Japanese Hunting Study Guide

To the left I have inserted a page from the Japanese Hunting Study Manual. One of the tests for getting the license is game identification. A proctor will hold a stack of about 100 cards, each with a picture of a varmint. He'll pull up a card and you have to name the animal and proclaim weather or not this particular beast deserves to be harvested. This seams rather easy by looking at the picture to the left. Any fool can remember that bears and deer are game animals. This test however, becomes far more tricky when attempting to distinguish between the Dusky Thrush (game animal) and the Russet Sparrow (prison time).

Another interesting set of questions on one of the written tests involves track identification. The challenge here is that all tracks are shown the same size. It's amazing how similar a grizzly and chipmunk track appear when shown at the same magnification.

There is also a distance quiz. "How far away is that neon convenience store sign?" the examiner would ask.

Getting the license was an awesome and enjoyable experience. There are several more requirements and tests that have to be passed not mentioned above. For instance, you actually have to go to the skeet range and pass a skill test with a shotgun. The Japanese make sure that you are serious about the desire to hunt, and I am. Hopefully I won't miss another season, and I'll be able to post plenty of hunting pics on the ole blog here.