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!