Sho mo nai!

My kingdom for a pair of hip waders!

The first day of fishing, originally uploaded by irodoramatic burnorama.

Last night as I was driving to judo class I noticed that there were cars parked all along the stretch of prefectural road along the river where no houses are located. A lot of cars. And many of them were SUVs. Moreover, there were people partying (well, sitting eating and drinking and lots of beer cans visible) in various spots between cars. I figured whatever was going on would be gone by the time I got back from judo. How little I knew. Not only were they still there later that night, they were all still there this morning when I was driving to the elementary. Well, the cars were. All the people were in their hip waders in the river below. Having emailed my friend Natsuko the night before asking what was going on, I found the response waiting on my cell when i got to the school. Today is the first day when people are allowed to fish in our town. A ton of town officials and people from all over took today off to fish. Moreover, most stayed up all night so as to secure the spot they wanted.

I guess it was foolish of me to think that this would be limited to the upriver areas near my house and not so far from the fisheries, but such is not the case. Even farther downstream, and on little streams like the one next to the elementary (pictured above) there are people out fishing. The two guys in the picture above have been there all day. Right beside the elementary. Fishing. It makes a lot of the kids want to be fishing.

I remember this season from last year, there will be people in the river in their hip waders for the next two or three weeks.

I'll try to get a nice shot from the river closer to my place if i can.

posted by Fletcher @ 10:53 p.m.