KAPPA FISHING in Tono, Iwate Prefecture Japan. (Winter Fishing in Japan)

I woke up at 5am and wrote in my book and had a coffee as Jives slept. At 6am I headed down to the onsen for the opening, hoping to get it to myself. As I arrived a young boy and his mom were heading down to the onsen as well. It was nice to only have a few people in the bath, as one more lady arrived. I spent about 30 minutes in the water and then dried off and headed back to the room, grabbing 2 coffees in a can to bring back to the room for Jives and I. We had our coffees together and got ready to head out on a walking adventure day in the Tono area. We left the room at about 8:30 am and went to reception to get our shoe locker keys. The nice man offered to get us a cab but we expressed that we were going to go walking. We set off down the icy snowy road. The first part of the walk was very sloped, and then we walked across the open fields. It was pretty chilly, about -13 Celsius to start, but warmed up as the day went by. We came across a group of school kids running as their teacher cheered them on. We then found a kappa statue in the field and stopped for a photo-op. Kappa are mischievous little creatures that lurk in water and enjoy cucumbers. You can fish for kappa by placing a cucumber on a fishing pole. Kappa look sort of like turtles with small shells and little beaks. The kappas have little water holes on top of their heads that need to remain filled with water.
Next we headed to the Kappa fishing hole. We walked along the snowy pathway, along a stream, arriving at the kappa fishing hole. There were more kappa statues and a tiny shrine with lots of kappa characters in it, clearly belonging to a kappa loving man who had passed away. There were fishing rods you could borrow to fish for kappa, but it was BYOC, bring your own cucumber. Just past the fishing spot there was a shrine and a little bridge, it was a very picturesque area.
Next we visited the shrine right next to the kappa fishing hole, Jokenji. The shrine had two kappa right at the altar. Apparently there was a fire at this shrine many years ago and two kappa helped to put it out with water from their heads, afterward the kappa became stone komainu (stone lions), the only stone lions in Japan with water cups on their heads. The shrine was covered in snow, it was really beautiful.
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