My Okinawa adventure: 08.27.2006

Well all my guests have finally departed and I am left to my own devices again. Since July 7th I have been playing host to visitors from home, except for a 5 day break in-between. First my sister and her boyfriend came and then my mate from high school, Aaron. It has been enormous fun but I am a little relieved to be on my own again, if only for the sake of my wallet! Seriously though it is about time I got back to serious triathlon training, Japanese study and the many other things I aught to be doing with my free time (not least sitting down with a good book and relaxing). I think having guests and showing them around my island and Okinawa make me appreciate the place again. I hadn’t stopped appreciating it exactly but I was beginning to take it for granted. I will post a few more pics of me and Aaron but I won’t bore you with a lengthy description of what we did. Well perhaps I shall describe a few things (pause to clear my throat), it was on one of our first nights drinking on my island, at my islands newest izekaiya. Aaron was sitting next to a drunken wizened old fisher man who insisted on trying to speak to him almost all night long despite a lack of anything remotely resembling English except for the word ‘OK?’. He was so drunk in fact that none of my friends or the bar staff could understand his Japanese. Eventually the bar man stepped in and told him not to bother Aaron, he was harmless but a tad annoying. However this was not the end, Aaron then used his magical drunk old person attracting skills to gain the amorous attention of a 45 year old lady who even went to far as to follow him into the toilets much to the amusement of everyone in the izekaiya. We finally made our escape and as we did the bar man gave Aaron a rather large and impressive sea shell by way of apology. On another night we were treated to an impromptu performance of the Okinawan fan dance (no idea what it is really called but it is a dance involving fans) but instead of fans disposable foil plates were used(it was a barbeque). On a number of occasions we were called on to perform an Okinawan dance, the easy one which just involves waving arms about, during one memorable occasion we were the only ones dancing but we persevered and were rewarded when several old men joined us banging pots and pans and even a chair above their heads. Good times! We also made it to another uninhabited island, Gushikaya Jima, this one we needed to charter a local fisherman and his boat to get to. The snorkelling there was amazing; I am convinced the reason for the low levels of living coral around Izena itself (apart from construction) is agricultural run off. Fertilisers and pesticides on one hand but I also noticed that after heavy rain a lot of soil had been washed into he sea making it brown, this would certainly silt and kill any coral. Anyway back to Gushikaya, yes the water was lovely and clear, the fish plentiful and the coral brightly coloured but there was death lurking in those waters too! After our big snorkle the tide went out so we couldn’t really snorkel again, in need to cooling down (it was a boiling hot day) we went into a small pool. After swimming around for a big enjoying the water I noticed several large sea anemones (the type which clown fish live in) and while these are not lethal they can cause pain and discomfort. I next noticed a cone shell, not of the edible variety but of the rare but VERY poisonous variety, indeed cone shells claim the most toxic venom in all the animal kingdom, YIKES! There wouldn’t have been much chance for us if we got stabbed by that beast. Next, as if that wasn’t enough, I saw a stone fish! If you are not familiar with these horrid fish let me describe them as best I can. They are lumpen misshapen ugly fish which look very much like a stone encrusted with sea growth. They also carry on their malformed backs a large spur with can deliver a deadly dose of poison if stood upon, we left the pool shortly after. For these reasons (these and seaurchins) please, please wear good protection on your feet while in the sea here in Okinawa. I should also say that when the fisher man returned us to dry land and we had paid him he gave a a present of a bag full of freshly caught squid and invited us for a drink with him and his buddies. It amused me that aaron was wearing a 'shiman chu' (sea person ie. fisherman) towel while drinking with the real thing! Tourist okinawa meets real (or at least origional) okinawa!
Please enjoy the pics!

Kirei na! The view towards Iheya Jima from Gushiyawa.

Aaron enjoying a dip towards the end of the day as we wait for the boat to pick us up.

We discovered this cliff with broken pottery at the bottom, I am told by some archeologists I met that there is a 3000yr old site on this island. There is a chance I might be able to accompany them on their dig next month, fingers crossed!