Down to the tropics

We just returned from our collecting trip to the tropical Yaeyama Islands. We went to Ishigaki-jima and Iriomote-jima, the southernmost part of Japan which is very close to Taiwan.



The weather was beautiful, mostly sunny and warm! On Ishigaki, we did some diving with Captain Yarabu-san, a local fisherman, got many amphipods and met many great people. After a long day on the water, we went for "Yakiniku" which means "grilled meat." To our surprise we ate the best beef we have ever had. Ishigaki-jima is said to have the best beef in the world...even some of the world famous Kobe beef comes from Ishigaki! We believe it. Never have we tasted such delicious beef. We also had the best hamburgers of our life on Ishigaki, shown below is the Avocado wasabi burger. Oishi des ne!



Upon arrival at the Yakiniku restaurant, we encountered a local couple leaving the restaurant after a few beers. The man in the photo below was very excited about Nate's chops and said something like " OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHH, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, Touch, OK?" as his smiling wife looked on. This is a slightly greater reception to Nate and his chops than usual. Yes. People really do stop and stare and take pictures of him. The legend lives on.



After three days on Ishigaki-jima, we took the ferry to Iriomote-jima, an island with a population of 2000 people. Only about half of this 289 km2, (189 miles squared) is accessable by road. The rest is mountainous jungle and home to the Iriomote-yamaneko (Prionailurus iriomotensis), an endangered wild cat.




Obuchi-san (post-doc in MISE lab) and Masaru (Masters student in MISE lab) met us on Iriomote and Naruse-sensei took us out diving with the research station boat. Nate collected his first amphipods directly from their sponge host underwater using our specialized amphipod collecting sucking devices! We had some great dives and saw lots of cool things, including the giant eel below!



Sadly, we had to leave the warm sunny islands to come back to Okinawa, although it is nearly as warm and sunny here now too! Below is a photo of the moon above a traditional Japanese roof before we left Iriomote this morning.

A few photos

Not too much new here on Okinawa. Things are still going well, lots of diving, keeping busy. We just thought we would share a few photos from the past couple of weeks. This is a salp we saw diving at Zanpa and the view where we enter the water at Zanpa. We got the amphipods we were after on this dive!



We saw this yellow and purple nudibranch (sea slug) diving at Mizugama in the caves. Nate also tried to get us a lobster dinner, but alas we were ill equipped and couldn't get him out of his lair. On the way home, we saw this biker pair...that is one cool pup!



And lastly, just another shot of the new tunicates we have in the lab tank....still no live amphipods, they got away again! We learned about a live webcam that takes pictures of the waves every 15 minutes, so we posed in front of the camera for General Obuchi to see us. He excitedly shared the photo with the entire lab!



We are off to Ishigaki and Iriomote islands for a collecting trip. We'll post some photos when we get back!

Nate..the man, the myth, the legend

We grew our first tomatoes on Okinawa! See the giant specimens below.



Last night we had a beginning of the school year and 38th birthday party for Sensei Reimer at the new Reimer house. Several lab members were there with lots of good food and drink. Nate is helping Takuma with his Tako Yaki and Masaru and Jamie are thinking about opening up the Absente that Masaru brought.



After long debate about what to bring, we decided against a bucket of fried chicken and made some tuna salad with a recipe that sister Anne and brother-in-law Nick were kind enough to share with us. It was delicious and everyone loved it! Obuchi-san didn't let us down when he showed up with a bucket of KFC on his head.



It has been a tradition for the lab to make lab t-shirts, with the logo "MISE" on them. MISE stands for Molecular Invertebrate Systematics and Ecology. Whenever the lab members get together, conversation turns to making "Nate t-shirts." Jamie is usually particularly excited about it and so inspired Takuma to make one as a surprise gift to Jamie. Takuma designed the shirts and the plan to surprise Jamie. So, the new lab mascot is Nate! Check out the closeup of Nate's body, he is apparently wearing a Superman type outfit, with "Nate" instead of and "S" and he is holding a beer. No one is really sure what the arrow is for.



The plan was for everyone to wear the Nate t-shirts under a shirt and on cue of giving Jamie his present, we would all reveal our shirts. However, this plan was foiled when Maika (his three year old daughter) accidentally showed him the shirt she had under her dress. So, everyone else then showed off our shirts and gave Jamie his gift. He was very excited about them!



Nate is a legend.