Tenkara Japanese style fly fishing/Dapping

I've done a little fishing pretty much all my life and been lucky enough to fish in some pretty amazing places across the world, but I've always fished with someone who knows what their doing, so when I recently went to get a new rod and reel I was completely lost.

Where we moved recently (mountains in Japan) we're lucky enough to have good rivers, lakes and aren't too far from the sea. I love fly fishing and envisaged I'd be spending most of my time fishing for trout, so thought I'd get a trout rod and reel and a fly set up... Wrong!

After visiting the local fishing shop the helpful owner put me right, and hooked me up with a Tenkara rod. I'd never heard of this style of fishing, but he assured me that local people catch more with Tenkara than any other method. He said that as the rivers are in the mountains you can't cast for fly fishing as you don't have the space, I'd overlooked this. After a bit of a chat I was completely sold on Tenkara.

I wondered if any of you guys had tried Tenkara, and if not, thought I'd give you a heads up. It's kind of like dapping (which is the first thing my old man said when I told him), but you don't use floss and aren't reliant on the wind. Is a very simple light set up which makes it great for any kind of travelling or hunting. The set up basically consists of a telescopic rod, line and fly's or live bait. It sounds very unconventional not using a reel, and I guess it is, but this method dates back thousands of years in Japan and if you look at dapping the same can be said for pretty much the rest of the world, in fact early dapping has more in common with Tenkara.

The guy in the shop said how easy it was, I wasn't entirely sure, but after taking it for a spin on the local lake last night I can vouch for it's ease. It makes it very easy to bob the fly on the water in a very natural motion (I think another fly even had a look to try and mate with my Tenkara fly). Whats great about it is how you can get the fish literally jumping out of the water after your fly, and when you've got one hooked it's a very direct feel, without the reel.

As you can see I'm getting pretty obsessed with Tenkara, so would be interested on any of your thoughts, and I'm sure if you give it a go you'll be as hooked as I am.