First taste of our trip to Japan

I’m digesting all that has been happening in Japan, but before writing much about it (or before I find much time to write about the trip and my learnings from Ishigaki sensei), I’d like to share my pictures with you:

http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf

Tenkara USA's tweets of the week

• For now, tenkara nets are traditionally made of “gaia” trees, oh, man. Really sweet!!! Know what a “gaia” tree is? …guess. #
• Plus stay tuned for: snake-skin flies, tenkara nets (MUCH more to it than I thought); tenkara techniques, pure tenkara, and more tenkara! #
• No time for full blog yet, but, having an AMAZING time in Gujo area, Japan. Really, like a dream. Caught plenty of Amago and Iwana so far. #
• @issaysa Thanks for the follow. We love 釣り吉三平, have you seen our blog on that? http://www.tenkarausa.com/blog/?p=751 in reply to issaysa #
• Another tenkara anglers gives up his western rod, if you still like a reel : http://www.tenkarausa.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=618 #
• Excellent article on the Italian cousin of tenkara, pesca alla valsesiana, http://bit.ly/90YtYu @tenkarabum #
• Leaving to Japan in a few hours! Tenkara fishing with Dr. Ishigaki and Fujioka san, exploring and meeting many tenkara anglers…WOW! Cool. #

Tenkara Comics from tenkara father

So, as we have grown quite a bit and many people may not have had a chance to read our older posts, I thought it’d be nice to “recycle” some of them. This entry was originally posted on October 22nd, 2009:

A couple of days ago a package arrived at my mailbox. As I opened it, I was quite overwhelmed, wowed!, astounded, ecstatic, well you get the picture. A very good tenkara no oto-san, Dr. Ishigaki had sent me a one-of-a-kind find: two volumes of a comic book devoted to tenkara! Wow! is almost all I can say. Thank you Dr. Ishigaki! This is a rare treasure that I will cherish forever.

These books are beautifully illustrated, and with very good content. Take a look at the pictures below.

http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf
By Kondansya Comics

If it was not clear that fishing is a vital part of Japanese culture and life by now, then I think the existence of these books will clear any doubt. The two comic books are part of a larger series of comics devoted to fishing. The comics are called “Tsuri kichi Sanpei (Sanpei, a boy crazy about fishing). Volumes 6 and 7 are entirely devoted to tenkara, and are now part of our tenkara museum. These comics were published some 30 years ago. Each volume has about 200 pages of the most beautiful illustrations. Not only are these comics artful and entertaining, but they also have several tips and real fishing knowledge: fly-tying, rod making, native fish, casting and fishing techniques and other knowledge of the world of tenkara.

This series of comics has also been adopted by schools in the education of their young; talking about a way to get kids engaged in reading, and then really into the sport, heh?

Tenkara USA's tweets of the week

• Happy #flyfishingsimplicity weekend! #
• Actually 3 outings, check out the jamboree by http://www.paflyfish.com. Dave will have some tenkara rods. #
• @fbrglssmnfsto I won’t be going. Leaving to Japan next weekend. It will be fun though. in reply to fbrglssmnfsto #
• #noreel: there is just no good reason to let a fish under 14″ take line from a reel. Try tenkara! Catch more fish and let them go. #
• Two tenkara outings coming up:
  New England tomorrow: http://tinyurl.com/2bbeawx
  California in a couple of weeks: http://tinyurl.com/2fn3pue #
• There is at least one tenkara rod in every single state! Including Alaska, Hawaii, and even Puerto Rico. #
• Fewer fly patterns, presented properly is #flyfishingsimplicity #

Tenkara Forum – Tenkara is tenkara

I have been delighted by the level of discussions and activity in our tenkara forum. It’s one of the web’s friendliest forums, with a lot of experiences being told, and much knowledge being gained. But at the same time I have been VERY surprised by the activity. You see, I never really used forums before, I keep things simple and mostly to myself. And, I thought, well, people will post a question here and there, and maybe some experiences, but, since tenkara is really that simple, we’ll stop talking pretty soon. Obviously it hasn’t gone that way, which makes me happy. But, it just goes to show that we can take something so simple as a rod, line and fly and generate Total posts 3773 | Total topics 567 WOW!

I’m also thankful for honest opinions of our users. Today I saw a post by one of our members about how we can take something so simple and perhaps make it what it is not. As he says, “Tenkara is tenkara. Everything else… is just something else…”. Discussions in our forum will continue pushing some boundaries, and, yes, they will stretch tenkara in different ways – sometimes pushing it away from tenkara per se, sometimes pushing it away from simplicity. But, overall, I think these go in a full circle and bring tenkara right back to its simple roots. And, we’ll strive to keep it pure, and most importantly, simple and personal.

#FlyFishingSimplicity

This last week we started a twitter tag (a word following the # sign, which links to entries with that same tag) that embodies our sentiment about fly fishing: #flyfishingsimplicity . For example, for us “no reel is #flyfishingsimplicity”, “not using a vest is #flyfishingsimplicity”, etc. We got a couple of nice responses on twitter and one very nice one today by self-proclaimed “Tenkara Bum“, Chris Stewart by email:

You get to a small stretch of stream and find that another angler has gotten there just before you. The fishable stretch is so small that to leapfrog him would just be rude. So, you resign yourself to fish behind him all day, and resolve to concentrate on presentation. When you stop for lunch he walks back down the trail and you offer a friendly “Any luck?” He says “I caught two small browns down below. You?” #flyfishingsimplicity allows you to say, “Yeah, a couple” instead of your actual fourteen.

What is your idea of #flyfishingsimplicity?

Tenkara USA's tweets of the week

• No vest is #flyfishingsimplicity is #tenkara #
• Fact: Tenkara USA is the largest company specialized in #tenkara in the world, incl. Japan. Yes, our products are good. #
• #noreel is our idea of #flyfishingsimplicity. What is yours? #
• #flyfishingsimplicity is all we want. #
• @jasondailey no dealers in PA right now, but take advantage of our return policy, 60-days for a full refund, plus keep a set of flies in reply to jasondailey #
• Great, kind of funny, video of tenkara down under: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxbnWnmRDtA #
• RT @bryanhansel: “Tenkara is a serious game changer in American fly fishing.” – thanks Bryan. #
• @GoFishnfeed @troutscout Ah, the joy of tenkara fly-fishing, nice video and great pictures: http://www.gofishn.com/search/q-tenkara-rod #

Tenkara USA's tweets of the week

• Dr. Shigeru Nakano apparently used tenkara in his research efforts to catch fish he studied…yes, it’s that effective. #
• Anyone interested in stream ecology and entomology should know about Dr. Shigeru Nakano: http://bit.ly/cLC8we #tenkara #
• @FlyFishReporter: “what if you don’t need a reel and would rather save a few hundred bucks on the fly rod?” http://bit.ly/9lh31L – TENKARA #
• @fishykid and @tenkarausa both mentioned on newest issue of Fly Rod and Reel! Well done guys, your efforts are getting noticed. #