So I finally have a livable in house. Up until now I have had no fridge or gas to cook with or working air con. But today Nick left so the head masters of both the Elementary and Junior high school, head of the board of education, my supervisor and the head of English at the elementary school came and help me move all the stuff from nicks house to mine and got people to come and do my gas, TV and air con. Wooohooo! I have a real house now J. I went to another barbeque at a beach tonight and went skinny dipping in the dark. It is really quite an experience, floating in the water sparkling in the moon light with the wonderful star filled sky of Izena above me…. and a beer in hand. Very fun indeed. I am sure that would not be deemed safe by western standards but its something the locals enjoy (well the younger ones) quite regularly and like I have to keep reminding myself, Okinawans are the longest lived people in the world. Anyway it was a most fun evening. Oh the Shoen Taiko group also brought their drums and played a little bit for the benefit of some tourists from Tokyo. It was interesting to see the Tokyo tourists were as clueless as me about okinwan songs/customs and dances, in fact I knew some more than them. So tomorrow I leave for Naha, I have a JET orientation Thursday/Friday and then some island/beach party for Jets thing on Saturday and then back to Izena on Sunday. So I will post some new pics then. Take care y’all. Peace
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My favourite beach (also where I saw the shark)

Searangers! 

Awsome Nun chuck master 

The main summer festival of the year was this weekend, and boy was it fun! Lots of amazing performances of traditional Okinawan Dance, music and martial arts. I got drafted by the Taiko team to hold their big flag while they performed so I got to wear their costume which was nice. It meant I didn't get any pictures of their performance but it was worth it. They were super impressive, a very energetic performance, I can't wait to learn how to do taiko drumming. So as always there was lots of eating and drinking afterwards until the wee hours. The festival was over both Saturday and Sunday and as the Taiko group weren't performing on the Sunday I got to relax and watch all the other performances. There was this one chap who did a variety of performance, a dance with a fan and one with a flower which were nice, but he also did some martial arts. Wow, they were just breath-taking, the one that most impressed me involved him using two razor sharp (he demonstrated this by slicing some bamboo) nun chucks and breakneck speed, I have no idea how he didn't cut off his own head or at least remove an ear. He also turned out to be a very happy friendly drunk too. During the daytime on both days I chilled out at the beach, oh I finally got snorkelling equipment! Ah yes, I saw a shark! Yup that’s right, I was snorkelling on Saturday just scooting along the edge of the reef and I saw a shark, I am guessing it was about four feet long, but very slender so it wasn't that scary. It was so beautiful! I wish Id been able to follow it more but it disappeared into the blue and I didn't feel like following it away from the reef. This is after Nick telling me people never, ever saw sharks here! Harrumph.