Amanohashidate and Fishing Experience in Tango
I will start first with the fishing expedition in Tango since it was the highlight of the trip and the part which I enjoyed most. We went to Amanohashidate and Tango last weekend on a trip organized by the Kyoto Prefectural Center for us foreigners. 39 of us participated in this trip. This trip is held annually, so for those of you who missed out this year, try applying next year. It is worth the 5000¥ fee which is inclusive of everything.
Fishing boats
I just realised that I do not know the name of the fishing company that helped organized this fishing expedition. Those of you who can read Japanese, please refer to this website: http://www.pref.kyoto.jp/suiji
We woke up around 3.30 am on Sunday morning and arrived at the fishing company's dock at around 4.30 am. The sun was already out but it was a cloudy gloomy day. Fortunately, it did not rain and the sea was calm, so not many people were seasick. No one threw up this time.
Here we are at the dock and tht is Kok Shin posing and on his left is Puay and behind Kok Shin on the right is Stepan
We departed for the fishing spots where the set nets were fixed.
A view from our smaller boat
We passed by many fishing boats on our way
If I am not wrong (please correct me if I am), this company uses the set net fishing technique whereby a series of nets of different size holes are set up and *fixed* in certain areas about a few kilometers from the shore.
The fixed nets spot
The nets are spread in water 40meters deep. The basic construction of the nets consists of the fenced net which leads the fishes in and encloses them, the main net where the fishes are scooped out and a drop net to store excess fishes. I think there are about four nets used by this company but the basic principle is the same, whereby the first net is to lead the fishes in and the main net is the trap.
One of the fishermen
We arrived at the nets where we started (or rather the fishermen started) to pull up the main net.
The net puller machinery (haha, I don't know the exact name!)
Now you understand what I mean. This is used to pull up the main net. We all helped by pulling the side of the net in between these *machinery*
There were four boats helping to pull the net up. Our boat, carrying the passengers, another boat where the fishes will be stored and two smaller boats at the sides.
The smaller fishing boat which will be used by the fishermen to help pull the net from the sides
Scooping up the fishes from the main net into the storage boat
Releasing the fishes into the ice storage in the boat
This company specializes in smaller fishes since they fish just a few kilometers from the shore like anchovies (カタクチイワシ), horse mackerel (マーアジ), yellowtail (ぶり), spanish mackerel (サワラ), squid (イカ), dolphin fish, not dolphins (シイラ), mackerel (さば) and others.
Catch of the day. Caught the second huge tuna fish. In the background, you can see the blood from the first tuna fish that they caught earlier
So it was a big thing when they caught not one, but two tuna fishes. It was HUGE. I am a city girl so the sight and size of this fish was a surprise for me. It is a deep sea fish, so they rarely venture into waters at this depth. Each one of those tuna fishes will fetch up to 1 000 000¥! Hmmm, should have stolen the fish. But then it could not fit into my bag!
You could not see the tuna fish but it took five men to hold it down. It was jumping and struggling...very powerful
I realised that you could not actually see the size of the tuna fish in the previous photos. So I dug around and found this one. A bit blur though
Slaughtering of the tuna fish
They immediately killed the tuna fish and took out the organs. I guessed it was to preserve the freshness of the fish.
A sea turtle got caught in the nets. They were to let it go further off the shore after they finished their work.
The fishermen also caught two HUGE mambo (sun fish) fishes which they would not sell because it was not a popular fish. So the fishermen will take it home. Apparently the meat is delicious, according to them and a Japanese friend of mine. I have not tried it yet.
The second mambo fish stuck in the net. See the huge fins? It is such a strange looking fish.
The seagulls taking advantage of the nets to catch their meals
A seagull taking flight
After we finished scooping up all the fishes, the nets were let down again and the boats departed to the second fishing spot of the day. Seagulls were all over us, trying to catch their meal either from the storage boat or from the nets.
Here we are, off to the second fishing spot
Also, on our way to the second spot, the fishermen made sashimi (raw fish meat) for us. Now, how fresh can you get! Scoop the fish from the sea and straight into your mouth. The ika or squid was delicious - it had a sweet taste to it. We also ate the flying fish which was delicious and some others which I had forgotten.
Making *ultra-fresh* sashimi
Then after we finished scooping out the fishes from the second spot which did not yield any tuna or sun fishes, we went back to the dock for breakfast which consisted of fish miso soup, grilled fish and squid and rice cakes. Then we had a seminar on fishing, which by that time, most of us were so damn tired and were nodding off. After that we departed for Ine Hirata to see the funaya or boat houses. I ran out of memory at this point, so I could not take many pictures. Please go to Eddie's site (eddie puay or pillman) or Chris's site (furuiman or minatsu) to see more photos if they had posted it up at their sites.
A view of the funaya
A squid fishing boat at the funaya. The lights are a lure to catch the squids
Then we went back home to Kyoto City.....all exhausted but happy.
