About 20 years ago after hearing about huge bluefin tuna on the coasts of Florida and Bahamas, I traveled there, and caught a 375 kilogram giant. This news was broadcast on television, but the TV station later received a letter claiming the entire thing was a hoax. The TV station then came to me saying, that if I could show my skills in some kind of tournament, then that would prove it was not a hoax. Due to my hatred toward losing, I jumped at the proposal. The tournament I participated in was the 53rd Hemingway Cup held in June 2003 in Cuba.
The tournament was started by the literary master Ernest Hemingway in 1950. This was an international trolling tournament with history of billfishing, and it was said that no Japanese had ever caught a billfish during this tournament. Once I arrived at the event, I was overwhelmed. From across the world from Miami to Monaco, a variety of luxury trolling ships had all gathered there. There must have been about 70 vessels, each with a four person crew, making the total number of participants at about 300. Everyone else had high-speed vessels, whereas we only had a regular fishing ship, charted locally. We arrived to the migratory spot where the billfish were late.

Also, scoring of the catch was explained at the pre-tournament party: 3 points for bluefin tuna or billfish, 2 points for Spanish mackerel, and 1 point for dolphinfish. When I first heard dolphinfish, I thought they meant dolphin, but it was actually a fish known locally as mahi-mahi and shiira in Japan. I wasn’t aware of this. And while insisting I couldn’t catch a dolphin, I did, in fact, catch a shiira, the dolphinfish. Figuring it would not be worth any points, I let it go, and eventually lost a point.

In addition, though I caught three billfish, I kept one on the boat for TV filming. Since the rules were catch-and-release, this was also not counted. I ended up winning the silver medal, but had I not lost the 4 points, I think I could have won the gold. I only had prepared a fishing line of 500 pounds for a 30 kilogram or so sized fish, but I caught a 130 kilogram fish instead. So I had to be extremely careful with my line or it would have torn. If I pulled too much it could tear, I thought. So I loosened the reel and pulled it again repeatedly, until finally fighting for 2, 3 hours to catch the billfish. Skills I gained during pole-and-line fishing of bluefin tuna have truly helped me.

<<Deepening Relations with Cuban VIPs Through the Tournament>>

At the tournament after party, I held a bluefin tuna Cutting Show at a government facility located in Havana. Later on, I was surprised to know that the then-president Fidel Castro was also at the venue. From what I heard, he was supposedly in disguise due to a risk of assassination, so I was completely unaware of him. However, I did later have the opportunity to meet Castro, and he confirmed that he was at the venue and saw my Tuna Cutting Show.

From this opportunity onwards, I became good friends with president Castro’s son, Mr. Antonio Castro. Mr. Antonio was also vice-president of the Cuban Baseball Federation, and would always come to SUSHIZANMAI when visiting Japan for an international tournament. I was also invited to his wedding ceremony that was held in Japan. Aside from bluefin tuna, Cuba also boasts with a good catch of lobster, so we import those as well. One never really knows which things lead to other, and who one becomes friends with. Mysterious it is.