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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More species hunting fun in Japan : Nagasaki and Sasebo.

We arrived in Nagasaki fairly late in the evening so after walking from the station to our hotel we headed to a food mall in a large shopping centre nearby to get something to eat. After filling our faces with one of our favourite Japanese foods we had a look in some of the shops and also walked through an amusement arcade. Even though I'd spent most of the afternoon earlier that day fishing, I got permission to do some more of an electronic variety.

Takoyaki are dough balls filled with octopus chunks, tempura scraps, pickled ginger, and green onion. They are then covered with a tangy sauce and sprinkled with seaweed and bonito flakes. They're also amazing!

No water involved but this fishing arcade game was great fun.

The next day we spent the morning and the early afternoon visiting the Nagasaki Peace Park, the Hypocentre Cenotaph, the Atomic Bomb Museum and finally the National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims. Like our visit to the Peace Park in Hiroshima it was educational and thought provoking. The museum and the memorial hall were quite tough going emotionally and I'm not ashamed to say that by the end my throat was sore from swallowing lumps. Learning in graphic detail about the horrific reality of the devastation caused by the second atomic bomb that was dropped on Japan was difficult but the thing that really got me was reading the testimony and thoughts of those who had survived. Despite everything they went through there was still an underlying message of hope for the future in their words. Before we left to explore more of Nagasaki we folded some origami cranes to add to the multitudes on display already.

The origami crane has become a symbol for peace.

After some lunch we spent the rest of the afternoon taking a relaxing wander around the backstreets of the city, visiting shrines and temples before we walked back to our hotel, following for a time the street up above the Nakashima River. As we ambled along I kept my eyes open for any fish down below and soon spotted some that were incredibly hard to miss.

We visited a few throughout the afternoon but this Buddhist temple was quite unusual with Kannon the goddess of mercy standing on the back of a huge turtle.

The koi obviously stand out like a sore thumb but if you look carefully you'll see lots of common carp too. Rather conveniently there were some steps nearby so I stuck a pin in Google Maps so we could find this spot again.

Before going back to our hotel I also wanted to visit a fishing tackle shop but we struggled to find it. The Japanese are normally incredibly polite so when I asked for directions I thought at first the response I got was quite rude. When we eventually found the tackle shop the directions we were given made perfect sense.

Turns out the tackle shop was across the park next to Fukken Street after all!

Needless to say the tackle shop was amazing! Despite being dedicated to lure fishing only it was massive and had a mind boggling selection of tackle. With both the koi carp we'd seen ealier and also future trips abroad in mind I bought myself a 2.1m telescopic net handle that collapses to only 42cm and a 45cm rubberised net that folds in four, perfect for throwing into my hold luggage! I also got the nod to treat myself to a few packets of creature baits and isome crabs to use for seabream should the opportunity arise again.

The next day we caught a train north to Sasebo to visit the Pearl Sea Resort there. Its aquarium and a boat cruise around the kujukushima islands were the main reasons for the day trip but first we visited a shrine to Ebisu, the Japanese god of fisherman and luck, so I could say a quick prayer.

The shrine was located on this small island.

This is Ebisu. One of the seven gods of fortune. As you can see he's a top angler.

Before going into the aquarium I got the green light to fish for a while but things were tough. There were lots of lure munching puffers around so we hopped along the coast back towards the aquarium trying a few different spots along the way. Eventually in some deeper water something else began nibbling away but I struggled to connect with its bites. I ended up using progressively smaller hooks until I finally caught the culprit.

I'd later identify this tiny mouthed fish as a threadsail filefish.

After  a few hours spent visiting the aquarium and relaxing on the boat cruise I got permission to fish for an hour or so before we had to catch the last bus of the day back to Sasebo Station. To start with all I caught was a few grass puffers and a couple more threadsail filefish.

Wandering around the harbour having a few casts in each area before moving on eventually produced something different...

...when this Japanese whiting took a piece of dried ragworm.

Soon we ended up all the way around the harbour, opposite the moored cruise boats, on a small breakwater where a few locals were fishing. One angler was doing particularly well, fishing prawn under a float and was catching a few nice seabream. He was putting in plenty of shrimp paste groundbait to attract the fish and I managed to catch a seabream myself before we had to leave.

My first ever goldlined seabream. A nice fish to end a relatively tough day's fishing.

When we arrived back in Nagasaki we dropped my fishing gear off at our hotel, headed over the Uragami River and caught the Nagasaki ropeway up to the observation deck at the top of Mount Inasa. The views of Nagasaki after dark were spectacular and the photos we took really don't do it justice.

Nagasaki after dark. Much better viewed using the naked eye!

The following day we were travelling to our next destination but before going to the station we took a little detour, walking alongside the Nakashima River to the spot where we'd seen the carp. Armed with my new net and a few slices of bread I quickly set up my rod and was just about to start targeting the carp when I noticed there were also a few catfish swimming around on the bottom. Lillian had already started throwing in some small pieces of bread and much to my surprise the catfish soon came up and joined in the feeding frenzy on the surface. I decided to target one of these first which was pretty tricky due to their poor eyesight and all the carp bullying them away from the bread. Going a little way along the bank, Lillian was able to draw the majority of the much more agile carp away and I managed to catch a catfish that was a little more isolated by lowering my bait right in front of it.

