I caught a fish THIS big!

While we were recovering from jet lag in Morgantown, we went to Chris' parents' farm. At the farm, there is a lot to do. They have a fruit orchard, a vegetable garden and two large ponds, where you can fish. The ponds are stocked mainly with bass and bluegill, but there are a few catfish too.

Chris' father, Chris and I arrived early in the morning to go fishing. We were equipped with a container of live worms. Due to the high quality bait and our fishing prowess; everyone met with success!

Chris and his dad each caught some bass and bluegill. But I definitely "won." I caught a huge catfish. As you can see, I'm not lying when I say "I caught a fish THIS big!" He was pretty heavy and took a while to reel in. Yay me!

I got the chance to help in the scaling/gutting process. It's so messy, but I love it. In the end, the catfish (and his laughably small bass/bluegill buddies) were also filleted, breaded, baked and devoured for dinner.

Later in the day, Chris' mother and the golden retrievers (Tanit and Livy) joined in the fun. We harvested peaches, early apples, and two huge baskets of blackberries. So fresh! So delicious! It's enough to make anyone consider renouncing their current job to become a farmer.

Powertools + Fish = Excitement.

Just to prove that Renee isn't lying, here's a video of the jig saw cutting frozen fish at the fish market. I've been trying to get Renee to wake up early for years -- who knew a fish market was the secret?

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

We did not celebrate Thanksgiving in a typical way this year, as it is not a holiday in Japan, we don't have an oven and most of the typical foods are hard to find here. Instead, we went out to eat at a great Italian restaurant near our house and took advantage of the long weekend to make a trip to Tokyo.

It was fun! One of the most interesting things we saw was the Tsukiji Fish Market. This market is a Central Wholesale Market where fishmongers go to auction their bounties. In addition to the auctions, which are not open to the public, there are well over 1000 stands in a hangar where fishermen sell seafood to food sellers and restaurateurs.

We managed to arrive around 7:30am on Saturday while it was still bustling. The hangar is very crowded, with people, produce, fish, fish guts, forklifts, Styrofoam boxes, and hoses which are continually washing down the floors. We enjoyed seeing frozen fish being sawed into chunks with power tools, eels being sliced into fillets, shellfish being shucked, and squid being displayed in bins of their own ink. Fascinating and well worth waking up early!

But, the best result from our weekend trip is that we now have lots of ideas of what we might want to see when we visit Tokyo again soon with our friends!