Even more species hunting adventures in Japan: Tokyo.

The following morning, we caught our last shinkansen of the trip and headed back to Tokyo, where we'd spend the last couple of days before flying home. On the way there, we passed the magnificent Mount Fuji. Taking dozens of photos as we sped by, I managed to capture one or two that did not have a blurred object in the foreground. No mean feat when you're travelling at such incredible speed!

Ryan said he’d love to climb Mount Fuji one day. I'm not sure if it's something I'm as keen to do. Better to admire the mountain from a distance!

For the last part of our trip we were staying in the “lively” Kabukicho area, near Shinjuku, so when we arrived in Tokyo we caught a train to Shinjuku Station, the busiest station in the world. Navigating around it can be challenging, even for locals, but eventually we found our way to the exit we wanted and made our way to our accommodation. Dropping our luggage off at our apartment, we weren’t allowed to actually check in for a few more hours, so we went for a big bowl of ramen, and then spent a couple of hours exploring some shops around Shinjuku.

I had spicy tonkotsu ramen with extra charred pork. It was so good!

Heading back to the apartment, we checked in and had an afternoon nap. It turns out that combining a massive bowl of ramen with shopping can be quite tiring! In the evening, we walked to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, where we lay on some artificial turf in front of it and watched the impressive TOKYO Night & Light show being projected onto the front of the building. Afterwards, we went up to the free observation deck at the top of the building to enjoy some nighttime views of the megacity.

There were several different light shows, including this Pac-Man themed one. I remember playing the game on my Atari 2600 back in the early eighties!

Tokyo after dark.

Next, we headed off to enjoy some sushi and washed it down with a few beers in preparation for a late night karaoke session. The sushi was excellent, but it was a dish that was suggested to us by Xin Yun that took me by surprise.

Chawanmushi is a savoury egg custard dish. This one was topped with salmon roe and an egg yolk. It was so rich and creamy!

Ryan, Lillian and I ended up drinking way too much and murdering various songs until the early hours of the morning. Xin Yun was much more sensible with her alcohol consumption and was a much better singer.

The next morning, Lillian and I felt a little bit rough and had a lie in. Ryan and Xin Yun got up early and headed out to visit the teamLab Planets digital museum. When Lillian and I did finally get up and left the apartment, we visited a rooftop garden and then the huge Don Quijote in Shinjuku where we did some shopping. Afterwards, we jumped on a train and headed to the Ichigaya Fishing Centre to see if I could add a species or two to my tally for the trip.

Located right next to Ichigaya Station, the centre offers fun fishing for carp as well as a few other species.

All tackle is provided, although it is pretty basic and designed to easily land fish rather than catch them in the first place. The lines are heavy, the hooks are big, and the pellets provided were breaking up very easily, making getting one on the hook very tricky. I started off targeting goldfish in an indoor pond. Luckily, there were a couple of kernels of corn in my pot of pellets, so I used a small piece of one on the point of my hook to successfully catch a few.

Catching goldfish in the centre's indoor pond was a little trickier than I thought it would be.

Next, I spend a short time targeting whitespotted char in one of the centre's outdoor ponds. The rod supplied for this was a bit heavier and a small bobber was attached to the line. Feeding in some pellets, I quickly noticed that the fish were much more comfortable taking them as they fell through the water. Carefully putting a pellet on my hook and lowering it slowly down through the water, trying to match the sink rate of the free offerings, did the trick, and a fish charged up and snatched it almost straight away. All fish had to be retained, so I gave mine to a local angler who hadn’t caught one.

The whitespotted char was a nice looking fish. Would this be my final fish and new species of the trip?

After treating ourselves to a late lunch in Mos Burger, Lillian and I jumped on the train and headed back to the apartment. Still feeling a little bit rough, we had a nap. In the evening, feeling refreshed, the four of us visited an offal hotpot restaurant nearby. As if eating various organs wasn't adventurous enough, Ryan ordered some pig's ears and feet as a starter. I tried both, but much preferred the tasty hotpot!

