivering. I have been fishing though. I have fished with a bunch of great people and some of the masters of the art of tenkara. I have been enjoying some of the most beautiful streams I have seen and seeking others. I have also found some wood for my new tenkara nets. So much going on, so little time. It’s already been almost 20 days since I arrived in Japan. And, yes, I have been learning more about tenkara. I will share more. Meanwhile, here are some pictures from the last couple of days:

A gorgeous stream, a “shiryu”, or “tributary” of the Mazegawa:
Gorgeous stream

While many people take a lot of fish, I’m happy to know fish can find sanctuaries of gorgeous water, but no fishing allowed, this is what the sign looks like:

Fishing with Eiji Yamakawa, and two of his friends from their tenkara fishing club, awesome guys:
Eiji Yamakawa tenkara fishing

Eiji Yamakawa tenkara fishing

After much looking, finally found the rare “kaya” tree [update: they were not kaya, but rather the more commonly found “momi” trees, I finally found an ancient kaya forest and learned about their differences]. I found the trees 2 days after reading that as much as 45% of the forests of Japan have been replaced with cedar (“sugi”) tree plantations. Indeed, cedar is about all you can find here, but deep in the woods there are other trees. I climbed a kaya momi, and found others where the branches were accessible. What an impressive tree:
Kaya tree for tenkara net, tenkara tamo

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4 Responses to Photo updates from Japan

  1. Rick Setina says:

    Beautiful Daniel. The streams look so clear and the branches look like they will make some outstanding nets. Thanks for sharing your trip and have a fun the rest of your time there. I can’t believe 20 days have gone by already. It seems like you just left.

    • I know! 20 days have flown by. I already feel like 2 months is too short a trip, it’s unbelievable how fast time is flying. I have stuff scheduled for all weekends I’m here and many of the weekdays, this month will go by in the blink of an eye!

  2. TJ Ferreira says:

    I think the next Tenkara USA item needs to be the basket like the ones in the pics above. I take it these baskets are for the “non” release days when one wants to bring the fish back to camp for a great dinner? I could see these with Tenkara USA logo. tj

    • Considering the idea. They are quite interesting and well designed. Though I like to eat fish, I no longer like to promote keeping many fish – you should, by all means, keep the fish you want to eat at camp….But, I have seen a couple of streams decimated by people keeping a lot of fish – although those tended to be people with a chain-string after a day of bait fishing.

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