Lake Biwa

After catching the train from Osaka to Nara we headed to Kyoto and changed onto the Biwako line where we finally reached Kusatsu. Kusatsu is a lovely city with many old traditional houses in narrow streets. This was a very welcome change from the hussle and bussle of Osaka.

My hangover was wearing off but Sarahs flu was kicking in bigtime. We decided to have an early night so Sarah hit the hay whilst i went for a quiet walk around town. It was interesting to see all the little restaurants and bars amongst these traditional streets. Many of them too small to fit a car on.

I was lucky enough to find a japanese supermarket still open so in I went.

It was amazing to see all the bits and pieces for sale, the array of sauces, cooking ingredients and fresh produce was amazing. This store was very different from those we have in Australia.

The following morning i woke early to meet with Naoya (our fishing guide). This was a long time coming as we had spoken online for so long. Sarah had decided to have a rest day so Naoya and I set off for the Lake Marina (biggest marina on lake Biwa). Upon arrival i was amazed at the number of high end bass boats lined up. we packed up the boat and before long we had a forklift towing us to the ramp for the launch. We set off for the northern part of the lake at high speed. Naoya tells me the boat goes around 80km an hour, this feels really fast when your so close to the water, certainly different to my 14ft tinny.

Our first plan was to sight cast to spawning bass.

I couldnt believe my eyes at the bass we could see swimming around the beaches on the lake but our efforts were short lived as the fish were extremely cautious on this day.

Naoya explained that a lot of rain had fallen in the catchment over the previous few days and fishing was bound to be hard.

we headed back to the southern end of the lake and it wasnt long before i had caught my first largemouth bass!!! This has been a lifelong dream of mine so to finally get it was amazing.

Fishing was very tough and we didnt manage any more before lunch.

We headed back to the marina and jumped in the car.

Next stop was lunch at a famous Moriyama sushi restaurant.

We had a huge spread of plates including Tuna, pork, chicken, baby eels, and miso soup with fish frames (all so good!!). A few green teas later and we were off to check out one of Naoya's favourite tackle shops. This place seemed like heaven to me, the place was packed to the roof with high end Japanese tackle!! I grabbed a few lures, magazines and after a quick chat to the bass pro staff we were back on our way to the marina.

After lunch the weather had warmed up and the fishing was a lot better. We managed another half a dozen fish including an absolute cracker on a 12" curly worm. Although I was so happy to finally be catching the fish id dreamed of for so long it was very hard and so different to the bass fishing we have at home. These fish dont act or feed like our bass at all so the whole trip served as a big learning curve. I just cant wait to get back so i can practice my new learned skills.

We called it a day at 5.00pm and headed off for another tackle store before getting back to the hotel. Once we were back we picked up Sarah and the decision was made to try some shiga Okonomiyaki. Naoya took us to a favourite restaurant in Moriyama where we had Okonomiyaki, Yakisoba and Doroyaki along with a few cold beers. After dinner we had a look in a popular japanese discount store selling everything from $1 toys to $5000 luis vuitton handbags, certainly an interesting experience seeing all the bits and pieces they pack into these stores.

we got back to the hotel quite late so we tucked into bed and had a good nights sleep as we had another big day on the water tomorrow.