The next day, Ryan and Xin Yun went to do some last minute shopping for gifts to take home. Lillian and I headed north by train, so I could try fishing in the Kanda River, but the section we explored turned out to be more of a concrete drainage ditch and there was no sign of any fish in it. In the afternoon, after making our way to Yoyogi Park and walking through it, we met up with Ryan and Xin Yun again at Meiji Jingu Shrine, and then we headed to nearby Takeshita Street.

The beautiful wooden Ichino Torii Gate at Meiji Jingu Shrine stands twelve meters tall!

Over a hundred consecrated sake barrels near the entrance to Meiji Jingu Shrine make for an interesting and colourful photo opportunity.

Takeshita Street had some cool shops, but it was absolutely rammed!

Moving along in the dense crowd, we had a look in a few shops before stumbling across a capybara café. We were surprised to find out that a booking wasn’t required, so we decided to go in. Capybara are Xin Yun’s favourite animal, so she was very excited to get up close to them.

Capybara are the largest rodent in the world. It was pretty cool to see one up close and be able to feed and pet one.

Just a little further along Takeshita Street we arrived at an otter café. Otters are one of my favourite animals, so we decided to visit that as well. The capybara experience had been was very peaceful, and relaxing. The otter experience, was by comparison, pretty chaotic! About twenty otters in a room with about a dozen people and a staff member giving them treats was absolute carnage. They were clambering all over everyone to get their snacks!

Even cuter than the capybara in my opinion, they looked very innocent, but went slightly crazy when they were about to be given a few treats.

As it started to get dark, we left the crowded Takeshita Street and slowly made our way south to visit Shibuya Scramble Crossing. Not satisfied with petting a capybara and having otters climbing all over her, Lillian wanted to see a famous dog as well.

Being the busiest crossing in the world, Shibuya Crossing is visited by millions of tourists, which helps make it the busiest crossing in the world!

This statue is Hachiko, a famously loyal Japanese Akita dog who, after his owner's death, continued to wait for him at Shibuya Station every day for nearly ten years until his own life ended. Basically, the Japanese Greyfriar's Bobby!

Before heading back to the apartment to pack our cases, we enjoyed some delicious sushi in Shibuya. Heading back to Kabukicho, we happened to be passing the famous Godzilla statue just as he was doing his hourly light and smoke show.

Godzilla on the rampage. Again!

So, the end of our trip had pretty much arrived, and early the next day we'd be leaving Japan again. We’d all had a great time, but the end of such a fantastic adventure is always tinged with a little bit of sadness. No more heated toilet seats. No more shinkansen. No more train station jingles. No more famichiki! Japan is an amazing place, and it's strange what you miss when you leave it.

Lillian and I enjoyed travelling with Ryan, he was great company and was open-minded about trying new things. We loved seeing his reactions as he experienced some of the weird and wonderful things that Japan has to offer for the very first time. It had also been lovely to meet Xin Yun as well. 

Early in the morning, we began our journeys home. Ryan, Lillian and I said goodbye to Xin Yun as the monorail reached Haneda Airport, as her flight back to Singapore was leaving from a different terminal to ours. Our fourteen-hour flight back to Heathrow was followed by an eight-hour drive back up the road to Edinburgh. I'm not sure that I would do that again, I really struggled doing the driving as I was so tired, but a few breaks to stretch my legs, and a few cans of highly caffeinated drinks kept me awake! Being back in cold, wet and miserable Scotland has been quite tough, but writing this series of posts has helped enormously with my post Japan trip depression! Lillian and I love visiting Japan, and I’m pretty sure we will return again in the future.

On the species hunting front, Ryan and I had done been quite successful. The fishing in major cities on the mainland and on Okinawa was quite a contrast, with the majority of the one hundred and two species Ryan and I caught between us, coming during our five days on the tropical island.

Here's a list of the species I caught, with new ones in bold...

