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.

ROV HyperDolphin

Kris just returned from five days aboard the RV Natushima (RV=Research Vessel) for a research cruise run by JAMSTEC. The ship is home to the ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) Hyperdolphin. It was very cool to see how deep sea research is conducted. Below is the ship as we boarded.



Below is the the ROV Hyperdolphin. This is the view from the front...the basket is where all of the samples go. There are several cameras and lights on it as well. The next photo is the control room for the ROV. It is actually in a container on the top of the ship, where the crew operates the ROV using controls that look like a video game. There are five seats behind these three for the scientists to sit and direct the crew to what they want to collect.



The photo below is the room Kris, Haruka, Erina, and Nanae shared on the cruise. The waves were very big due to an approaching typhoon, so I had trouble sleeping because I was literally rolling around in bed. The next photo is the wetlab, where we processed our samples, also in a container on the deck.



This is one of the crew members operating the arm of the ROV during a dive. Our dive took the ROV down to 500 meters and then back up to 260 meters.



Here you see one of the arms picking up a sea anemone and taking a sediment core.



The hose attached to the arm is a "Slurp gun"...that is a vacuum to suck up samples into a sealed box. Below the arm is picking up a glass sponge and taking a octocoral off of a giant rock in the middle of the sandy slope. The arm reminds me of the tv show "Lost in Space."



After 5 hours of watching the dive we were on deck ready to get the samples. One of the rules of the ship is that you always wear a helmet when out working. Due to the typhoon and large waves, we also had to wear life vests.



Below are the slurp gun box and sample box that we brought up from the dive.



Due to the typhoon, we could not return to port on Okinawa as planned. Instead, we had to transfer to a small boat outside of Ishigaki Port via a rope ladder. It was pretty exiciting in the ~3 meter waves, although we were all wearing helmets and life vests. Safety first!

Below are videos of the launching of the Hyperdolphin and bringing her back in. It is a really impressive operation. It is nice to be back on land again, although the land seems to be rocking as much as the ship was.

Chicken Rush

Not too much to speak of here since Mom and Trish left. We've been snorkeling and diving a bit, and otherwise life as usual. We finally made it to the batting cages that we've wondered about since we moved here. It was Nate's first time batting! I didn't know that is was possible to be 39 years old and have never been to a batting cage!

Nate did great! We chose the slowest pitches to start off, 80 km/h. He did almost as good as Kris did. Next time we'll do the 90 km/h pitches and work our way up to the 125 km/h.



A couple of weeks ago, Nate had a toe infection. Unfortunately we didn't get a photo, but it was pretty gross. It was caused by an ingrown toenail after he stubbed his toe walking through a river. Antibiotics cleared up the infection and he had a wire installed to correct the growth of the nail today. It is totally painless, but has to stay until his nail grows out, probably 2-3 months. Hopefully it will work!



In other news, we spotted this exciting new cup of soup at the supermarket today. It's a chicken rush! Not sure what that means, but we'll find out soon.



Kris goes on a research cruise on Sunday for 5 days. The cruise sends a remotely operated vehicle to the deep sea to collect samples, so it should be pretty interesting!

Mom and Trish visit Okinawa

Trish liked Okinawa so much that she came back with mom. We've been having a lot of fun and definitely staying busy. We've been snorkeling several times and mom and Trish have nearly become professionals.



Last week was Mika's birthday, so we took her ziplining. There was lots of screaming many new bruises, but a fun day! Mom and Nate went sightseeing at Cape Zanpa while we ziplined, and mom was feeling very statuesque.



We did some more sightseeing and hiked to Tadake falls through a river. The water was cold and refreshing on a very hot day!



We tried to hit all of our favorite restaurants and izakayas, but there wasn't enough time to eat everything! At the disco ball izakaya we ordered Bakudan Takoyaki. Takoyaki is octopus balls and bakudan means bomb. Instead of a piece of octopus, the bomb has a chunk of wasabi. Trish got the bomb! Notice her face in the next photo. At the market, this man LOVED Nate's beard and insisted on hugging him profusely.



Of course we took mom to karaoke and to see some Eisa dancing, which is traditional Ryukyuan dancing used to popularize local music. .



The week went by very quickly, but we had a ton of fun!

Drivers license saga complete!

Thanks to Nate's time and diligence, I passed my driver test on the second try! It is actually really easy once you understand everything they are looking for. I might have passed my first time, but I was too nervous and drove too fast (43 km/hr instead of 40km/hr). Who knew?

The instructor was more surprised than I was and kept looking down at his paper, saying "One check, very good. Only 2nd challenge. One check!" It took him so long to tell me that I passed that Nate was sure he was explaining what I had done wrong and that I had failed.

In other belated news...we splurged on 200 grams of cream cheese for $4 and Nate made us a birthday cheesecake! Oishi des!!!



We also survived Typhoon Muifa. It was a very slow moving storm, so we had a lot of rain and a lot of wind, but everything was fine. See the video below...we took it before the really big winds started.