The ritual or ceremony I took part in (clapped my hands and drank)

Me with two teachers from my school and the island dentist (a veteran triathlete)

You may be able to spot me about half way down the line of dancers

As I havn't posted in a while here is a random blog. I have no new pics but I got some more of the eisa festival from Noto san. These last weeks have of course been dominated by training. I have had several new PBs for 10k and 20k and have done the bike and run together in the time I want. Yesterday I also did the 2k swim (plus 20k run pb). I have done the 2k swim before but going up and down the beach this time I went straight out and back (there is a pole marking about 400m). I have mostly got over my fear of swimming out in the oceon, I swam alone yesterday, although I was swimming in a lagoon so not open oceon at all, but still! What else has happened...right now I am at school for a performance by the students for parents etc. I have been involved and there is an english display and performance. On a side note the other day I got a bunch of grapes from the fiance of a fellow teacher and soon to be triathlete, more Japanese kindness (she is not Okinawan). So well anyway! Look forward to pics of my triathlon soon, hopefully triumphant ones! I don't know wether I am chewing at the bit raring to go or living in mortal dread of this triathlon. I'll decide once it is done.

The ship came, all was well. It was a goood weekend.

Storm clouds gather. Kelly is planning to come to my island this weekend (a long weekend) so we can see each other and I can also train. But all is not as it should be. There is wind and waves. Two stupid little typhoons of north east of Okinawa have somehow been generating wind on my fair isle. The ferry was cancelled today, and maybe cancelled tommorrow. We didn' t get to see each other last weekend because Kelly had a school do and I stayed island bound to train. I hope whichever god or government agencies control the weather know this is completely unacceptable. If the ferries aren't running tommorrow I will make a point of being in a horrendous bad mood for the whole of the rest of the next week. I shall make all and everything suffer my wrath as I lash out vengefully and malichiously. While I am laughing and dancing and singing for the kiddies inside I will be screaming, howling and railing against the cruel injustice of the world. World (which for me is limited to Izena island right now) you have been warned. On the other hand if the ferry is running tommorrow :) I will bring bring joy to the world.

A couple of little Japanese experiences in the last two days. The first: last night I was coming home from the elementry school and I bump into the old catering lady who used to work at the junior High. She once taught me how to make Goya Champuru, anyway, we had a little chat (she works up at the BOE now and I don't see her often). She asks about my cooking, I say I only cook Udon now (it's true, it only takes a minute or two to cook and therefore suits my lifestyle at the moment) so she starts telling me about some vegetable. She tells me it is easy to fry up and eat with rice or fish and adds lots of flavour. I ask if it is in the SUPA (supermarket) and she says yes, I tell her I will buy some. Later that evening when I return from my bike training I have a missed call on my phone, it is Taika san (the catering lady) but she is speaking in broken english and I cannot work out what she means, I hear `my house` and `your house`. Later as I am putting a load of washing in the machine (outside by the back door) I notice a plastic bag hanging from the door handle. It is a meal of rice, chips and previously mentioned vegetable she has cooked for me. I call her and thank her. It is actions like hers that endeer us outsiders to japanese culture and demonstrate it's peoples incredable hospitability towards guests in their country.
The second happened recently today. Today there were only a few students in each class (5 or 6) as most were at an athletics meet on the main island (Okinawa Honto) so with the ninensei (2nd yrs) I played pictionary. One girl who is usually very inatentive in class and mainly draws anime and manga characters (amazingly well I must add) impressed me. Her word was 'nine' and I was confused when she started drawing circles, maybe she will draw 9 circles I thought, but no she only drew 3. Then one girl guesses correctly! I was bamboozled! It turns out Kyuu means ball and nine in Japanese. Neat. Next for 'win' she draws a bowl of food being eaten. Turns out she drew Katsu don (fried breaded pork on a bowl of rice), Katsu also meaning 'win' in Japanese. I don't think we can quite do this with the english language.