1. Anchor Tuskfish
2. Barhead Spinefoot
3. Batu Rainbow Wrasse
4. Bignose Unicornfish
5. Black and Gold Chromis
6. Black Damselfish
7. Black Seabream
8. Blackbelly Triggerfish
9. Blackspot Sergeant
10. Blackstripe Cardinalfish
11. Bluegill
12. Blunt Snout Gregory
13. Brown Dottyback
14. Brown-lined Puffer
15. Campbell’s Goby
16. Common Carp
17. Crested Grunter
18. Cupid Wrasse
19. Cylindrical Sandperch
20. Dark Chub
21. Dory Snapper
22. Dusky Farmerfish
23. Finepatterned Puffer
24. Fire-tail Dottyback
25. Five-lined Cardinalfish
26. Fork-tongued Goby
27. Goldfish
28. Grass Carp
29. Grass Puffer
30. Half-barred Cardinalfish
31. Halfmoon Triggerfish
32. Honey-head Damsel
33. Honeycomb Filefish
34. Honeycomb Grouper
35. Indo-Pacific Sergeant
36. Iridescent Cardinalfish
37. Japanese Horse Mackerel
38. Japanese Sardinella
39. Japanese Seabass
40. Japanese Whiting
41. Kupang Cardinalfish
42. Lemon Damsel
43. Manybar Goatfish
44. Marbled Rockfish
45. Monogrammed Monocle Bream
46. Multicolorfin Rainbowfish
47. Narrowstripe Cardinalfish
48. Nile Tilapia
49. Oblong Rockfish
50. Okinawa Sergeant
51. Orange-lined Triggerfish
52. Oriental Butterflyfish
53. Pacific Dusky Wrasse
54. Pastel Ringwrasse
55. Pennant Coralfish
56. Pinecone Soldierfish
57. Pink-belly Wrasse
58. Red Naped Wrasse
59. Red Seabream
60. Redbellied Yellowtail Fusilier
61. Redcoat
62. Sapphire Devil
63. Saw-jawed Monocle Bream
64. Scissortail Seargant
65. Scrawled Filefish
66. Sixbar Wrasse
67. Staghorn Damselfish
68. Streamlined Spinefoot
69. Striped Large-eye Bream
70. Striped Monocle Bream
71. Threadfin Butterflyfish
72. Threespot Wrasse
73. Thumbprint Emperor
74. Titan Triggerfish
75. Tomato Clownfish
76. Undescribed Damselfish
77. Vagabond Butterflyfish
78. Valentin’s Sharpnose Puffer
79. Variegated Lizardfish
80. Vermiculate Angelfish
81. Whitebanded Triggerfish
82. Whitespotted Char
83. Whitespotted Devil
84. Whitetail Damselfish
85. Yellowfin Surgeonfish
86. Yellowtail Emperor

Ryan also caught these species...

87. Barred Thicklip
88. Blackeye Thicklip
89. Cigar Wrasse
90. Common Ponyfish
91. Freshwater Demoiselle
92. Ochre-striped Cardinalfish
93. Red-Eyed Puffer
94. Reef Triggerfish
95. Samurai Squirrelfish
96. Shorthead Sabertooth Blenny
97. Stocky Hawkfish
98. Sunset Wrasse
99. Undescribed Damselfish
100. Whitesaddle Goatfish
101. Yellowtail Clownfish
102. Yellowtail Sergeant

All in all, the time we spent species hunting had been very productive, despite some challenging weather on Okinawa. Of the species I caught, forty-one of them were new to me, which was great.

I need to get out fishing back here, but Storm Bram is currently battering large parts of the UK with heavy rain and strong winds. I've not been fishing since I got back from Japan, hopefully the weather calms down soon, so that I can maybe get out after dark to try and catch some rockling! Being honest, once the winter kicks in properly, I don't think I'll be fishing that much locally. I think another foreign adventure might be on the cards before the arrival of spring!

Tight lines, Scott.

Acknowledgments:

I'd like to thank the species hunting community on Instagram for their advice on fishing various venues around Japan before the trip. It was very useful!

