Happy Halloween!

We had a Halloween party again this year. Takuma and Yukari brought these fabulous pumpkins!





The costumes were very exciting, starting with the bearded lady and Jamie below. We had lots of tasty treats, including Frankenstein's fingers. We also had chicken and dumplings, tamales, smoked salmon dip, cheesecake, chocolate peanut butter tofu pie, pound cake, and homemade Okinawan donuts!



Maika and Seira had a lot of fun with the Halloween stickers they got. Most of them ended up on Seira's bottom or somewhere in the apartment.



Instead of pin the tail on the donkey, we played pin the glasses on Takuma. Dr. Jamie was having fun moving Takuma around after the blindfold was placed on the contestant.



We also played the wrap the mummy game, which was very exciting. There were some very well-wrapped mummies.


Costumes started evolving, operations were being done, and we started to bob for apples. Yukari was the smart one, who realized that we forgot to remove the stems of the apples and didn't even get wet bobbing for her apple.



Things got interesting after this, ending with a pyramid in the kitchen.

Belgians, Markets, and Mary Poppins

We had some friends from Belgium visit Okinawa this weekend. We met Kenneth and Leen at a conference in Nagasaki last January. They brought us tasty "o miyage" (souvenirs) of dried noodles and chocolate!



On Monday morning we went to Noren market, a traditional overnight Okinawan market. We left university at 4 am, and toured the market until it closed at 6 am. We saw a lot of interesting things, like this dried katsuo (bonito) that looks like driftwood. This is often shredded to make bonito flakes that are used on okonomiaki and in soups, among other dishes.



The market was full of fruits and vegetables, with some fish stalls and other various items.




We had breakfast at a little restaurant inside the market. The owner and chef told us that she is over 70 years old, but she looked much younger! We ate goya chanpuru, miso soup, and rice. It was all delicious! The seven of us barely fit into the restaurant, below are Masaru, Megumi, Carey, Leen, and Kenneth.



Below, Nate is posing with the giant Shisa at the market.



When we got home, we barely made it in the door of our apartment when the little girl next door came running over, grabbed Nate's thumb and pulled him out the door yelling 'bata.' On the way out, she stopped to tell her brother that Nate was there. They apparently wanted Nate to help them catch grasshoppers (Bata is kiddy Japanese for grasshopper.) After catching some grasshoppers they played on their bikes and then played Mary Poppins. Two hours later, a very worn out Nate came back into the apartment.

Mount Sakurajima

Kris went on another research cruise on the R/V Natsushima. This time up north toward Kagoshima. It was much less wavy without an impending typhoon. We arrive in Kagoshima and found volcanic ash covering everything. That black dirt-looking stuff in the photo below is all volcanic ash. Mount Sakurajima is an active volcano, spouting out ash 3-4 times a day.



First things first, once we got all of our gear unloaded, we ate lunch at the sushi train. Oishi des! Then we did a bit of sightseeing. We took the "Cherry Queen" ferry over to Sakurajima, a 1o minute ride.



On Sakurajima, we went to the volcano park, which was full of prehistoric looking plants and volcanic rock. We saw and heard the volcano spouting ash several times. It was really impressive! It sounded a bit like a plane flying overhead, or a long hiss. If you watch the video below and listen carefully, you can hear the volcano. After a few minutes, we actually felt the ash "raining" down on us.



Later we went to dinner at a pork restaurant, hence the pig butts on the wall. Some of us got Shabu shabu, in the photo below. This is thin raw pork slices and vegetables that you cook in boiling water at the table. The rest of us got tonkatsu, fried pork cutlet. It was all delicious!



On the walk home we stopped at the crepe and ice cream machines for some dessert.



On the bus to the airport, I got a photo of the Japanese raccoon crossing sign that we missed the last time we were there. Who knew there were raccoons in Japan?

I'm a going fishing

There is nothing new happening here with us. Kris is working on publications most of the time and Nate is excelling as Shufu-extraordinaire. Nate has gone snorkeling to collect live amphipods for the aquarium several times in the past couple of weeks (he is quite the amphipod collector these days). He has also done a bit of fishing at Devil's Cove, aka Toguchi Beach. Below are some photos of a few of the fish he caught.



From left to right: Scissortail sergeant (Abudefduf sexfaciatus), Blackspot snapper (Lutjanus fulviflamma), and Forktail rabbitfish (Siganus argenteus).

It is hard to believe we've been here over a year, but we have and the annual start of the school year festival was last weekend. We ate some tasty festival food, shot some arrows (notice the arrow in mid-air in the photo), saw lots of funny costumes, and listened to some music. The video below is the Jazz orchestra during a jam session.


Ja mata.