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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Species Hunting fun in Japan : Back in Osaka.

On our penultimate day in Osaka we visited its castle in the afternoon and afterwards, under strict supervision, I was allowed to visit an incredible tackle shop that was dedicated to only lure fishing styles. After spending a while browsing I treated myself to a spool of Sunline Small Game braid, a few pieces of end tackle and a rockfishing magazine/DVD managing to spend less than £50 in the process so Lillian did a fantastic job of keeping me under control! The evening before our day trip to Rabbit Island Masa had very generously pointed me in the direction of some marks I could fish for Japanese horse mackerel that were only a couple of metro stops away from our accomodation. In the evening Lillian decided to have a nap after we ate way too much grilled chicken for our dinner so I grabbed my gear, jumped on the Chūō line and headed out on my own for a couple of hours' fishing.

Osaka after dark from the top floor window of the Osaka Bay Tower. A huge ferris wheel lit up red marked the spot.

I started my session at the same spot near the aquarium where I'd fished a few days earlier but after a while I'd had no bites so I walked to a second spot, one that Masa had recommended. Another angler was there already and I watched him catch the target species as I approached so I started fishing along from him. Simply casting out and feeling for takes on the drop I was soon catching a few Japanese horse mackerel as well which I gave to the local angler as he was keeping the ones he was catching. My time was soon up but quite happy to have caught a few of my target species I headed off.

I'd bought some new jigheads and soft plastics to use and went with the combo above, an Ecogear Aji Chon jighead and ThirtyFour Octplus lure. The jighead is designed to nose hook the soft plastic but I went with a more standard straight presentation which worked fine.

My first Japanese horse mackerel. Prized by Japanese anglers Aji are a popular target because they are both delicious and good fun on the tackle used to catch them.

On our last day in Osaka I wanted to try and catch some tanago. After another supervised trip to a tackle shop to replenish my micro fishing supplies, we headed to some large ponds next to the Yodo river in the north of the city. Again Masa had given me the location and had told me it was a famous spot amongst Osaka tanago anglers. Another serious looking sign greeted us upon our arrival that this time had photos of tanago on it. I was sure Masa wouldn't send my to fish somewhere that tanago fishing wasn't allowed so I just set about finding a likely looking spot to fish.

There are several different species of tanago in Japan. Masa would later tell me the one on this sign is very rare and protected.

Setting up my rod the wind began to pick up and when I got started this made it very difficult to fish with such incredibly light tackle. Eventually I found some slightly more sheltered spots and started getting some tentative bites. My tiny float would just dip slightly though and I struggled to connect with them. The gluten bait I was using didn't seem to stay on the hook very long either so I switched to a tiny piece of cooked rice. Finally my perseverance paid off when I got a much more positive bite, my tiny float went straight under and I lifted into a tiny fish. Swinging it quickly to hand I was excited for a brief moment before I realised that it wasn't a tanago and was in fact a tiny bluegill.

How annoying!

By this point we were both pretty cold so I reluctantly admitted defeat and we headed off to get some piping hot Takoyaki in a nearby restaurant before catching a bus back into the city. The following day we were getting up early to take a train up north into the mountains to spend a couple of days relaxing at a traditional Japanese ryokan in the hot spring town of Shibu Onsen. I wasn't sure if I'd get any opportunities to fish but I was really looking forward to this relaxing part of the trip even if the end of our adventure was fast approaching. 

Tight lines, Scott.