Last night saw my villages 88 something festival. To celebrate the wonderful number 88, they are very fond of 88 here, almost as fond of it as 97. Anyway I performed eisa twice, once at the start of the fest and once at the end so I had to stay throughout the whole thing. I was hoping to get home to do some tidying but no. After it was done and all the kids and almost all the women had left the remaining (mostly men) people did some sort of ritual. We all sat in a circle on the stage around two bowls of fruit and two big bottles of awamori and sang this VERY long song/chant and clapped our hands. Then there were speaches and more drinking, I didn't get back until 12 which is pretty good considering. The pic is of me and two teachers from my school, the lady is Risa Sensei my JTE. This was the first time she had done eisa! She is from mainland okinawa where not EVERYBODY does eisa.

It was raining quite alot yesterday and the blue tarps they put up weren't really upto the job. Luckily the rain eased off by the time we started eisa.

Just as a side note my face got so sunburnt training on the weekend that an elementry kid asked me if I had been drinking :(. I hadn't touched a drop, honest!

PS. I have just read today on www.bbc.co.uk that there has been another school shooting in America. Two in a week! What is the deal with that!!! I would be asking some serious questions about my culture/society if it seemed to regularly produce individuals who wanted to harm the most innocent members of their society. And why does it seem to me at least that nothing it being done about it? Are people that complacent? It is not a unique American problem but (I think) predominantly so. For a contrast: after the Dunblane shooting in the UK the Snowdrop petition (started by those affected by the shooting) caused the then government to effect a ban on all handguns except .22 calibre single shot handguns. The succeeding government (Tony and his motley crew) finished the job leaving only muzzle-loading and historical pieces legal. There are cultural reasons handguns won't be banned in America. Sometimes I think we put too much value in something just because it is cultural though, we are quite happy to tell certain countries to (for example) give women the vote when culturally said culture does not consider women eligable. We should be looking critically at our own cultures too. Anyway I am side tracking and don't want to start a long rant. Just expressing my shock and anger at this hideous facet of humanity.

Well I had a fun weekend......kind of. I spent my weekend training training training. Saturday I did a 1.5k swim followed by 66k bike and lastly a 10k run. I was fine until the run, then my world turned rather painful. Not encouraging, the actually race will be a 20k run. So on sunday I ignored my tired limbs and did a 28k bike and then a 20k run. I did it, but 18 minutes off the pace I would ideally want. Hopefully it was just because my legs were knackered from saturdays training. I think I aught to work on the run more though, I am still slow slow slow! During the swim I had a bit of a scare. I was swimming up and down izena beach, the tide wasn't fully in so the water was only about waist deap. I saw a flash of black and white stripes down to my right, sea snake I think!? No no, I tell myself you are just being paranoid, that's when it swim right under me - I could easily have touched it. I managed to hold it together, not keep looking around and swim to the end of that lap. Then I stop and have a serious think about wether to swim back (sea snakes being a little on the venemous side). In the end I do finish my swim but I kept a sharp eye out for underwater critters, which is perhaps why I saw a cuttlefish, the first one I have seen here. Pretty cool looking creatures. On the sat I also had a meeting with a couple from Okinawa honto and the Izena triathlon organisers. The couple had volenteered to take care of the english language side of the triathlon and baby the international triathletes (27 this year). The man was American and his wife Japanese (from tokyo). It was interesting to note he didn't seem to speak a jot of japanese but that their highschool aged daughter was fluent in both Japanese and English. Lucky girl. This year I am fully in charge of the international friendship meeting, unlike last year when I had no input, was not told anything aside from the fact I had to play the keyboard and when I rocked up was told I had to MC as well....great! but I have no idea what's happening! This year will be different! I just weighted myself today, 67.5 kg, I swear I was 70kg last week. Screw faddy diets, just train for a triathlon (I was 78/9 kg when I first came to Okinawa - although alot of what I lost was muscle weight, I am skinny now :-( ). I must point out this is with eating calory mate bars inbetween meals to keep my energy up. Today I am going to see if I can get triple helpings of Kyushoku (school lunch).
Keep the peace.

Update: I managed my three helpings and re-weighed myself, 68kg, 1.5kg of lunch (ie. rice and fish), nice..... well it would be nice if I wasn't still hungry! Time to go home and find some more food.

