Yoron, Okino-erabu, and Tokunoshima

Last week we accompanied Masaru on his monthly sampling trip to three islands north of Okinawa. Megumi also joined us for part of the trip. We took the ferry, where you can lie down in rooms like the one below or get beer from the vending machines to pass the time. It took two hours to get to each island not including coming into and out of port. We watched many flying fish from the deck as well.



The first island was Yoron. Here is a view of one of the beaches. We stayed in a hostel type hotel, with the boys in one room and girls in the other. Some of the dives were really great, but of course, the pictures don't do them justice. Below is Nate, amphipod collector-in-training and a view of the reef with Megumi and Nate in the distance. Unfortunately we did not get a picture of the two 80 something ladies fishing at the port in Yoron. They drove their scooters with wagons behind them to hold all of their gear. They already had a few good size parrotfish in the cooler. Masaru and Megumi could not understand their island language, but it turned out that they also spoke Japanese.



The next stop was Okino-erabu, with a typhoon southwest of us, making big waves and preventing us from diving on the southwest side of the island, where Masaru's collecting site is. We spent the first evening with the owner of the hotel and his buddy who can make Shochu glasses out of a beer can using a lighter. Nate is determined to master this trick! We drank beer and shochu (a type of rice wine that is best fresh...not aged like typical wine) all night and learned a lot about Japanese and island culture. Japanese people typically eat all animals (except insects) and all parts of those animals....see below!



The last stop was Tokunoshima, where we met the bread man, an over-friendly hotel owner who makes bread and gives it to his guests. The diving was great here, but thanks to the full moon, so were the currents! We fought the current swimming out to the reef wall at one sight for almost 1 hour before we started our dive. It was well worth it though. We got some great looking rubble and hopefully tons of amphipods! The boys were pretty tired out after this dive!



Here are a couple of videos of the ferry coming into port. It was pretty impressive to watch.
They throw the line and pull it in all by hand!

Happy Meals

We've been exploring some more. We went snorkeling at Motobu, a beach without any concrete! It was beautiful, but we didn't find any amphipods. We did see this eel, check out the picture...he blends in pretty well.


After a long morning of snorkeling, we were both pretty hungry and anxious to get some lunch. We pulled into a nice looking restaurant at Motobu port and went in. Our confidence was hurt after looking at the menu with four pictures on it (and only about five additional items without pictures). The meals were fairly expensive and as we were deciding how rude it would be to leave the waitress brought us water. We were stuck. After about 15 minutes of deciding what to get, we pointed at the pictures we wanted and the waiter was desperately trying to communicate with us. However, we are the ignorant gaijin that couldn't understand and settled on our first choices.

Our meals arrived about 15 minutes later. The waitress placed a plastic crab-shaped plate with a "hamburga", weiner, fried shrimp, and a jello cup (picture a jello shot) in front of Kris, along with miso soup in a kiddy cup. She had ordered the children's meal. The waitress set it down in complete seriousness, complete with child-sized fork and spoon. Nate did not notice any of this. Once Kris told him, he couldn't stop laughing, which was made worse by the customer walking by our table and laughing out loud at Kris with a kiddy meal.

Nate shared his sashimi sarada (sushi salad) with Kris, but it didn't make up for the small meal she had ordered. In hindsight, we should have realized what was happening. The kiddy meal was much less expensive than the other meals (although the picture made it look huge!) and the waiter was trying to tell us that they had pork cutlet and soba noodles that were not on the menu. Sigh. The worst part is that the waiter must have felt so terrible that he could not communicate with me, even though I was clearly the ignorant one in the situation. Everyday is a learning experience. Nate nearly threw up from laughing so hard the next 30 minutes until we got to a gas station to get a snack to make up for the kiddy meal. If only we had taken a picture! (I must say that the kiddy weiner was the best one I've had on Okinawa yet!)

Alas, the long awaited picture of the "Morning Weiner." We also stopped into a pet store, which was just like a pet store in the states. One odd thing was the grooming section. All of the dogs (the biggest one fit onto half of a fold up card table) were standing completely still while being prodded, cut, combed, and washed. Not one of them looked unhappy. In fact, most seemed to be smiling, like this one.


And for the grand finally...we found a sushi bar with a conveyor belt! When you walk in about 10 people yell out "Sumimassen," "Konichiwa," or "Onegeishemas." Reminiscent of the Waffle House, but with much better food. The video below sums up the experience. You can order from the menu, or just pick things off of the conveyor belt, and you have a hot water spout right at the table for free tea refills. Different color plates designate prices, and when you are finished a waitress comes over and scans each plate that you've stacked up and gives you a piece of plastic that you bring to the register. The piece of plastic is placed on a pad at the register and tells the cashier how much money you owe. Shrimp, egg, eel, salmon, whitefish, fish eggs, seaweed, and sea urchin are some of the common things put on rice to eat as sushi. They even had weiners!

Signs...

We have found some interesting signs here on Okinawa. Notice the second one is for a store that imports American type things, including used clothing that is super expensive! If you can't read it, it says "The wind from America for you."


We have also learned a little bit about Japanese politics. This is a sign posting everyone running for city office. We don't know if they are all running for the same position or several different ones, but the campaigning consists of ladies dressed up and driving around in vans with microphones repeating the candidates names over and over and saying "Arigatou gozaimasu" (Thank you very much). All of this is amplified via the loudspeakers on top of the vans they are driving (picture the Asian men in the movie "Better of Dead"). When we gawk at them they sometimes say things in English! A lot of people love to say whatever three words they know in English to us. See the video below.

Today we went and collected some good looking coral rubble (for amphipods, of course!) and then went to Ishikawa People's Park for a hike. We were pleased to find trails that were only partially concrete and had some great views (we were on top of a mountain) and some cool butterflies, birds, and lots of spiders! No habu were spotted, but we're sure they're there! Here are a few shots from today. We heard and saw (sort of) some really loud, big birds too, but we couldn't see them clearly through the trees, so we have no idea what they were.

Our favorite Isakaya

Some of you have heard us mention our favorite isakaya, mostly because it is within walking distance and has 200 yen beers. The first time we went we were nervous because outside it looks very plain, but when we opened the door and it was dark and playing American techno music, we weren't sure exactly what we were getting into. It turned out that it was a modern isakaya and completely safe.

Isakaya: An izakaya (居酒屋) is a type of Japanese drinking establishment which also serves food to accompany the drinks.

We've taken some pictures and a video of it and posted them here. You may not be able to get the full idea of what it is like in the pictures, but the video does a pretty good job. Notice the loud American rap music in the background. We ordered a pizza (based on the picture, of course) and were surprised to find that it had something like "Easy Cheese" on top of it! It also had potatoes and some kind of meat. It kind of tasted like a loaded baked potato, but pretty good nonetheless.


Oh and as a side note: Sorry ladies...this chocolate snack is just for men!

The Churaumi Aquarium

We visited the Churaumi Aquarium on Okinawa this week, who boasts the second largest tank in the world. We've added some pictures below. It was pretty impressive, lots of cool stuff there. Below you'll see garden eels; an incredibly painfully stinging jellyfish (these guys are all over in the summer months); the dolphin pool that the public can walk right up to (notice how close we are to the pool); the big tank; and two of the three whale sharks in the big tank. It was neat to see them, but most of the tanks seemed too small for the animals that were in them.


Below is a video of the whale sharks feeding. Unfortunately I missed all of the excitement when they started eating. It was something like witnessing a grand slam at Wrigley Field, but with much higher pitched voices than in America!