Bonenkai and Christmas on Okinawa

The lab had its traditional "Bonenkai" last week. A Bonenkai is the "forget the year party" that is very common in Japan. Basically, it is a time to go out and drink a lot of beer with your coworkers, friends, or some other group you are involved in. It was a lot of fun, almost everyone from the lab was there.

The first picture is of Takuma and Nate with their first beer of the evening...they are happy about it. In the next picture you'll see tequila roulette, corn, edamame, and raw horse meat; just a few of the items we ordered that evening. The horse meat actually tasted really good, just a bit chewy. The tequila roulette is a tray with one teq uila and 3 waters and the next picture shows the participants. Obuchi-san (in the stripes) won! (Or lost, depending on how you look at it.)


Jamie and Mika invited everyone from the lab over for Christmas dinner. Christmas in Japan is typically considered "party time" or "couple time" and New Years is "family time." A few students from the lab and Nate and I went over to Jamie's. We had a great time, and Micah especially like showing off her Christmas presents! Mika made some delicious spring rolls, two chickens (I think Jamie had a hand in one of those), stuffing, mashed potatoes, vegetable stir fry, and some gravy. It was all delicious. Nate and I made Baingan Ka Bharta (Indian Eggplant) and Naan bread, and Sung-Yin and Javier brought a pizza. It was quite a feast! We topped all of that off with some homemade Christmas cookies made by Mika and ourselves. Here are a few pictures from the evening.


Kris' sister, Tricia is coming for a visit...our first visitor. Y'all better get on that. We are excited to spend some time with her and to show her around. We're gonna have ourselves a time!

Hoorah!

It worked! Kris' first PCR reaction on Okinawa (with the help of Jamie and Carey) worked! Now this may not be exciting for most of you, but for those who have witnessed the daily disappointment of PCR in Mississippi, this is amazing! The DNA from 15 of 16 specimens had strong, clear bands. There is hope for Kris and amphipod DNA yet.

In other news, Nate has been working on base, contemplating going to work everyday, but so far still doing it. Kris has been working on paper revisions for soon to be publications and drawing amphipods! She finally got her microscope and drawing tube, so there is plenty of work to be done. Of course, there has been more diving. A few pictures from a dive at Odo, the southern tip of Okinawa are below. You'll see Nate, an amphipod on a sponge (tiny pink speck near the holes in the top of the sponge), and a cool shot of the dive site.



We did a bit of shopping at the Makishi Market in Naha, which is a traditional open market. They had all kinds of crazy seafood for sale. Things many people would never dream of eating! Notice the size of the shrimp and crabs...HUGE! You can buy the fish there and bring it upstairs and they will cook it for you or you can just take it home.


We went to Arin Krin with Sung-Yin and Carey from the lab, which is a garlic restaurant. There is no particular ethnic title for the food they serve there. Everything just has garlic in it. We ordered garlic pizza, tuna sashimi and avocado with garlic cheese sauce, deep fried garlic mashed potatoes, deep fried garlic!, garlic chicken, garlic fried rice, and a few other delicious dishes. I think we'll go back. It was a bit strange, though, because every customer that was there was a gaijin! Apparently not a favorite spot for most Okinawan people.

Adventure!

Kris returned from Moorea with Nate still throwing boxes in a wharehouse on base. We went diving on Nate's two days off. We didn't get any amphipods, but we had lot of fun. The cricket below appeared on the windshield as we left the divesite at Manza. We took advantage of "couples day" and rode the giant ferris wheel in American Village. The next picture is of the view from the ferris wheel.



Below are a couple of pictures Nate took on our dive at "Gorilla Chop" with Carey. We went there because it is one of the few places to dive when the weather is not cooperating. The anemone fish are guarding their anemone and even bit Nate's finger to scare him away! The video at the end of the blog shows how territorial they can be.



To celebrate our third anniversary, which happened to fall on a national holiday (Labor Thanksgiving Day), we took a taxi to Sam's by the Sea, a delicious steak and seafood restaurant. The taxi ride there was awesome! The driver spoke very little English and we spoke very little Japanese, so the next taxi driver in line at the taxi stop came and helped out. Luckily we had a coupon so they could read the Japanese and figured out how to get to the restaurant. A third taxi driver generously gave us two Okinawan oranges for the ride. We got very lost on the way and finally had to stop and ask for directions. We were close to an American base so Nate was able to get directions. The meal and the Awamori-ritas were delicious and the taxi ride home was much less exciting. I told the driver our address in Japanese and when we got close I tried to explain where to go and he said, in English, "Please just show me." Who knew he spoke English the whole time?!

Halloween on Okinawa!

We had our first Halloween party on Okinawa as Hawaiian Elvis and a Hawaiian girl. Our inspiration was that Nate's chops apparently make him look like Elvis to several people in the lab.


We had a lot of fun with American style snacks, including Nate's hot wings, key lime pie, and deviled eggs...all a bit Okinawan style. Nate nearly scared the next door neighbors away trying to give them trick or treat candy, but thanks to Mikah (Reimer-sensei's 3-year old daughter), he was able to share the Halloween spirit. Most people at the party have never celebrated Halloween and were very excited to participate in all of the traditional (and not so traditional) festivities. We had some pumpkins to clean and carve, which Sung-Yin from Taiwan, Bidur from Nepal, and Alok from India were especially excited about. They made some scary jack-o-lanterns! We got a lot of our supplies on the military base because we either couldn't find them in the supermarkets here or they were super expensive. Pumpkins are about $18 US here! So we got some small ones on base for only $2 each.



Next we played pin the tail on the donkey with added obstacles thanks to the Racoon and Pumpkin bowling (with plastic bottles this time).