If you had been paying attention and I do so hope that you were, you would have been aware that my garden suffered the ill attentions of a typhoon. I replanted with cuttings my Kochosensei (head master) gave me and then promptly declined to water them. As a result they ceased to be. However one plucky little plant was rumbustious enough to take it upon itself to spread forth with wild vigour and near cover my entire garden. I think it pretty enough and it has become rather the bon ton with the local Bee cliental.
I noticed these two funny beggars which one can actually see in the previous photograph if one has the time and inclination to do so. I wonder if they are mates, or if this is a mother and child or perhaps their disguise is so good the second diminutive grasshopper has mistaken its larger brethren for the very plant it itself is trying to imitate! HAH!
Another admirable trait of this plant is its habit of neatly rolling up its leaves in the evening and keeping them in such a manner until day break the following day. One presumes this is to keep them snug and warm during the chill of the night?

My toe shortly after the incident.

My toe after doing a swim, the sea of course made it bleed.

My toe after football, you can see some of my insides coming out I think!

My toe a few days later, you can clearly see my outside insides.

The toe as it is currently. It is no longer 'wet' or sore but I had a interesting nail growth.

It has been a while since I posted I admit but while nothing major or exciting has happened things have been busy. Busy for two two reasons: A) triathlon training has been stepped up, 2 to 4 hours a day during the week and now that I will not be taking any more weekend trips into the mainland until after the triathlon I will be spending much more time on the weekends training too B) eisa practice has started again, for the next week and a bit I should be practicing eisa with the other men from my village (sometimes training makes this impossible). It is the same little festival I took part in last year, perhaps this time I will make fewer mistakes? So my ‘exciting’ life goes as such, leave school at 5ish, shop or general errands, start training at 6, go to eisa at 8 or continue training, retire home at 9/10ish, eat, try to be in bed by 11ish when I give myself the pleasure of a half hours reading. I am reading a book of short stories by Summerset Maugham (hope I’ve spelt that right, if not, bully to you!). This weekend just past I spent a fantastic time camping with Miss Kelly and FINALLY visiting the elusive Hiji falls (it was only our fourth attempt) which were rather pleasant. The water was cool and refreshing and immediately washed away the residual grimy feeling from camping. The previous weekend aside from entertaining Andrew Clarke we visited the caves at Okinawa world. I have yet to get my grubby little hands on the pictures of these events so pictures will have to wait. You see in order as to not loose a day of training I have been cycling from Unten Ko (just north of Nago) to Kelly’s home in Kitanakagusuku (northmiddlecastle) on my shiny new (second hand) road bike hense I can't really afford to carry extra things like cameras. It is a trip of 75k (or there about) and quite pleasant aside from a few brushes with death (or injury). On my last ride an obviously senile (or ruthlessly malicious) old man in a little white car almost took me out TWICE! Anyway, I survived. I would like to point out that my I have two great fears right now; one that I will injure myself before the triathlon and two that I will get a puncture during the race. I will cry.
Ah before I sign off I would like to share pictures of something I do have pictures of with you. My toe! In a scooter related incident I managed to squish it so that some of what had previously been my insides became my outsides. Pretty disgusting I think you will agree, I found it quite fascinating and took pictures of its progress throughout the day, as I did a 2k swim and then played football. To be fair I was in goals and didn’t need to kick the ball much. After a week I did go to the doctor at Kelly's urging and after first thinking about pulling the nail out (much to my alarm) he just gave me large plasters, antibacterial cream and oral antibiotic. It is pretty much OK now although I am hesitant to cut of the second toe nail that has grown above the first (getting quite fond of it), I really must have mushed things around in there!

Here is a picture of Teru rocking out, if you read the post bellow you will learn he is sadly leaving Izena (at least for a while) to pursue his dreams as a rock star!

I am adding this post mainly to tell you all about a song and a class. One of those little things which kick starts your day, ya know! My 4 year elementry kids always have music on when I come in the room and then file past my giving me high 5's. Today the song was in Japanese but had a familiar tune. It took me a moment to place it.....it was the YMCA song by the Village people. That definately put me in a good mood for the rest of the day!

My Lovely bike.