This Amur catfish was a nice way to start the day and another new species added to my tally.

This was then quickly followed into my new net by a few very colourful koi carp. Catching these was no challenge at all so I made it interesting by targeting individual fish that Lillian pointed out for me.

The lady wanted a golden koi carp. I duly obliged. What a stunning fish!

Pleased to have caught some fish in Nagasaki I packed up my gear and we headed to the station to make the journey to Kumamoto. We had reached the halfway point of our trip and were having a great time. With three more cities left on our itinerary I was confident the remainder of our trip would be just as exciting as the first half had been and also that I'd get plenty more fishing opportunities too.

Tight lines, Scott.

Species hunting fun in Japan : Osaka.

The train journey from Kyoto to Osaka took less than an hour and as I was keen to do some fishing we dumped our bags at our apartment and jumped back onto the metro to visit a fishing spot nearby. It was pretty windy when we arrived and the sea was a little rough but despite this there were a few anglers out fishing which was encouraging. I didn't see anyone catching anything however and sadly I didn't catch anything either. Being the third occasion I'd fished in the sea in Japan and the third time I'd failed to catch anything I was beginning to feel a little bit frustrated. Before we went back to the apartment we went for a wander and accidentally stumbled upon a strange saltwater canal and decided to see if there were any fish in it. Almost straight away we could see some seabass and seabream patrolling but they swam off quickly when they spotted us as the water wasn't very deep and was very clear.

Some fish had made there way into this saltwater canal from the open sea via a pipe at one end.

As well as the larger fish there were the odd shoal of smaller fish swimming around but again they were very skittish and swam off when I got close or cast near them. Eventually I found one species that was a little less shy and showed some interest in my lures. They kept pecking away at my piece of angleworm and after dropping down to #18 hooks and smaller pieces of Gulp I eventually managed to catch my first Japanese saltwater species of the trip! I caught a few of them and before we left I doubled my saltwater species tally for the trip with a small Japanese whiting.

A rather weird looking little fish it had hard bony structures similar to a triggerfish or a file fish. It had three of these though, one at the front of its first dorsal fin and two underneath! Very useful for handling them! After a bit of research when we got back to our apartment I discovered it was a short snout tripodfish.

I recognised this species from the front of Isome packets. 

The next day we visited the Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan, the biggest aquarium in the world. It didn't disappoint with several incredibly massive tanks full of all sorts of fish from around the world. The whale sharks and sunfish were pretty amazing but oddly enough my favourite exhibit was a very small tank that had a few fringed blenny in it. Also known as the Japanese Warbonnet they were quite big as far as blennies go and have lots of frilly appendages all over their head and fins.

A bit like our Yarrell's blenny on steroids. Maybe I'd get lucky and catch one?

Whilst having lunch in the aquarium's cafe we spotted a few people fishing near the aquarium in a few different harbour areas so we headed back later in the afternoon with my fishing gear. Armed with some bait this time to increase my chances I caught loads of these slimy little fish with an insanely protrusile mouth on tiny little strips of squid.

I'd later discover this is a spot nape ponyfish. The amount of slime on them was quite incredible but not unpleasant.

As light began to fade I started fishing closer in to the harbour walls and much slower too. After a few more spot nape ponyfish I caught a couple of rockfish. I was very excited about catching these as they are a popular target species amongst Japanese anglers and I they were one of the species I was hoping to catch during the trip. I recognised the first one as a darkbanded rockfish, Mebaru in Japanese. I wasn't sure about the second one.

I was over the moon about catching this little darkbanded rockfish.

The second mystery rockfish.

To celebrate catching my first couple of rockfish we headed out after dark to Dotonbori for a wander around its busy neon lit streets, to try a local speciality, octopus balls and enjoy a few cold Asahi Super Dry.

Dotonbori is Osaka's busy nightlife area. It has lots of bright neon signs, tasty street food and lots of restaurants, shops and bars.

It also has lots of massive signs too. This onewas  for the freshly made octopus balls we were after. They're called Takoyaki in Japanese.

Takoyaki is octopus chunks cooked with some other ingredients in batter which is shaped into balls. Barbecue sauce, mayonnaise and bonito flakes usually finish them off although other toppings are available too. It's a good idea to let them cool before eating as the inside is gooey and can be like molten lava.

Back at the apartment that night I did a bit of research to try and identify my mystery rockfish but didn't have much luck so I text Adam Kirby back in the UK to see if he or one of his Japanese friends could help. It didn't take long for Adam to introduce me to Masa, an angler based in Osaka, who quickly identified my mystery catch as an oblong rockfish.

We carried on chatting for a while and he very kindly gave my a few places I could try for Japanese horse mackerel which funnily enough weren't too far away from the spot I'd caught the rockfish at. Fishing for these would have to wait though because the following day we were making use of our Japan rail pass by taking a trip west to visit Rabbit Island. I was quite exited about finding out if there were any fish there as well and had been given permission to do a fair amount of fishing while we were there.

Tight lines, Scott.