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.
Too cool.
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