Asakusa Diary - The Staff Blog

a few days ago, it was the first time in my life, I was
ice fishing!
^^

In Japan, ice fishing has a long tradition and of course, I didn't want to miss this kind of fun! ^^

So Hiro-san, Naoto-san and former employee Ryoko-san from our Hostel in Asakusa, Linn-san and Hitoshi-san from Sakura Hotel Jimbocho, my boyfriend Marius and me get our stuff packed and drive together to Nagano prefecture, where a nice and big, icy lake called lake Matsubara was waiting for our fishing skills! :D

We started our big fishing adventure at midnight and with some breaks, we had all our fishing material lent together at the lakeside very early in the morning (I think, it was around 6:30 am). ^^

Wow, it was soooo cold, you can't imagine!
It should be around -6 degrees, but feels like -20. ^^

Fortunately, we all were wearing thick and warm clothes (I really recommend skying clothes for this kind of winter adventure) and rubber boots could be lent there (or just wearing snowboard boots, like Naoto-san did). ^^

And I had Kairo (small heating pillows) for my feet and hands! They are really cheap and you can get them almost in every supermarket and conbini in the winter. ^^ Really recommend that! ^^

As Hiro-san was the only one who went to ice fishing before a few years ago, he was a great teacher and perfectly knows, what we have to do! ^^

So first, you have to get the hole in the ice...with this useful tool, it isn't a problem (for man with power ^^).

Then just put the ice out of the whole with such a cute sieve! ^^

Next get your place clear. Get you a nice small chair (you can lent them there or bring one with you - thank you, Hiro-san!) and build up your tent. You can rent a tent for one or two persons or bring your own.

These tents are really great. ^^

Especially, when it starts snowing like that! :D

We had a really great fishing base camp! ^^

Tadaaa, this were the bait. Looking yummy, right :D

So "just" put the bait on the hooks.
It takes some time for me, because first, I put my finger in the hook, then one of my gloves, too. ^^

So: is the hole in the ice, the worms on the right place (not on the ground or sticking on my gloves :D), you put your fishing line in the water. On the end of the line, there's a little weight, so that you will feel and see it on the line, when you've reached the ground.

So we started to get our many many fish together! :D

Look at this cute fishing rod...it's very small and thin, hihi. But as the fish, we want to fish, are very small, too, that's totally fitting! ^^ They are called wakasagi (Hypomesus nipponensis). ^^ The fishing rod had 5 hooks, so that you could get the fish easily.

The wakasagi are swimming around 10 cm over the lake ground.

So you just have to move your fishing rod a few times a little bit up and down and wait around 5 seconds.
Normally, a fish will bite your worm, you'll feel this little movement and get your rod out of the water with yummy fish.
NORMALLY :D

Here you can see some of the good work! :D

The fishing record of the day before we went fishing was around 140 wakasagi, one person has catched! ^^

Our record (7 persons) was
....13 fish...
together.

Marius and me have catched....NOTHING. ^^

I don't know why! ^^
Maybe the person the day before catched to much fish! ^^

But everyone was proud of the catch and in the restaurant near the lake (where you can borrow all the nice fishing materials) we get nice Tempura from our wakasagi.

You eat them with salt. It was so yummy! ^^

But it wasn't enough unfortunately. ^^ So I eat some Butadon. Love it! Udon was sold well there, too...but unfortunately I was so busy with eating, that I forgot to take pictures! :D

After we were finished with fishing, we drive to a nearby onsen.

The others told me, that it was really nice there...I couldn't go in...had a little tattoo problem unfortunately. ^^

Not so bad, I could sleep a little bit and watching then Marius, who went in an Onsen for the first time, coming out with a red head. Was hot, I guess :D

But the Onsen was really nice with an outside pool, too. The temperatures were around 40 degrees. ^^ Here's a picture from inside the onsen. ^^

Then, we were driving back to lovely Tokyo, where no single snowflake is hiding!
Wow, I was sleeping like a stone in the car. ^^

It was a great day and I'll never forget this experience of going ice fishing.
That was really wow! ^^
I think, that was an unique experience for me and I'm so happy, that my lovely colleagues take me with them! ^^
Thanks, you're great! :)

If you have the chance, cause staying in wintertime here in Japan, I recommend to go ice fishing. ^^
That would be a great experience you'll never forget! :)

(And if you don't have the space for skying clothes in your luggage, don't worry...it may look funny, like mine..really 80s :D ... but you can get such warm clothes really - and I mean REALLY - cheap second hand, like I did. There's a great store between Ueno and Akihabara not far away from our Hostel. ^^)

Have much fun! ^^

Sakura Hostel Asakusa

Address: 2-24-2 Asakusa Taito-ku, Tokyo

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