As I settle in my hotel room for the night, I turn the TV on to relax after a long day of what others would perceive as work: introducing about 100 new people to tenkara. After a minute of surfing channels, I come across the movie “The River Why”. While I was familiar with the title and I have meant to read the book, I have never read it, and must confess I don’t know the story line is (the movie is playing as I write this post, and if the post has grammatical errors, well, forgive my distraction).

According to the program description the movie had been on for approximately an hour. And, I just so happen to turn it on right as this is happening: Gus, the main character of the movie, is showing someone a new trick. It turns out, the person he was showing the trick to caught a fish, and he was also a very famous writer. And, thus, the writer decides he wants to interview Gus, and he writes a book stating Gus is a young guy who may be the best angler he’s met in decades. As the book comes out, Gus’ business of selling tackle and flies that he ties, booms.

Why do I tell you this story? Because the coincidence, if I can call it that, was too much to ignore. For the last two days I have been fishing with the world-renowned writer, Dave Hughes! And, yes, I was teaching a few new tricks to the famous writer and angler. But, no: none of us caught a large Chinook, was forced to jump in the water, and fight a super large fish into the night as a result. So, I’m sure this post will be infinitely less entertaining than the movie.

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Last May I got to spend 2 months in the Japanese mountain village of Maze, on the shores of the Mazegawa (Maze River). I went exclusively to learn everything I could about tenkara. But, along the way I definitely enjoyed some treats. One of the highlights was visiting the ryokan called Maruhachi. Actually, I had visited Maruhachi once before, in 2010, and really felt like I was in heaven at that place. Last year I was actually able to enjoy it 3 times! Once with my good friend Chikara and his wife Rebecca, once with a large group of tenkara anglers after a weekend clinic, and once with the local fishing cooperative officials.

Rebecca is a freelance writer, and she just completed a story about the place for The Guardian. The story features some of my photographs. It is a very well written article that captures the essence of the place very well, even if it doesn’t mention tenkara.  If you are interested in learning more about Japan, and a place that could still be considered a heavenly secret, take a look at the writeup. My mouth is now watering remembering the 11-course meal of sansai (mountain vegetables), iwana sashimi and shioyaki amago (sea-salt on the skin and on a skewer).