Not an awffy lot to post about but I feel a post seems about due. I am nearing the end of my first week of classes and it has been fun! I am writing during a free period at the elementary school just now. The kids are just as genki as when I left them! The yochein especially, it took me about 5 minutes to get out of the classroom after I had already run almost ten minutes over time, I literally had children hanging off my legs are I tried to gather my things and leave (while giving kids hi-5's and saying 'goodbye!'). This week I have been training in any free time I have which is not enough now that classes have started. It takes almost a whole day to do a big workout, I am hoping to squeeze in a bike ride before I go swimming with the izena triathlon team at 6pm. Last night I did a night time run and a firefly landed on my running top, those things are really bright! Nature is awesome. Also this week a happy sad event. Teru leaving the island and moving to Naha so that he can practice with his band as they plan to release a full album next year. Next week they are doing a gig in Tokyo which will coincide with the mainland Japan release of their EP. I wish them the best of luck but I'll miss hanging out with him, of course we shall meet up on the mainland and I expect he will be back for Izena events. Have I mentioned I bought a bike? Well I bought a shiny newish (2nd hand) road bike. It is pretty snazzy with shimano dura-ace and ultegra components if you are into bikes. I also have a wonderful new hydro pack thing courtesy of Kelly so I have refreshing cold Pocari sweat throughout my rides too! I would like to sign off with a tribute to the late Steve Irwin, conservation warrior and general top bloke. He truly was an amazing and inspiration guy and will sorely be missed by countless people around the world. It was a bizarre way to go, if you don't know (shame on you) he was pierced through the heart by a sting ray while filming a nature documentary, only the second ever recorded death by a sting ray. I hope in heaven there will forever echo his eternal cry of 'CRIKEY!"

Giant hornets Vs. Honey Bees
http://www.fugly.com/videos/5990/giant-hornets-vs-bees.html
This is amazing! Mother nature is tough. 30 giant hornets can kill every bee in a hive in 3 hours and then feast on the honey and use the pupae to feed their young for weeks, ruthless.

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!
Enjoying our lunch with makeshift table and chairs.
The view towards Iheya, just look at the colour of the water!
Aaron playing football with my elementry school kids.
The traditional Okinawan tin foil plate dance.
Dancing!
More Dancing!

Aaron and I returned to the uninhabited island in glorious sunshine but shortly after we arrived a huge thunder storm bore down on us. We managed to outrun it in our kayak and it made for some dramatic images.

The approaching storm front.

We found this trench where the water remained several meters deep even at low tide when the rest of the lagoon was only a few feet deep. It contained lots of coral and trapped fish seeking refuge from the shallow water. The concentration of fish made for some very good snorkelling.

A rare breed of Izenian rock Shisa.

Waves crash behind brilliant white surf as the storm clouds gather.

We (I and my mate visiting from Scotland) ventured forth in our Kayaks and did discover new lands.

The brave adventurers ready for the unknown.
We discovered beautiful virgin beaches.
The unexplored interior.
A mysterious tree and shrine deep in the jungle.
The Adventurers return safely.

How happy do these kids look, ah to be young and carefree again!

A spot of martial arts action before supper.

Why am a being attacked by a ball of grass?

Because my Yochien (kindergarten kid) threw it at me.

All the grass the Yochien gathered for us....why I don't know.

Anna and David during our Kayaking trip!

Our day on the uninhabited island.

The brave hunters venture out into the uninhabited island.

David going towards the entrance of the goat cave.

The fearsome fish hunters prepare to venture into the abyss.

Triumph!

Me and my fish (yes I do realise it is tiny).

Anna and David enjoying a pristine beach.

