Diving...diving...and more diving!

We have been diving a lot lately...it is great! We've seen all kinds of cool things and have seen some really cool dive sites. We are up to 11 species of leucothoid amphipods (and counting)! Pending further analysis, probably at least half are new species! (This is good news for the postdoc.) Here are some pictures from our dive at Manza, where Nate first dove on Okinawa. This was Kris' first time diving here, and it was really cool! The first is a lionfish in action. They are usually spotted hiding in crevices or caves. Then a bunch of squirrell-fish in a cave and in the third picture, Nate above the cave.



In between all of the diving, we went to Maika's Sports Day and a festival at the University. Maika is Jamie's (Reimer-sensei)-just-turned 3-years-old-daughter. Sports day is a huge event in Japan. Kids from each class practice and participate in races, balance beams, jumping through hoops, summersaults, etc. Here are a few pictures. First...Nate had a baby! Not really, he is just holding Seira (Jamie's 6 month old daughter) who loves Nate very much by the way! One of the classes did a traditional Okinawan drum dance dressed in purple. The next picture is of Maika (second from the left in pink shorts) and her group getting reading to jump through hoops like bunny rabbits!


Later that afternoon, we went to a festival at the University. Maybe a start of the school year festival...still not so clear on that Japanese reading. Nate practiced some archery and won a giant cheeto. After much consulting about this next picture (sorry, Moms!), we have decided that this girl was simply selling fried chicken. And here, we though something was definitely lost in translation! (Be sure to enlarge the picture to read her sign.) And of course...one of many English word t-shirts for entertainment.



Back to the diving...here are some shots of diving at the Sunabe Seawall. It is a soft coral garden. The first picture shows some fish and a cuttlefish in the background. And of course...there is Nate collecting a sponge to check for pods.



We dove at Zanpa Cape with Catalina for her very last dive on Okinawa. Catalina is a masters student that just graduated. Nate took a great head-on shot of a cuttlefish!



Off to dive some more....