This thread is for you @Lucky Pete. As you say, summer is over. Not a lot of color yet in Hokkaido, at least not down low. Autumn is also salmon season so having been on the Shiretoko Peninsula in eastern Hokkaido for many years in autumn, and unable to fish due to work, Covid-19 has freed up my schedule. Caught my first ever salmon yesterday, and it was a beast. These are Chum salmon and Japan, surprisingly, is on of the world's biggest producers of commercial salmon. Runa River, full of spawning salmon, near Rausu, Shiretoko Peninsula. Fishing with a few of my close mates, mouth of Onnebetsu River, near Shari town. A beast of a salmon. Would have gone 8-10 kgs.
In my experience, in many (or some?) regions, spawning salmon fishing in rivers require you a license, if the license is not required when fishing in the sea.
Thanks! I LOVE autumn so this will be a great thread. I had no idea about the salmon fishery, that fish is a cracker!
In eastern Hokkaido, all rivers are closed to fishing during salmon season. There's one exception, the Churui River near Shibetsu. You must have a license for this river, fish take is limited and only single barbless hooks can be used. There is also designated bait only section and a fly/lure section. Licenses are also limited so no crowds. Although definitely no crowds on the Churui this year as due to Covid, the river is closed for this season.
Have you ever seen bears in downtowns?. It seems Ezo Higuma (Hokkaido brown bears) recently often appears in downtowns of Hokkaido. This was filmed in Sapporo.
Local wisdom here is that bear numbers have been increasing over the years. Plenty of sightings in and around towns are reported. There are signs along most roads indicating when a bear was last seen in those locations. Someone saw a bear cross the road 500 meters from our house near the traffic light, a few weeks ago, according to one of those bear sighting signs. That doesn't include the bears that aren't seen and aren't reported. I used to be in the habit of after dinner walks. I don't do that here. Not worth the risk.
This is at the approach to a mountain pass l sometimes visit. Would anyone please translate? Much appreciated.
Interesting that they use katakana like that, rather than something like クマに気をつけろ (Watch out for bears)
Only occasionally do you see the word for bear in katakana in Hokkaido so that sign is a bit unusual as you say (I'm guessing @expatgm 's sign is in Hokkaido?). Normally in our area they use "Kanji" for bear and a slightly different phrase from your's a above. (熊出会う注意) Essentially it translates to = "Bears can suddenly appear. Take care".
These are the kind of signs there are around Myoko. They tend to use katakana rather than kanji for bear. Not sure why. Maybe for kids?
As you may know, Katakana are mainly used for borrowed words. If they are originally Japanese words, usually Hiragana or Kanji are used. However, there are some exceptions. As academic words, all animals and plants are written in Katakana. For example, morning glory is 朝顔 (朝 = morning, 顔 = face), but as an academic word, it's written アサガオ (It is Katakana). Last weekend, I was seeding Komatsuna. It's usually written 小松菜. 菜 means vegetable. 小松 comes from 小松 (= Komatsu) river because the vegetable is native to Komatsu river in Tokyo. So, it's usually written 小松菜, however, as an academic word, it's written コマツナ. Visit this link. It's a Japanese wikipedia article about Komatsuna. As you can see, the title コマツナ is written in Katakana. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/コマツナ This is Komatsuna seeds. You see コマツナ (Katakana) and 小松菜 (Kanji), but not Hiragana. For the same reason, if you go to a zoo, you'll often see Katakana. うま (Hiragana) is horse, but you'll see ウマ (Katakana) or 馬 (Kanji), not うま(Hiragana). Plants and animals are sometimes written in Katakana even outside academic scenes even though they are originally Japanese words and there are Kanjis for them. For the same reason, イノシシ (Katakana) is used, not いのしし (Hiragana) / 猪 (Kanji). いのしし - イノシシ - 猪 = (wild) boar. For the same reason, all are written in Katakana.
Early autumn riding near Rokugo a few days ago, with the Tokachi range in the background (from the south) and fishing today along the Sorachi River not far from Tomamu. No fish but beautiful day on the river with autumn colors just starting to pop.
Speaking of bears .... I was bushwalking with my sons yesterday and somehow the conversation turned to bears. Mr 11 stated the he’d hate to bump into a grizzly bear. I then reminded him that other countries have bears too, including Japan (we’ve been twice). Mr 11 paused for a moment before saying, “I’d kind of expect Japanese bears to be really polite and well mannered”.
I hope this brightens up your day. It certainly brightened mine. Salmon fishing on the Shiretoko World Heritage area, Hokkaido with sunrise over Russia! (Kunashiri and Etorofu islands, also known in the west as the Kuriles).
Autumn is the best season for Aji too (Aji = horse mackerel). I love fishing, cooking and eating Aji. Midnight - early morning is the best for fishing Aji, so leave home at 3:00am, start fishing at 3:30am, fishing while seeing the very beautiful sunrise over the Pacific Ocean is what I love too The fish is Aji.
Some gold and some white. Fresh snow falls up above Sonkyo Gorge, central Hokkaido. Snowed a few times up high over the past week but has mostly been cloudy. This was the first clear day since it snowed.
You must be getting pretty excited Telenomore. Down here no snow yet but koyo kicking in at resort level and the last few days its felt like November weather.
Yes, going through Sonkyo yesterday started to give me that skiing itch but..fishing till the salmon run is over, hopefully by then we'll have some goods in the Tokachi's.
Sunset over the Kitamihorobetsu River mouth, Sea of Ohokst, northeast Hokkaido. Looks like the salmon spawning run is drawing to a close. No fish this trip. Winter not far away as most of the trees around Lake Akan and other colder places have lost their color (leaves that is) and have morphed into more of a winter forest look.
I'll make this my last post on this thread. Looking likely we will see snow at town level next week. Tokachi late this afternoon and the last of the salmon.
Telenomore thanks for continuing to post such great pics. Im not getting much of a chance to enjoy Koyo this year as busy with a reno project although the mountain views from the project are nice, so its great to come home and see your awesome pics.