We went to an uninhabited island (Yanaha jima). But before that other things did happen, I shall relate them to you in chronological order.
On Saturday we went with Kelly to the pineapple park in Nago which was a lot of fun. For a measly 500 yen one gets a ride in a buggy around the park then pineapple wine tasting and lots of food tasting (all pineapple products). On the Sunday we returned to my fair isle in time for the festival at the old folks home. This festival was a much more sedate affair compared to the previous three but good fun none the less. There was the usual festival food plus games for the kids and then several traditional Okinawan performances on an outdoor stage included an awesome eisa (Okinawan drum and dance). The finale was a surprisingly good fireworks show.
That brings us too the island! On Monday we were taken by Yoshiaka and his friend to an uninhabited island that lies on the far end of the lagoon around izena beach. We were dropped off there at 10am and then picked up at 5pm. It was a fantastic day of exploring the island and snorkelling. Highlights included coming across a lair of wild goats! I was lagging behind (playing with the camera) while David and Anna climbed up a sandy slop to have a look in a cave. The next thing I now there is an alarmed cry and a huge Billy goat rushes out of the cave past me! Apparently this island is inhabited by wild goats! I am also proud to say I managed to spear not one but two fish! I and David bought spears in a whim and took them to the island with no real hope of actually getting any fish. Admittedly my fish were tiny but I felt pretty good about spearing them. We also found two enormous clams which made a tasty addition to our barbeque later.
Sunday was my sisters birthday, Happy 20th birthday Anna! But because of the festival we had the barbeque/party on the Monday. As we were getting off the small fishing boat that had taken us too the island the captain beckoned us over and opened a large cooler packed full of huge fish and a one lobster.
“For your sister’s birthday,” he tells me proudly! We were shocked and touched, I had been drinking with this chap once or maybe twice and didn’t know him that well. Not only did he supple more fish that we and all our guests could eat the cooked it all too! He refused money for it all later but we sneaked it into his car. The barbeque went really well, we did out own fireworks show, had a cake and Nakamura san even did some magic tricks. A proper birthday!
Good old Izena.

Enjoying a night at the new Izekaiyia.
The magnificant fireworks at Motobu.
One of the performers being launched high into the air by a porpoise, probably the best job in the world? The Motobu aquarium is the largest in the world btw! And among its many residents are several whale sharks, I do recommend it if you are in town.

Well here is my post, now lets see if I can remember what we have been up to! There has been another festival this time in my town so we got more involved. The day before we helped make the rice straw rope that would be used in the tug of war. We were in the north team (Kita or nishi in hogen – which is east in regular Japanese). On the day of the festival we and the other north team members began to gather at about 6pm at out end of the main street. There was drinking, interrupted by a game of tag with some of my elementary school kids, before we made our move. The next step was partying around the town gathering people and drinking. First we stood in one spot, played music, danced, banged metal tins and blew a horn. This seemed to serve to gather other people. Once we had a good crowd we headed of to various houses where in return for dancing and banging drums we were forced to drink awamori by little old ladies. Sufficiently roused and inebriated we returned to the main street and the tug or war commenced. I am proud to say our side won both tugs! The next battle was the ‘standing on a board and fighting’ type. Two prechosen young men dress up and stand on a board held up by the other men of the village. They then try and knock the other teams fighters from their board. I think we lost this one. It gets a bit crazy during the fight as each team tries to get their board over the other teams. There are also burning torches being waved and ash and cinders raining down. Poor David’s feet got quite stamped on. After this was the sumo. We watched this a little bit before sneaking off as we all felt rather tired. The next few days were more relaxing and included a rather fun night out to new izekaiya on my island; it’s quite fancy for my island. David also got to jam with Teru. On the weekend we went to Okinawa Honto, on Saturday we went to the Motobu aquarium where we saw an amazing dolphin show and then stayed for the fireworks festival there. During the dolphin show (and porpoise) the performers (human) actually rode and ‘surfed’ the porpoises, breathtaking. I am still in to the dark as to the reason for the fireworks festival but I do know they have been doing tit for 30 years. The show we saw was the 30th anniversary and instead of the usual 5000 fireworks there was a whopping 10,000. Truly spectacular. The drive home was a slight drag and took almost 4 hours due to the congestion. The following day we went to see Kelly’s castle, I mean Kitanakaguskuku castle, and the associated haunted hotel. We spent the afternoon in the park. The weather improved immensely over the weekend and I took my sister and David snorkeling yesterday. We saw a particularly large shoal of fish wish was rather good to say the least. Oh goodness I almost forgot I also took my skin and blister and Daibido to school with me, to my English conversation class and to teach EVERY class at the shogakko (elementary school). I though that if I only taught some classes with them the others might be upset so I requested more classes and those I did get. It was great fun and despite initial skepticism I think they both thoroughly enjoyed it, the children of course loved it. My favorite moments were the 2nd years giving them a Kampai! (cheers) with their school milk cartons and a 1st year boy who was so amused by David he became almost hysterical and made himself choke with laughter. The Kindergarten kids were also very cute and had some little songs prepared. I even caught my sister singing ‘old MacDonald had a farm’ the other day, it’s my current song at the elementary school and we sang it with every class.