A little bit more about Tenkara and Japanese rivers,
Left rivers = steep (the length is short but the altitudes of the sources of rivers are high). All Joganji River, Fuji River, Kiso River, Yoshino River, Shinano River, Mogami River, and Tone River are Japanese rivers. So, Japanese rivers are basically very steep. It's because Japanese mountains are very close to the sea. Most Japanese cities are sandwiched by mountains and the sea, which means, the source of rivers are close to cities (the big population areas).
In Japanese, 上流 / Joryu = Upstream (上 = up, 流 = stream) and 下流 / Karyu = Downstream (下 = down). I love upstream fishing, especially 源流 / Genryu fishing. 源 / Gen = source, so Genryu is river source / headwater. Japanese populated cities are close to river sources / headwaters and Tenkara Fishing is ideal for fishing around river sources.
源流 (river source) areas are shallow, thin and narrow like the image below, so you don't need a big casting distance at all. So, you don't need a fishing reel. If I simplify it as much as possible, Tenkara fishing is a fly fishing without a reel (actually, it's not that simple, though).
They are Tenkara fishing girls. As you can see, no reels on their fishing rods. The water is shallow, so you can wade across 源流 (river source area) easily and you don't need a big casting distance at all. My longest Tenkara rod is about 4m and the fishing line is about 5m. So it's like catching trouts (such as Yamame, Iwana and Amago) which are within 10m from me (4m of the rod + 5m of the line + my arm). The trouts (salmons) are hiding under rocks, so we cast toward rocks where we think fishes are hiding.
Why Tenkara? Learn why people have been talking about this simple Japanese method of fly-fishing
How to Cast with Tenkara - learning tenkara casting
The pics below are Nakatsugawa Valley, one of my Tenkara fishing sites very near Gran Deco ski resort in Aizu region.
I like this woman's Youtube channel. She often uploads her Tenkara fishing video. In the videos, she cooks the fish she catches next to the river, and drink!. It's kind of my ideal mountain life. Plus, I feel the sceneries of the sites which are ideal for Tenkara fishing are very beautiful and relaxing.
Because of this thread, I came to notice a lot of Tenkara videos are uploaded by American people not by Australian. So, you might be able to become the founder / an influential person of Tenkara fishing culture / community in Australia if you start Tenkara fishing there in Australia
Daiwa's Tenkara rod 燕翔. 燕 = swallow. 翔 = fly, so Flying Swallow, sounds cool
I was not sure if I should post this in this thread or "Fishing in Japan" thread. It's a bit ski resort related news, so I'll write it here. Ski resort villages have been offering a lot different activities in green season in recent years. There is Ontake ski resort in Nagano Pref and it's famous for its high altitude (the base area is 1680m and top lift station is 2240m). The ski resort have newly started offering Genryu Fishing tour around the ski resort. As I wrote in Fishing in Japan thread, 源流 = Genryu, 源 = Gen = source. 流 = Ryu = stream. So, Genryu is river source / headwater. As I mentioned in the Fishing thread many times, I love beach / surf fishing and Genryu fishing (=upper mountain stream fishing) veeeeeeeeery much. I hope anglers will help Japanese ski resort regions!. The images below are from the website of the fishing tour.
Left rivers = steep (the length is short but the altitudes of the sources of rivers are high). All Joganji River, Fuji River, Kiso River, Yoshino River, Shinano River, Mogami River, and Tone River are Japanese rivers. So, Japanese rivers are basically very steep. It's because Japanese mountains are very close to the sea. Most Japanese cities are sandwiched by mountains and the sea, which means, the source of rivers are close to cities (the big population areas).
Oh we'd definitely been on the vending machine Asahi's and were wondering the streets of Sapporo, or maybe Tokyo. Wife and I were claw machine fanatics when we were young.