In particular, I'd like to thank fellow species hunter Daiki for his invaluable help. He offered advice on the best places to try for certain species, and also helped me to identify some of the fish I'd caught. Maybe, in the future, I'll be able to reciprocate if he ever comes to Scotland!

Even more species hunting adventures in Japan: Himeji.

The day before we headed back to Tokyo, we caught the Shinkansen in the morning again. This time our destination was Himeji, where we would spend the day visiting its famous castle and some of the bodies of water in the surrounding area.

Himeji castle is Japan’s best preserved feudal castle. Despite the city being bombed during World War II, the castle escaped unscathed. Standing for over seven hundred years, it has also survived natural disasters.

Walking around the castle grounds, you eventually make it to the main keep and can make your way up to the top via several sets of very steep wooden stairs. The views of the castle's surroundings from the top were great, but it was the magnificent decorative Shachihoko, large creatures with the body of a fish and the head of a tiger, that caught my eye.

We'd spot more of these decorative Shachihoko around the city later in the day.

Heading back down the wooden staircases again, we eventually made it back outside and ended up in the large courtyard directly in front of the castle. Himeji Castle is very photogenic so we took a few more photos.

 Also known as the White Heron Castle, Himeji Castle is Japan's largest and most visited castle. 

Leaving the castle grounds, we spent some time wandering around the beautiful Koko-en Gardens. A potential fishing opportunity did present itself inside, but we decided not to take it. By this point it was early afternoon, so when we left the gardens and found a nearby restaurant where we treated ourselves to some unagi.

Koi carp would have been our ninety-ninth species of the trip, but we decided against fishing in the garden's pond!

Grilled eel with barbeque sauce over rice. Served with miso soup and two small side dishes. It was very tasty.

Sightseeing out of the way, it was time for a relaxing stroll along some of the bodies of water around the castle. Obviously, fishing in the moat directly in front of the castle was out of the question, but we did see some grass carp, bluegill and largemouth bass in there as we walked along beside it. We decided to go to some quieter areas to the north of the castle, where I thought we could quickly pull some bluegill out using a piece of line, a split shot and a small hook baited with a piece of pink power isome. After walking for about ten minutes, we found a suitable spot with nobody around. Quickly setting up our simple hand held rig, the bluegill present weren't shy. Dropping a small section of bright pink isome down the side, it quickly vanished, and tugging upwards on our line when it did, we rapidly caught a few before making a quick exit.

The bluegill is considered to be one of Japan's most invasive species. 

Heading away from the castle and its moat, we headed northeast towards a canal that I thought might also hold some fish. On the way, we walked through Shirotopia Memorial Park, where we passed an amazing tree. 

Just a random tree, but I thought it looked stunning!

Arriving at the canal, it wasn’t particularly deep, and the water was crystal clear. There was no sign of any fish initially, but then a small group of grass carp appeared from further along the canal to our right. Quickly rigging up a single rod and tying on a 15lb leader with a chinu hook at the business end, I tossed in a few pieces of bread to see how the fish would react. Every single piece was hovered up very quickly, so I put a piece on my hook and flicked it out. It didn’t take long for a grass carp to swim over and take it into its mouth, and I quickly set the hook. After a short scrap, species number one hundred of the trip was on the bank. 

Species number one hundred of the trip and new personal best grass carp for me into the bargain!

Ryan was keen to catch one too, but the commotion my grass carp had caused had spooked the other fish away from where we were and coloured up the water too, so we baited his hook and walked along the water’s edge. It didn’t take us too long to locate another group, and flicking his bait towards them, a few of them went straight for it and Ryan soon had one hooked. After a brief fight, Ryan had landed a grass carp of his own. 

Ryan's first ever grass carp! A nice fish on ultra light tackle, but pound for pound, they don’t fight that well.

The mouth of a grass carp is quite strange. They’re primarily herbivorous, but like most fish with specialised dietary habits, they are also opportunistic feeders too. 

After putting Ryan’s fish back, we started walking back towards Himeji Station. After spending some time in a clothing shop, and a short shinkansen ride later, we were back in Osaka again. In the evening went out for dinner to a shabu shabu restaurant.

