Wednesday, October 14, 2009-

If you’ve been keeping track you’ll know that because of midterm testing, a typhoon, a weekend, and a holiday I had not had a real class since last Tuesday.

Well add another word to that list: Fishery Trip! That’s right, my very non-Mrs. Frizzle fishery instructor, Yoshida-Sensei, ushered my awesome homeroom class onto the fish-mobile this morning around 8:30. We drove for almost two hours, making our way south and east towards the coast. I was so excited to see Ibaraki-ken again (yay Yosh) and especially to see the ocean. Today’s fieldtrip was my first time to the coast while in Japan.

We drove along the beach for a little while as we came into Miko, Ibaraki Prefecture and the salt air was dry and sharp rolling off the of the ocean. Our first stop was actually for the necessities: bathroom, 7-Eleven, and, of course, to buy bait. You see today’s trip was technically a “River Survey.”

What this meant for me is that when we unloaded it was in the only inland estuary in the Kanto region. There I spent the day fishing! Haha you read correct, my job for the river survey was to catch different fish and we kept track of the different species. The vast majority of everything we caught was under 5 inches and barely registered as a tap on the line. My friend Seiya's fish on the right can't be bigger than my little finger! More than once did we reel in only to realize we’d actually caught something without realizing it = )

The other students spent the time using little nets and pokers to collect shrimp, krill, minnows, and crabs from the water. The weather was fantastic and we definitely enjoyed the afternoon without class. I just can’t get over my luck of ending up in the fishery program. It’s really something I look forward to each day. As we drove back the weather got worse and my bike ride home provided some bizarre clouds and scenery.

Apparently it had down poured in Nakagawa while we were gone. Yoshida-Sensei once again sent me biking home with a bag of still wriggling fish so for dinner my host mom prepared fresh tempura! What a treat…

A fellow fisherman - I just found his pose pretty humorous

My friend Yuki fishing

You know a road is long when it becomes just a point in the distance

A random patch of sun poking through the solid wall of clouds overhead

My delicious tempura dinner!