Kobe Marathon 2011

It's too bad again. I've just received email notice of ex drawing of Kobe Marathon 2011. Now, I'm wondering which race I should run this fall.

Lake Biwa

I make it a rule to go to Lake Biwa at least one time during the rainy season every year. Today, I left my house at 00:40 and headed for a northern part of the lake. The quality of water was a little muddy and the water level was high, so it was very difficult for me to find good weedy areas. However, I managed to catch a couple of nice bass with topwater lures.

BF=7/11

Left the nest

Last week, the birds (both the parents and at least three hatchlings) left the nest in our garden. It was 22 days since we found the nest, and 11 days since the eggs were hatched. We now miss them, but are hoping to see them next year as well.

Nice bass, good fight

We are in the middle of rainy season. Raindrops make the flowers of hydrangea in our garden much more beautiful.
I got up at 03:00 AM and went fishing. I hoped that fine rain could activate fish, but in reality fish were very slow maybe because of heavy rain we had a couple of days ago. The water was muddy, and I had hard time to get a strike from fish. I changed my lures and their colors very often, but nothing had worked. By chance I looked at a near-shore area, I noticed a subtle ripple between submerged trees. Then, I took some time and distance off from there and long-cast a Pico Plunker (wood lure) just at the point. I gave it two dog-walking actions, and then a nice bass grabbed it in her mouth. I could see all the little details of this scene, and it was the real thrill of topwater fishing! She was a good fighter and it took a while until she got near to the water surface, but I could successfully catch her.

After I caught this fish, it started to rain hard from time to time. I found some small flowers fallen on the water surface. They were beautiful and smelled good.

BF=6/10

Nest of White Eye bird

A pair of small White Eye birds built a nest on a dogwood tree in the garden of our house. Our daughters get up a little earlier than usual every morning and make it a rule to observe and take some pictures of them. Now, they're sitting in the eggs in relays (one goes out while the other sits on the eggs). Almost 10 days have passed since we found them, so we're hoping to see some hatchlings soon.

One-day trip

I went to Shikoku today to attend a meeting. It was cloudy by bad luck, but I decided to take a camera (Olympus E-P2 and Voigtlander Super Wide-Heliar 15mm F4.5) with me.

Getting on a long escalator, I climbed up to a bridge beam, where a bus stop for Shikoku and other places is.Green plants were laid at each bench for passengers.When I arrived at my destination, I found the same plant there. I like going out during this season, the season of fresh greenery.

Went far, but

I left my house at 00:30 and headed east passing through a couple of prefectures. I went by a famous tower in Osaka, Tsutenkaku. It (the original one) was modeled after the Eiffel Tower in Paris. And I got to beautiful places to enjoy fishing with good guys.But fish were TOO slow, and I finally got skunked for the third times in a row. Raindrops cheered green leaves, but diminished the activity of bass???

BF=5/9

Got skunked

I exchanged lines and went fishing, but got skunked for the second time in a row.

BF=5/8