Fishing in Japan

I was able to go fishing with my father-in-law recently while he and my mother-in-law visited Emily and I and it was some of the most fun I've had since we got to Japan. We actually went out fishing twice, once with the MWR rec shop on base and once with a professional guide we found in Nagasaki.

The MWR trip was fun, we went up towards Hirado and met with a Japanese fisherman who ferryed us out to a small island where we stayed for about five hours and fished. I caught five ugly cow fish and a decent sunburn. My father caught some sort of barracuda-tuna type fish as well, which was pretty cool looking.

The second trip we went on was made able to happen when we saw a fishing shop on the way home from the Nagasaki Bio Park (Zoo). We stopped in and through some Japanglish, charades, and my awesome translator friend, we booked a trip for a few days later. We arrived at the shop to a warm welcome of coffee and hard-boiled duck eggs. We visited somewhat and headed for the marina.

First we went a bit to the northwest, towards Sasebo harbor, and fished several spots along the way, but having no luck with getting any fish, we decided to go after some squid.

On the way back through the Sakai Channel, which has the strongest current in Japan, we got to see some awesome turbulence. This picture is of tidewaters rushing around a small island which holds a lighthouse. There were dozens if not hundreds of whirlpools, some were small, but some were very capable of swallowing a person. You can wear your lifejacket if you want, but its best to just stay in the boat, because no amount of personal floatation is gonna save you.

We fished for squid the rest of the trip, with my father catching five decent ones. I hooked a couple but wasnt able to land them. I did catch a pufferfish though, ugly thing. We then headed back to the shop where we had Japanese tea and sat around the fire for a while. Hiro-san, our guide, invited Emily and my mother-in-law to come out and go to see some fireworks in his boat, which we accepted and it was amazing.

Monkeys, Capybaras, and Babies

Well, I'll start out with an exciting experience I had this morning, which in my mind trumps the rest of the day which was also a lot of fun. I awoke this morning and got up, showered, got my clothes ready and checked on my lovely wife who was still relaxing in bed. She was talking to Jackson (our baby due in October) and I thought I might participate as well. Since I am able to, I got right down by him and was saying hello, and I put my ear to Em's belly to listen to him, and he kicked me in the head! I couldn't be prouder, my boy has a good kick, he'll be a strong one. I talked to him some more and we had breakfast.

Our plan today was to go south to Nagasaki and check out the Nagasaki Bio Park, which is pretty much a zoo, but much more interactive than a stateside zoo. Its a good walk, a few hours, but you get to see dozens of monkeys, fish, birds, plants, llamas, and other critters, some of which I'd never seen before in my life. The interactive part is the best, which allows you to feed many of the animals, some of which right from your hand. You can also get really close to many of the animals, some of which is fun, some which are not so much.

The first big attraction is the Insectarium, which is ultra-creepy, as its all stuff like Hercules and Rhinoceros beetles, which are way too big for insects. Some of them looked like they could weight several ounces.

After that is a petting area, which had squirrels, rats, turtles, guinea pigs, hamsters, and other small furries that could be picked up and handled.

Further up the path though was my favorite part of the park by far. The Capybara area. Now if you don't know what a capybara is, here's a picture.

Yes, I am petting it, I fed it also, right from my hand. It felt like an old hairbrush, very coarse, but very friendly. There were about 15 of them just walking around in this small fenced area. I had to wade through about 30 hysterical Japanese children who for some reason thought the capybaras were going to eat them all alive. Even when they saw me emerge unscathed, they still would squeal whenever one would walk towards them. These same children protested though when their parents tried to get them out of the fenced area. Too scared to interact, but too fascinated to leave, strange.

After that was a Rhino who was asleep, but very large, and very close. It was not to be interacted with, but they do allow you to feed them at specific times on Sundays, but it had already passed by the time we got there, so we missed out.

Further down the trail, there is an area with a cluster of cages holding goats, raccoons, and lesser red pandas. Now, these are normal animals I'm familiar with, but there were some others that simply ran loose which I'd never seen before. The best description I can give is a cross between a rabbit and a small deer. No tail, longer deer-like legs, with a rabbit-like face. There were about 20 and they would run back and forth between these two buildings. Having no experience with them, I approached but did not get too close, as they appeared to have formidable claws on their front and hind feet, and I didn't want to get killed by a rabbit-deer, what kind of story would that be? (further research revealed the animal to be a Patagonian Cavy, see below)


Next was the monkey area, and by monkey area I mean, the monkey cage you can walk through, with the monkeys. Now, monkeys look cute, so I thought I might get close to see if one would run up my arm and perch on my shoulder for a picture. The monkey reached out and grasped my hand, and I thought I was in the clear, but I was suddenly rewarded with a bite, hehe. Not a bad one, no blood, but it sure startled me, and the monkey may have learned a new word or two. Suffice it to say, I didn't try to hold any more monkeys. They were cute though.

After that were the hippos, but they were all underwater or sleeping, so there was little activity there. It started to sprinkle a little at this point, so unless we saw something incredible, we made for a covered area. The aquarium was next, and it had a huge amazonian fish in it, which I also researched and know to be an Arapaima, the largest freshwater fish in the world, some reaching over 400 pounds.


At this point we have reached the end of the zoo, which is a huge loop of one-way traffic, which was nice as you cannot miss anything and don't have to compete with people walking every which way like in other zoos.

We then went out for lunch and returned home, tired and having had a great day.