The opening day for Kin-ayu fishing season in Aomori is July 1th every year.

Hands-on Kin-ayu fishing experience in Akaishi River is available on Thursdays or Sundays between July 24th - August 31st.  Three of my colleagues and I had enjoyed the experience last Thursday while our rest of the colleagues in the office were jealous about it (haha).   

Akaishi River

Fishing tackle can be rent such as nets, belts and….wait, are these wading shoes? Even me, as Japanese, thought the shoes looked very…interesting.

No we didn’t rent them from Ninja Turtles (They must live in NYC, at least not in Ajigasawa).  Seriously, these wading shoes with felt soles were nice for safe travel in rocky streams.

The fishing rods were 6-meter long, and the instructor told us that experts use 9-meter long…wow.

Our instructor Mr. Saito did everything for us, putting a live bait on a hook, take the stuck hook off  the rocks, taking off the hook from my catch, preparing BBQ and everything else. The kind fishing instructor is very dependable for beginners like us.   

The scenery reminded me of the movie “A River Runs Through It”.

 Kin-ayu are very territorial, and each fish tries to keep the territory of about 10 to 20 square meters. They attack any other fish that go into their territory. The trick is making use of their nature, and uses other kin-ayu as a bait and let kin-ayu attack the bait. 

The tip of fishing with a live Kin-ayu bait is let the bait swim as natual as possible. Beginngers tend to pull the live bait, and if you can see the nose of your bait above the water like this, it’s no good and sensitive fish will never be deceived.

Holding the long fishing rod still and standing still in the stream for hours all by yourself was like some kind of training or meditation. Fising is never fun while not getting a single bite. I thought about the issues and problems of my life, what I should eat for dinner, why Japanese girls tend to treat foreign guys like stars, and remembered about the 3-year-old American boy who was having difficulty saying “s” sound, and when I asked him to say “SNAKE” he said “NAKE”…cute. When I’ve run out of things to think about, I got a bite!   

FINALLY……my first catch!!! Cowabunga! (Mind you, I’m not Ninja Turtle.) It took me more than 3 hours to experience this exciting moment.  

Freshly caught Kin-ayu BBQ can be enjoyed by the river (you can also take your catch home with you ). Did you know grilled corn with soy sauce taste soooo good?

I said “Itadakimasu”. Itadakimasu is the Japanese set phrase said before eating, showing appreciation for people who cooked food, caught, raised ingredients as well as for foods giving us their lives. Catching fish by yourself and eating in the middle of nature was a great experience to think about the greatness of nature, and you are part of nature.      

On the way back home, we swung by the house of the most famous dog in Aomori - ”Wasao” is the movie star dog well known as the “ugly but cute” dog in Ajigasawa Town. 

Hands-on Fishing Experience in Akaishi River

Period and Time : Thursdays or Sundays between July 24 to August 31 / 1pm – 5pm

Fee: 4,000 yen(rental fishing tackle, fishing fee included)

Advanced reservations required 

TEL: 0173-72-2111 (Industry Promotion Dept. Ajigasawa Town Office) *people capable of understanding English may not be available

This studio ”HOO” is a rare glass studio in the world, equipped with glass melting furnace using wind electricity.

Can you guess what these colorful glass objects are? They all become seals by engraving the bottom surface. You can pick out your favorite one. I was indecisive and took 10 minutes to decide my seal….

 I could finally pick this out… a bird-shaped one! Don’t you think this is already cute enogh as an ornament?

 After tracing the outline of the bottom of the seal on the paper, you can draw whatever you want as far as drawing within the outline.
This is me deeply absorbed in my work and didn’t know my colleague was taking a picture of me.

The instructor scanned my design into the computer, and reversed the design(because it is a seal) and made a sticker with my design. It was so quick and I couldn’t help being impressed with the computer technology which makes everything so easy.

After attaching the sticker at the bottom of your workpiece, you have to cut out the sticker of the area need to be engraved. Since the sticker has a cut along the line of your design, it would not be too difficult even for little kids.

We moved to the another room equipped with the “Sand Blaster”, the device carving glass with fine sands.

You can turn the blast on and off by using a foot pedal. You have to hold the workpiece tight and put it under the sand blasting nozzle. I wondered how the thin sticker could prevent the glass from abrasion. But it was working pretty well.
It took me about 10 minutes to complete engraving.

Ta-dah! “夕子” is my name Yuko in Kanji, with my Chinese zodiac sign “boar” on top.  

My colleague made the seal of Ikubee – the mascot of Aomori destination campaign( held between April – July in 2011).

I could see the other visitors’ great works in the seal work collection book. 

 The gallery & shop in the building displays the distinctive art glasses. I loved the glass tumblers putting on bikini panties, but 8,400yen/pc is not quite affordable to me…too bad.

I heard that a family from outside of Aomori stayed in WeSpa Tsubakiyama became a big fan of this place, and started to come back every summer to enjoy making new glass arts in this studio. It will be a good gift or a souvenir to yourself for the memory of your trip to Fukaura Town/Aomori. Of course various hands-on glass activities including glass-blowing and jewels are available.

Why don’t you visit WeSpa Tsubakiyama to make a masterpiece this summer? 

Shirakami Glass Studio “HOO”

226-1 Nabeishi, Henashi, Fukaura-machi
TEL: 0173-75-2261
Hands-on Glass Seal Fee：　2,310 yen / piece
Open Hours：9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Closed: Tsuesdays (November – March) Open 365 days (April – October)　　

Those who are coming to enjoy the festival, hope this helps. Those who are not coming this year, please read and prepare to come next year!