S White on Okinawa!

 Nate's sister Susan has been visiting us on Okinawa.  We've been keeping her pretty busy with sightseeing and eating lots of delicious food. Nate and Susan went to a traditional Okinawan house and had tea with several elderly Okinawan ladies who thought the Whites were funny.

 Susan enjoyed eating Soki Soba and even started eating sushi!

 Nate was protecting himself from Habu (snakes) as he walked down this "trail" made of concrete into the jungle.

 We also went to the Reimer House where Susan made instant friends with Maika and Seira and Jamie sensei made instant friends with a praying mantis.

Susan warmed up to Karaoke in a private room pretty quickly.

 Nate made friends with the fisherman at Motobu port before our trip to Ie jima. We took the 30 minute ferry to this small island for the day.

 We did some snorkeling and lots of driving around. We even tackled the arduous climb to the top of Mt. Gusuku (172 meters high). Concrete stairs to the top make it a steep climb. We often had to stop and make room for the elderly ladies with umbrellas who were descending from the top and laughing at our tiredness.

 A view from the top.

 We did a lot of snorkeling while Susan was here. She really enjoyed being in the water.

 On Ie jima, we saw a school of squid!

 Susan even fed some goats at Zanpa and went swimming under the waterfall at Tadake falls.

 

And most impressive, Susan kept a blog of her trip.  To see more go to: 

http://okinawabloggerhead.blogspot.jp/

 

Hanshin Tigers in Osaka

After the ASLO meeting, we went over to Osaka for some sightseeing.  First on the list was a Hanshin Tigers baseball game.  We got to Koshien Stadium just in time for them to tell us the game was cancelled due to rain.  Being gaijin, we convinced the ticket taker to let us in to see the stadium anyhow. We sat in our seats and drank a beer with the few people that were as sad as we were about the game being cancelled. We were very interested in the sign with the rules on it at the stadium...the only part in English is very curious.



The next morning we met our friend, General Obuchi-san, who has moved to Kochi, on the mainland. It was super hot in Osaka, which is covered in concrete and super crowded. We went to Osaka castle and posed as Taco-yaki (octopus cooked in balls of batter).


After lunch we decided to go somewhere cool, and ended up at the Natural History Museum, where we learned about the lives of living things, among other interesting facts.  Who knew there was a beetle that puts its larvae into balls of cow dung that it makes? Outside the museum they were selling sips of sake that you could drink through the stem of a lotus leaf.

Dinner was Kushi-Katsu, deep fried pieces of meat, fish, or vegetables on sticks.  Oishi-katta des!

The next day we went to the Osaka Aquarium and saw lots of really cool animals, including sea otters and penguins! 

And we managed to get tickets to the nearly sold out Hanshin Tigers game for that night!  We got the "bleacher" seats that are made for Japanese people. It was a lot of fun and very interesting to see the differences from American baseball.  The beer girls (no beer guys) walk around with a keg on their backs!

 

We were told that the Tigers fans were the craziest fans of any baseball team.  They were definitely excited about everything, but I wouldn't call them crazy.  In fact, the cheers are all organized and each player has his own cheer when he is up to bat. When the other team is up to bat, everyone is silent, except for the cheering section for the visiting team. At the 7th inning stretch, there is no singing "Take me out to the ball game", but everyone lets these balloons go at the same time.  Check out the video below with clips from various parts of the game. 

ASLO in Otsu

Went went to the ASLO (Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography) meeting in Otsu, Shiga, Japan.  At the opening reception for the meeting, the entertainment included a Taiko Drums performance. It was really impressive (make sure your sound is on to watch the video).  There have been a lot of interesting talks and posters and we've met some great people.

The meeting is in Otsu, on the shore of Lake Biwa, the largest and oldest freshwater lake in Japan.  Biwako Hall is the funny shaped building in the photo below. Twice a week there is a water fountain that lights up on the lake.

 While wandering around Otsu, we found a Walmart in Japan!  We were very surprised.

 

We've also done a bit a sightseeing in East Kyoto. We went to shrines, temples, the zoo, and rode up to the top of Biwako Valley in a cable car.  At the zoo, this sign warned of the urinating tapirs. 

 To be continued...

The rainy season

The rainy season is definitely here.  Typhoon Guchol passed to the east of us, but the day after brought more rain than the law will allow. Our neighbors recently dug out the vegetation on this patch of land and the rain turned it into a waterfall!  There is a video of it below. 

While eating lunch outside the cafeteria the other day, we saw this giant stick insect, probably Entoria okinawaensis. There is a very grainy cell phone video of it moving away from me below. 

Summer is here

Nate found this funny t-shirt today.  Just a reminder that Ls and Rs are interchangeable in Japanese English.  

The water is getting warm again and we are spending more and more time diving.  Last weekend we went to Maeda Point, a place that attracts as many people as Disneyland.  It is a nice place to dive even if we have to share it with so many people.  There are steps leading into the water, so it is a much easier entry than some of the dive sites on Okinawa. Other than diving, there is not much to report from Okinawa these days.

Memorial Day Onigiri Party

Following Haruka's lead (amd with lots of her help), we hosted an onigiri party on Memorial Day.  Onigiri is a Japanese rice ball that rivals the American sandwich.  Making onigiri takes some practice, but the concept is pretty simple.  First, you put a piece of saran wrap on your hand, put some white rice on it, add some filling and then form a ball or triangle out of the rice around the filling.  Finally, you can sprinkle salty sesame seeds or wrap some nori (seaweed) around the rice ball.  Traditionally, onigiri are filled with sour plums or some kind of salty seaweed or fish.

Haruka preparing rice

At our party, we provided all of the ingredients and everyone had to make their own onigiri.  We had some plums, seaweed, salmon, spicy tuna, and then some not so traditional fillings such as Spam, peppered pork, cucumbers, corned beef hash, avocado, and pickled radish.

Spicy fish ovaries

Some ingredients

 

 

Random thoughts

There isn't too much to report these days so we thought we would post some random images from the past few weeks. Kris' amphipods had babies, you can see two of the little guys below. 

1 day old leucomorphs

 

We came across these classy panties for men and thought they were worth sharing. 

"Mens Beauty Briefs"

Kris is teaching an amphipod taxonomy workshop this week.  It is going very well and all of the participants are really excited to learn about amphipods!

Workshop participants identifying amphipods

 Below is a sign we saw while driving...it is a bit small, but the drawing is of a bald man holding up two fists like he is angry at the world...no one is sure what this sign means.  It only says the name of a man on it. Rainy season is here and the snails are invading



Seeyalaterbye.