Wagyu beef hotpot. A fantastic meal to end our time in Osaka. 

Heading back to our apartment, we had a bit of packing to do for our journey to Tokyo the following day. Taking the shinkansen again, at least we didn't have to worry about what we were packing into carry-on or checked luggage! The four of us had really enjoyed our time in Osaka and our day trips to Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima/Miyajima and Himeji. Ryan and I had squeezed in a few short sessions, added twelve species to our tally, and reached the milestone of one hundred species during our time in Japan. With lots more sightseeing planned for our last couple of days in Japan, I wasn't sure we'd get an opportunity to add any more, but should an opportunity present itself...

Tight lines, Scott.

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Even more species hunting adventures in Japan: Hiroshima & Miyajima.

The following day, we were up early again to head to Shin Osaka station to catch the shinkansen to Hiroshima. It was Ryan’s first time riding the bullet train, so he was very excited.

The Shinkansen is brilliant! Fast, efficient and safe, you might be surprised to know that it has been operating in Japan since 1964!

In only an hour and twenty minutes, we had travelled 327km and had arrived in Hiroshima. Ryan was suitably impressed! Heading west from Hiroshima station on foot, We stopped briefly by the Kyobashi River when we spotted some black seabream hanging around, but they were incredibly skittish and all swam off when a rig landed in the water anywhere near them. Even casting away from them, any that then came over to investigate our chunk of raw prawn quickly rejected it and swam off with purpose. Giving up, we continued west until we reached the A-Bomb Dome.

Eighty years ago, an atomic weapon was detonated almost directly above this building, destroying most of city.

The Cenotaph for the A-Bomb Victims. This arched tomb holds the register of victims. It's a focal point for annual peace ceremonies.

For me personally, visiting the Peace Park in Hiroshima is a deeply moving experience and also an opportunity for reflection. The horror of what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki is beyond comprehension. There are no winners in war. I took a moment to gently ring the park's peace bell before we left the park. 

Crossing the river from the Peace Memorial Park, we caught the fast ferry to Miyajima. We spent a couple of hours exploring the island, visiting Itsukushima Shrine and as the tide was out we walked down to see the huge Torii gate that marks its entrance out in the bay.

Lilian loves a silly selfie!

The massive Torii gate was very impressive, and it was nice to actually see it.

When we visited six years ago, it was covered in scaffolding whilst it was being refurbished!

After passing through Itsukushima Shrine, we walked for a while along the coast and then doubling back we visited a pagodo up on a hill and then wandered back through the town's busy streets. There, we enjoyed sharing some tasty snacks for lunch in the shape of curry pan, deep fried oysters and beef and potato korokke. We wanted to go up to the top of Mount Misen using the island's ropeway, but the queues were ridiculously long, so we decided to go do some fishing instead! Heading around to the large concrete steps at the back of Hiroshima University of Economics' Seminar House, we scratched around with small hooks initially. Things were slow to begin with, but eventually we caught a few fish and remarkably every species we caught were additions to our tally.

First to bite a little piece of prawn was this tiny oblong rockfish. 

After having our bait stolen a few times, and then our hooks bitten clean off, we caught a few of these grass puffer.

I then moved around the corner to fish over a sandy area. This produced a small red bream, the same species Ryan and I had caught in the fishing restaurant back in Osaka!

This was followed shortly afterwards by a small black seabream. Not as cautious as the bigger ones in the rivers of Hiroshima!

After a while, we realised that we were running out of time before we had to pack up and walk back to the ferry terminal to catch our ferry back to Hiroshima. For the last fifteen minutes of the session or so, we switched to fishing small paddletail lures on jigheads over some rougher ground at the bottom of the concrete steps. This proved to be a great choice. As the sun began to set, this approach tempted a few marbled rockfish out of their hiding places, and we both caught them.

As the sun went down, we tried something different.

Our first marbled rockfish of the trip aggressively hit our lures.

