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.