MACAO S.A.R.

Since we had to work yesterday, today Sunday was only off for us.

Our plan was to visit Macao, which was located next to Zhuhai. We used the ferry to Macao. We could see the Macao's building over the inland sea as right pic.









The color of that sea was just muddy. We got to Macao land soon.

City Center was likely busy for preparation of the lunar new year.
This is the Year of the Rat in Chinese astrology.









I didn't know that the Historic Centre of Macao was one of the World Heritage.

This was the Facade of St Paul's Cathedral. It seemed that the rest was destroyed, accidentally, by fire.










According to the Macao guide site;

' On a hill and accessible by an escalator just east of the ruins of the Church of St Paul, Monte Fort was built by the Jesuits between 1617 and 1626 as part of the College of the Mother of God. Barracks and storehouses were designed to allow the fort to survive a two-year siege, but the cannons were fired only once: during the aborted attempt by the Dutch to invade Macau in 1622' .

Talking of 1622, it was that Hidetada was 2nd shogun of Tokugawa shogunate in Japan. I would like to know histrical background also at sightseeing.

Zhuhai(珠海); food

This time, let me introduce some of foods I tasted in Zhuhai.

1. Local dining of our company(Zhuhai Factory)

I used it for breakfast and lunch everyday. There were several menu for each and it varied a little bit everyday. I had to pay attention not to eat too much because of its volume!



One of Morning Menu








One of Lunch Menu

2. Dinner; We had a bunch of options!

Beijing Duck; One called it not Beijing Duck but Zhuhai Duck.

Si Chuan cuisine(四川料理); It was definitely hot though, I counldn't stop eating...

おこげのあんかけ; I couldn't translate it into English, forgive me.








Shanghai cuisine(上海料理); It was a kind of popular cuisine in China for Japanese, because its taste was just modelate, not too hot. I put the eel on the fried rice.

Zhuhai(珠海) part1

I've been to Zhuhai in China as business trip for 10 days .　It was my first visit to China.


It took about 5hours from Narita to Hong Kong airport. Then the train brought me to Ferry Terminal.

After about 80minuites ferry cruise, I got to Zhuhai.









The first night's resutaurant picked by my colleague was famous for 'Xiaolongbao(小籠包)' in Gongbei town. So juicy!















'Haizu' beer sounded a coined word of Zhuhai. Taste itself was light, and it made meals better.

'Gonbei' was just flourishing town. There was full of lots of energy.

Kite-flying

Since we missed the chance to do kite-flying during new year's holidays, we tried it today.

It was definitely her first experience, and she did it!









But she got lazy soon...

We had good time there anyway.

Gerbera

My wife arranged Gerbera in a small pot on the table.

Sometimes the flower gives us something relaxed. The language of this pink Gerbera seems to be 'noble beauty'. I was surprised there were several meanings about Gerbera by its color.

Rearrangement

We rearranged our room today.

These pix, precious memories give us much energy.

We especially like this phrase ' Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.'

4th Birthday Party

I joined my wife's parents' home today.

My father-in-law prepared this special Shochu 'MAOU' for our daughter's birthday. It likely took three years since he ordered it. Can you believe it?

She had great time. Happy birthday!

TENRYU river again

Today, the last day of consecutive holidays, I thought I should return to Numazu in early morning.

But something brought me to the TENRYU river again. I guess I felt something was missing in the yesterday's fishing result.

I used #6 tackle today also, since the long cast was needed at this hole.

I arrived there about 11AM. It was tough condition there today. I got late first small one around 2PM.

2nd one,21inches/54cm, was very good fighter.

Sammy-san helped landing and took this pic for me. The fly was his original killer pattern 'LTM'. It worked well there. Thanks, Sammy-san!

3rd one, 21inches/53cm, was also strong.

I decided this one should be the last one today, and left there around 16:30.

Next year's annual season pass must be needed for me.

*annual license; 4,000yen one day license; 1,500 yen

TENRYU river C&R section

Book-san, my dad's colleague and crazy fisherman, invited me to the TENRYU River Catch and Release section to enjoy fly fishing.

That was the reason why I stayed at my parental home last night.It was my first fly fishing after back to Japan.