AMANOHASHIDATE
Amanohashidate which means Bridge to Heaven is ranked as one of the three best sights in Japan. The weather was gloomy and rainy while we were there. The sun was pretty much hidden by the rain clouds. Which was a pity cause I think I would have appreciated the site more if it had been sunny. It is a sandbar about 3.6 km long
Hey, what happened to the bridge? Revolving bridge at the entrance of Amanohashidate
This is a revolving bridge, constructed to allow the ships to pass through.
A cafe beside the bay near the revolving bridge.
We walked along Amanohashidate, the sandbar which has around 8000 pine trees apparently. It took one hour to finish the walk.
The sandy beaches along Amanohashidate
One of the 8000 pine trees
One of the volunteers guiding us that day was this Japanese man whose name I had forgotten. He brought along his stone whistles which was very unique and produced really nice sounds.
Playing the stone whistle
The stone whistle
When we reached the end of Amanohashidate, we arrived at Chion-ji temple where we were supposed to sense a feeling of peace and serenity.
One of the small shrines located in the temple grounds. This one was garishly orange when compared to the rest of the temple which was made of dark brown wood.
Passed by this brightly coloured flower on our way to the cable car station which will take us to Kasamatsu Park which is on a hill.
The cable chairs
It was pretty fun riding up to the park with these cable chairs. They weren't very high up, in fact some of the people's legs were touching the ground below at some points. No safety belts though, but you won't hurt yourself too badly if you fall down. Beside these cable chairs, there is the cable train.
Kok Shin is my model for mata-nozoki. That is Amanohashidate in the background
This is how you are suppose to appreciate Amanohashidate. With this pose, Mata-nozoki or Looking between your legs, you will see that the sandbar looks like a bridge towards heaven or suspended from heaven.
The view, upside down. Does it look like a bridge suspended from heaven?
After taking the chairs up, we walked down back towards to the cable station at the foot of the hill. We were going to see primary school children perform a dance for us in their school hall before heading for our youth hostel and BBQ dinner.
Passed by these fugu fishes which were made into laterns. Eyes were fake...scary looking
Dried fishes for sale
The schoolboys getting ready to perform for us
There was one very cute little girl, she was the youngest of the lot. She caught the hearts of the guys there. I will leave it to Kok Shin or Puay to put up pictures of her. I had one but her face was turned away. After the performance in which we participated in but danced very badly, we headed to our youth hostel for the BBQ dinner and to rest for the night. The BBQ was alright but they didn't have enough meat to grill though. After that, all of us just head straight to bed to get an early rest for the fishing trip the next morning.
Fishing boats
I just realised that I do not know the name of the fishing company that helped organized this fishing expedition. Those of you who can read Japanese, please refer to this website: http://www.pref.kyoto.jp/suiji
We woke up around 3.30 am on Sunday morning and arrived at the fishing company's dock at around 4.30 am. The sun was already out but it was a cloudy gloomy day. Fortunately, it did not rain and the sea was calm, so not many people were seasick. No one threw up this time.
Here we are at the dock and tht is Kok Shin posing and on his left is Puay and behind Kok Shin on the right is Stepan
We departed for the fishing spots where the set nets were fixed.
A view from our smaller boat
We passed by many fishing boats on our way
If I am not wrong (please correct me if I am), this company uses the set net fishing technique whereby a series of nets of different size holes are set up and *fixed* in certain areas about a few kilometers from the shore.
The fixed nets spot
The nets are spread in water 40meters deep. The basic construction of the nets consists of the fenced net which leads the fishes in and encloses them, the main net where the fishes are scooped out and a drop net to store excess fishes. I think there are about four nets used by this company but the basic principle is the same, whereby the first net is to lead the fishes in and the main net is the trap.
One of the fishermen
We arrived at the nets where we started (or rather the fishermen started) to pull up the main net.
The net puller machinery (haha, I don't know the exact name!)
Now you understand what I mean. This is used to pull up the main net. We all helped by pulling the side of the net in between these *machinery*
There were four boats helping to pull the net up. Our boat, carrying the passengers, another boat where the fishes will be stored and two smaller boats at the sides.
The smaller fishing boat which will be used by the fishermen to help pull the net from the sides
Scooping up the fishes from the main net into the storage boat
Releasing the fishes into the ice storage in the boat
This company specializes in smaller fishes since they fish just a few kilometers from the shore like anchovies (カタクチイワシ), horse mackerel (マーアジ), yellowtail (ぶり), spanish mackerel (サワラ), squid (イカ), dolphin fish, not dolphins (シイラ), mackerel (さば) and others.
Catch of the day. Caught the second huge tuna fish. In the background, you can see the blood from the first tuna fish that they caught earlier
So it was a big thing when they caught not one, but two tuna fishes. It was HUGE. I am a city girl so the sight and size of this fish was a surprise for me. It is a deep sea fish, so they rarely venture into waters at this depth. Each one of those tuna fishes will fetch up to 1 000 000¥! Hmmm, should have stolen the fish. But then it could not fit into my bag!
