New experiences

This weekend was definitely one of new experiences. On Sunday morning, Seiji and I woke up at the crack of dawn, packed the car with gear and booze, and headed on my first Japanese fishing trip. We drove about two hours north of Tokyo to Gunma Prefecture to a small town called Oigami. The drive was quite beautiful, heading north into the snow capped mountains, driving next to lots of cars with skis and snowboards on the roof rack. It was also really lovely to see the always majestic Mt Fuji standing proudly in the distance.

By 10 am we had arrived at the Oze Fishing Lake, and after making sure we had on many, many layers of warm clothes -- long johns, pants, snow pants, turtleneck sweater, hoodie sweater, fleece sweater, heavy jacket, and of course a hat -- we were ready to catch those trout.



The Master Fisherman with his weapons of mass destruction.

Now, anyone who knows me knows I am not a fisherwoman, but rather a golfer. So Seiji had to show me the ropes of how to use a rod -- how to hold it (similar to a golf club, actually), how the reel works, how to release the line, how to reel it in, how to cast, and of course what to do if you feel a bite. It took me quite some time to get the hang of it, and the first time I tried casting I almost tangled my line with this woman next to me. MOST embarassing! However, within the first 15 minutes I had a little beginner's luck and got my first trout! FISH ON!!!! Yay!

By the end of the day, we had caught five plump rainbow trout and were starving and exhausted. In fact, we were so starving and exhausted by 5 pm that we gutted the fish and packed them away before realizing that we hadn't taken a single picture of our catch! Very unfortunate to have no proof of our fish. You'll have to take my word for it.

After packing up the van, we headed to our 'ryokan' for the night - a traditional Japanese inn - with 'onsen', natural hot springs, which are plentiful and incredibly popular in Japan.



Staying at the ryokan was a really interesting experience, the room was beautiful with the traditional style tatami mats and futons. Everyone sheds their clothes and wears 'yukata' - a very nice and comfortable robe tied at the waist with an 'obi' sash. I felt a bit strange walking around the hotel in the yukata, but hey, when in Japan, do as the Japanese, right?

The food that they served was incredible. Luckily we DID remember to take pictures of that.



Here I am, feeling very shy in my yukata, surrounded by many little dishes of wonderful food.



Grilled salmon served on hot rocks, with marinated walnuts.




Little salads of picked vegetables, and a bowl of soup.




Tempura mushrooms, nice and crispy.

You will notice that with Japanese food, much importance is placed on appearance. The food is meant to be visually stimulating and so food is served in very small amounts so that you can enjoy a wide variety of tastes, colors, textures and cooking methods. You would be amazed at how filling this meal was!

After dinner, it was time for me to experience the onsen. Oigami, the town where we stayed, is an onsen town full of ryokans and hot springs. The onsen are separated by sex, so women and men have their own onsens, both indoor and outdoor. I felt a bit nervous going into the women's onsen because I wasn't sure about what I was supposed to do and of course felt a little shy getting naked in front of the other women. But heck, you only live once right? The water is hot hot hot, but once you get in it is fantastic and extremely relaxing. You feel all the knots in your shoulders just melt away. Just lovely.

The next day we checked out of the ryokan and headed back to Tokyo with three bags full of trout. Seiji cooked two fantastic meals with that fish, and it was the first time I ever ate something that I caught. It was quite a satisfying feeling, so we are planning to go back to Oze for trout fishing again in the near future. Next time I will remember to take pictures of the fish!