And of course, we bobbed for apples. It was very entertaining and everyone who tried got an apple!



I think everyone had a great time and especially enjoyed the pumpkin seeds from those pumpkins they carved!

Oku

This weekend, 13 people from the MISE lab went to Oku and stayed in the cabin you see below. It was a bit crowded, but a lot of fun! Everyone slept on futons lined up on the floor.



We got to see some wildlife...although some were not so alive. The Okinawan Rail, locally known as the Kuina is an endangered species endemic to Okinawa. Estimates are that there are less than 200 birds left. They are flightless and below is a picture of a giant con



Next we saw a Habu! The poisonous Okinawan snake was apparently road kill. When alive, this pit viper can jump up to 3 meters so we weren't too upset to find a dead one. If you look closely at the second picture you can see venom still dripping from the fangs!



Everyone took turns cooking meals. Nate and I made blackened fish and spaghetti for dinner Friday night. Carey and Javier made Eggs and bacon, American style for breakfast on Saturday. Megumi and Iuri made sushi and onigiri (sort of sandwiches made with rice instead of bread) for lunch on Saturday. Jamie and a few helpers made burritos for dinner on Saturday. See the pictures below of the Japanese folks eating their burritos with chopsticks! Only in Japan! Yuka, Takuma, and Okuto made spam, sprouts, and eggs for breakfast Sunday. It was all so delicious. Oishii!



We also went on a couple of dives at some really neat places. We got some pods and Nate got some good photos. We went for a snorkel at low tide to find a rare coral. This was an adventure! We repelled down a vertical cliff one at a time in case of rock slides from all of the rain and then had to climb back up the cliff using a rope after the swim. It was worth it!



The waves were very big because of the typhoon that was in the neighborhood. On our first dive it looked pretty good, so we all swam out past the breaking waves and found ourselves with 3 meter (~9 foot) swells! But, we were already out there, so we dove anyhow. We all made it safely back. The video below shows some of the big waves from Cape Hedo...it doesn't do them justice!

The Big City

Kris went to a three day orientation for her Japanese Society for Promoting Science fellowship in Tokyo. Unfortunately, due to the cost of a plane ticket to Tokyo (~$850 US), Nate had to stay in Okinawa. Not to worry, he went diving and hung out with some of our new friends while I was gone.

Tokyo is a huge city and after being there I would say it could be anywhere in the world...just with a lot more Japanese people than, say, Chicago. Once in Tokyo, I took three trains to get to the hotel....see map below, not . Luckily there are a lot of English signs in Tokyo.


At the orientation, I met 29 other JSPS fellows from all over the world and we had a great three days. It was very informative and at times entertaining. We learned how to read and speak some Japanese, about the JSPS program, and about some of the cultural differences between Japan and other countries. My favorite part was when the Japanese professor, Dr. Suto, who studies dark matter and dark energy, gave a presentation. He mentioned the "great American philosopher", Donald Rumsfeld! The best part, was that he understood the irony of his statement! He quoted Rumsfeld's speech, which accurately describes the study of dark matter and energy:
"There are known knowns; there are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns; that is to say, there are things that we now know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns; there are things we do not know we don’t know." It was really awkward to be the only person from the U.S.A. at that moment!

Half of the second day and all of the third day were spent on a Japanese tour bus with our "Professional English speaking Japanese tour guide," as she introduced herself! She is the one with the flag below...too make sure we could find her. We did lose someone for a few minutes along the way, despite our tour guides explicit instructions that the bus will drop us off on the 1st floor and we will go to the 2nd floor and we will meet at the bus on the 2nd floor at 2:10 pm. The man in the snakeskin pants is someone that I just thought deserved to be photographed!



Below is a picture of Tokyo from the observation deck of the Tokyo Tower, seen on the right as we left. It is modeled after the Eiffel Tower in France. The observation deck is 150 meters above ground level. It was pretty neat to see, but made me want to get back to Okinawa!



Many times on this tour we crammed so many people into the elevators that told us "Sorry the elevator is crowded," and so I thought it was worth a picture. One time three people had to get off before the doors would close. When they set the limit to 17 people, I think they meant 17 Japanese people, not Europeans and North Americans. At the Tokyo Tower, there was a man with a dustbuster cleaning out the elevator before each trip to pick up more people.



One of our stops was The National Safety Center, where we learned what to do in case of a fire or earthquake. It was informative, but also entertaining. We had to go into a room, six at a time, and escape a "fire" with smoke and all. If anyone wasn't low enough to the ground an alarm went off and the instructor would yell over the loudspeaker "You're dead!" (But in Japanese). Then we got to experience a 6.0 magnitude earthquake under a kitchen table. The best part was that the rest of the group got to watch as we experienced these situations.

For those who might come visit...please read the instructions below as found in the womens restroom at the Safety Center. The t-shirt is just a great English word t-shirt that I saw.



Then we went to a Shinto shrine...the traditional religion in Japan, worshipping gods of nature, nd a Buddhist temple. The pictures below are of a typical schoolboy that was near the shrine and of the outside of the Buddhist temple.



At the Shinto Shrine, you toss a 5 yen coin into a box, bow once, clap twice, bow twice, say your prayer, and bow again. This will ensure that your prayer is answered. At the Buddhist temple; however, you toss in your 5 yen coin and bow, but don't clap! You can purchase a fortune for 100 yen. If you get a good fortune you keep it. If you get a bad fortune, you fold it and leave it at the temple as seen below. Then you have to go cover your body with the incense smoke to make you more healthy. It was really interesting in a very touristy sort of way. For a significantly higher amount of money you can meet with a Buddhist priest who will listen to your prayers.



Glad to back on Okinawa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!