You could not see the tuna fish but it took five men to hold it down. It was jumping and struggling...very powerful
I realised that you could not actually see the size of the tuna fish in the previous photos. So I dug around and found this one. A bit blur though
Slaughtering of the tuna fish
They immediately killed the tuna fish and took out the organs. I guessed it was to preserve the freshness of the fish.
A sea turtle got caught in the nets. They were to let it go further off the shore after they finished their work.
The fishermen also caught two HUGE mambo (sun fish) fishes which they would not sell because it was not a popular fish. So the fishermen will take it home. Apparently the meat is delicious, according to them and a Japanese friend of mine. I have not tried it yet.
The second mambo fish stuck in the net. See the huge fins? It is such a strange looking fish.
The seagulls taking advantage of the nets to catch their meals
A seagull taking flight
After we finished scooping up all the fishes, the nets were let down again and the boats departed to the second fishing spot of the day. Seagulls were all over us, trying to catch their meal either from the storage boat or from the nets.
Here we are, off to the second fishing spot
Also, on our way to the second spot, the fishermen made sashimi (raw fish meat) for us. Now, how fresh can you get! Scoop the fish from the sea and straight into your mouth. The ika or squid was delicious - it had a sweet taste to it. We also ate the flying fish which was delicious and some others which I had forgotten.
Making *ultra-fresh* sashimi
Then after we finished scooping out the fishes from the second spot which did not yield any tuna or sun fishes, we went back to the dock for breakfast which consisted of fish miso soup, grilled fish and squid and rice cakes. Then we had a seminar on fishing, which by that time, most of us were so damn tired and were nodding off. After that we departed for Ine Hirata to see the funaya or boat houses. I ran out of memory at this point, so I could not take many pictures. Please go to Eddie's site (eddie puay or pillman) or Chris's site (furuiman or minatsu) to see more photos if they had posted it up at their sites.
A view of the funaya
A squid fishing boat at the funaya. The lights are a lure to catch the squids
Then we went back home to Kyoto City.....all exhausted but happy.
AMANOHASHIDATE
Amanohashidate which means Bridge to Heaven is ranked as one of the three best sights in Japan. The weather was gloomy and rainy while we were there. The sun was pretty much hidden by the rain clouds. Which was a pity cause I think I would have appreciated the site more if it had been sunny. It is a sandbar about 3.6 km long
Hey, what happened to the bridge? Revolving bridge at the entrance of Amanohashidate
This is a revolving bridge, constructed to allow the ships to pass through.
A cafe beside the bay near the revolving bridge.
We walked along Amanohashidate, the sandbar which has around 8000 pine trees apparently. It took one hour to finish the walk.
The sandy beaches along Amanohashidate
One of the 8000 pine trees
One of the volunteers guiding us that day was this Japanese man whose name I had forgotten. He brought along his stone whistles which was very unique and produced really nice sounds.
Playing the stone whistle
The stone whistle
When we reached the end of Amanohashidate, we arrived at Chion-ji temple where we were supposed to sense a feeling of peace and serenity.
One of the small shrines located in the temple grounds. This one was garishly orange when compared to the rest of the temple which was made of dark brown wood.
Passed by this brightly coloured flower on our way to the cable car station which will take us to Kasamatsu Park which is on a hill.
The cable chairs
It was pretty fun riding up to the park with these cable chairs. They weren't very high up, in fact some of the people's legs were touching the ground below at some points. No safety belts though, but you won't hurt yourself too badly if you fall down. Beside these cable chairs, there is the cable train.
Kok Shin is my model for mata-nozoki. That is Amanohashidate in the background
This is how you are suppose to appreciate Amanohashidate. With this pose, Mata-nozoki or Looking between your legs, you will see that the sandbar looks like a bridge towards heaven or suspended from heaven.
The view, upside down. Does it look like a bridge suspended from heaven?
After taking the chairs up, we walked down back towards to the cable station at the foot of the hill. We were going to see primary school children perform a dance for us in their school hall before heading for our youth hostel and BBQ dinner.
Passed by these fugu fishes which were made into laterns. Eyes were fake...scary looking
Dried fishes for sale
The schoolboys getting ready to perform for us
There was one very cute little girl, she was the youngest of the lot. She caught the hearts of the guys there. I will leave it to Kok Shin or Puay to put up pictures of her. I had one but her face was turned away. After the performance in which we participated in but danced very badly, we headed to our youth hostel for the BBQ dinner and to rest for the night. The BBQ was alright but they didn't have enough meat to grill though. After that, all of us just head straight to bed to get an early rest for the fishing trip the next morning.
posted by AL LEE at 10:10 PM
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