Quickly packing up, we briskly walked back to the ferry terminal and caught our ferry back to Hiroshima. Walking back towards the station, we headed to an okonomiyaki restaurant for another large savoury pancake washed down with a few beers.

Hiroshima style okonomiyaki is my favourite. It's all about layers!

With full stomachs, we headed back towards the station, but before we caught the shinkansen back to Osaka we headed to the Kyobashi River for a quick session targeting yellowfin goby. I caught some there when Lillian and I last visited Hiroshima, but sadly Ryan and I drew a blank on this occasion. Back on the shinkansen, we were back in Osaka in no time. It had been another enjoyable day trip, and Ryan and I only needed another two species to hit our target. Maybe we could get them the following day somewhere in Himeji after visiting the city's famous white castle?

Tight lines, Scott.

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Even more species hunting adventures in Japan: Osaka.

On our third morning in Osaka, we got up quite early and caught a train to Nara. Once we arrived, we headed east from the station to the park where we spent the first part of the morning feeding the deer that freely roam the city. Bundles of deer friendly crackers are purchased from local vendors, and the deer have learned that an exchange of bows usually results in a snack being given to them!

The deer don't hang about when they know you have crackers. Here, mine are about to be quickly depleted after a round of respectful bowing!

Out of crackers in no time at all, and having to show open, empty hands to the deer that were following and harassing us, we headed off out of the park where there were fewer deer. Next, we visited the beautiful Yoshikien Garden on our way to the impressively enormous Tōdai-ji Temple.

Japanese gardens are things of incredible beauty.

Tōdai-ji Temple was absolutely massive!

Inside, the statue of Buddha was pretty big too!

Before heading back to Osaka, we enjoyed some lunch in the shape of some tasty savoury pastries in a Japanese bakery shop, followed by some very yummy mochi on our way back to the train station from the aptly named Very yummy mochi shop.

The pastries in this bakery were so cheap and they tasted amazing!

The most common filling in mochi is probably red bean paste, but these large mochi had large chunks of fresh fruit inside instead. Lillian and I shared one pineapple, one mandarin and one persimmon between the two of us, and they were so good with some green tea!

Arriving back in Osaka early in the afternoon, we took the subway to Cosmosquare and from there headed along the seaside promenade. A strong wind was blowing directly onto the promenade, so we continued walking until we reached the western end of the Sakishima Canal. This man-made water feature is connected to the sea and offered us a sheltered fishing opportunity for an hour or so before we headed to ride the Tempozan Ferris Wheel and visit Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan. The fishing wasn't great, with finepatterned puffer being the predominant species present. I managed to catch two other species before we left, and one was an addition to our trip's tally, edging us closer to our target of one hundred species, so it was worth the brief visit.

As well as lots of these little pests,..

...I caught a nice multicolorfin rainbowfish,..

...and a solitary Japanese Whiting.

The Tempozan Ferris Wheel stands at 112m tall and lights up after dark.

Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan, the world's largest aquarium, from the top of the Tempozan Ferris Wheel.

The aquarium was amazing, but the only photo I took that was any good was this one of a massive ocean sunfish.

Leaving the aquarium, Ryan and I got permission to have a quick fishing session in the dark nearby, to see if we could catch some Japanese horse mackerel. Fishing small straight soft plastics on ultralight jigheads, I caught one pretty quickly and then we both struggled to catch any more after that. It was pretty cold, so we didn't stay that long. Both of us caught a juvenile Japanese seabass before we packed up, and the four of us headed off to visit an oden restaurant for yet another delicious traditional Japanese meal.

Target species acquired!

Bonus species most welcome too!

Another three species added to our tally, we were slowly creeping towards our target of one hundred. With a trip to Hiroshima and Miyajima the following day, I was confident that with a bit of luck, we could reach our goal. Ryan was really looking forward to travelling on a bullet rain for the first time, and I was looking forward to eating some more okonomiyaki. Sorry Osaka, but I prefer the savoury pancake Hiroshima style!

Tight lines, Scott.

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