Good to hear everything arrived safely.

As Donald mentioned, I had been interested in loop rods for some time before I learned of tenkara, and actually first came across tenkara on the internet while searching for information on the horsehair lines that were used on loop rods. The "traditional" tenkara line was horsehair as well, which is how tenkara popped up in the search.

On the one hand, it is fascinating that very similar styles of fishing should be found in the UK (loop rods and soft hackles), in Italy (pesca mosca Valsesiana and Alpine Spiders - see Donald's website for more info on the Italian flies) and in Japan (tenkara). On the other hand, the long rod and light line is such an effective tool that it isn't at all surprising that it was developed in various locations around the world.

I hope we'll have good discussions of the other methods in addition to tenkara. For me the Japanese origin of tenkara is not the draw nearly as much as the method itself. It's just that the most highly developed equipment is Japanese and because of the technological advances in rod materials, even lighter lines could be used - which allowed anglers to develop techniques that took best advantage of the equipments' capabilities. I really think the techniques drove advances in equipment, which allowed the development of different techniques, which led to more advances in equipment, etc.