As you can see in the right pic, there was a kind of crowded.
It seemed to be the best method to use nymph and indicator there.

Thanks to Book-san's great advise, I got beginner's luck there in the morning.

It was not wild but hatchery fish though, its bigness pleased me a lot(24inches/61cm).

I couldn't catch any additional fish in the afternoon, but had a good time there. Thank you again, Book-san.

Winter Solstice at my parental home

I went to bed about 4AM and woke up at 1:30PM. What a nasty single life...

After some housework, I headed for my parental home in the evening for some reason.

It was Winter Solstice(Toji), the shortest daytime in a year, today. So my mom prepared a hot citron bath and the pumpkin boiled with soy sauce and sugar, as Japanese traditional custom,

We Japanese believe these keep us healthy from long ago.

Single Bell

Since my daughter finished her first semester of her kindergarten, she and my wife went to her parents' house prior to me today.

I likely should enjoy my temporary bachelor's life. I have three consecutive holidays from tomorrow.

Surprise Present

My colleagues gave me a surprise present today. They knew what I liked very well.

I believe these stuff works well not to forget my precious friends.

Last Halloween here in Boise

Her costume this year was 'Little Mouse Chef'' from RATATOUILLE. Since we watched that movie together at the theater in Meridian, she liked it so much.

During dinner preparation, she went to 'trick or treat' with me together.

She looked so happy to get bunch of treats ,except being frightened by scary spider's house.

Wonderful Tonight

We were invited the dinner tonight by one of my best colleagues.

I liked these table and chairs very much. They seemed to be made by the Amish.

This nice Amber was made by my colleague. It was perfect taste for me.

Two thumbs up!! I couldn't stop it...

His secret brew stuff.

This tenderloin was also great! There were lots of learnings for me.

This is cherry liquor also made by him. Actually this cherry was picked by us at Emmet this spring.

We called its taste 'Cough Medicine' though, flavor itself was totally good.

Including food,mood and everything, their hospitality was perfect. And their humor made us happy too much.

We thought we would like to be such an entertainer. Anyway that was definitely Wonderful Tonight!

MONOPOLY

Since my colleague Moto told us how to do that, I've been crazy about MONOPOLY. I liked it!!

So I'm begging them to play often almost everyday... Terrible!

Owyhee with Tommy

Finally Tommy bought his fly tackle by himself. Yeah, it is time to go fishing together again.

I selected the Owyhee River in Oregon to enjoy rise fishing.

Weather was perfect cloudy. We could see some rises here and there.

At first hole, there were good Baetis hatches. Baetis dun pattern should work well though, I missed some take...

Presently the number of rise got decreased and unstable.

Many bugs on surface made me confused. Baetis, Mahogany, Midge... too rich! It was first time to see Mahogany for me.





After we spent much time at first hole, we moved to 2nd hole for the last chance.

Tommy spotted some rises.

Still I was struggling to identify the fly with what fish feeding...

I had short bite to the Griffith's Gnat. Although I missed that take, I got certain confidence.

My first one was 18inches/45cm by midge parachute. This late one gave me a pleasure.

2nd one; 16.5inches/42cm good face.

The last one was 19inches/49cm fattest one in this river.













Anytime I visited this river, there was lots of learning for me.


I hope this healthy river goes on.

Callibaetis and Baetis; Fall Silver Creek

I went to the South Fork of Boise River first today after long long interval though, I was fed up with a bunch of anglers.

So I change the destination to the Silver Creek.

At Sullivan Lake(Slough), I did see some rise and no fishermen there. I found some callibaetis dun were sipped by trout.


I caught first one by #16 dun pattern soon. It was a kind of small one, but good start for me.

It was beautiful day there.

I caught some fish there. The largest one was 15incher, so beautiful.









This dun gave me a luck.

Around four o'clock, rises were stopped.










Then I moved to the junction of Loving Creek as second hole.

I found a few baetis dun there, so I selected its dun pattern without hesitation.

Although the number of rise was not so many, I found some certain ones.
The rising spot was so difficult to drift the dry fly naturally.






Fortunately I had good luck.

It was 16inch/40cm pretty colored one. I was so satisfied with this result.











After that, the rise was faded away, and I ended fishing.

I felt I made a better progress than last year.