I have returned from my trip to mainland Japan! And now I will relate it to you!



The first thing that struck me about Tokyo was the people or more precisely the number of people. They were everywhere! Vast hoards of them all rushing about in immaculate designer clothes and more than likely clutching a Loui Vouton bag (they seem to be all the rage in Japan right now). It could not be more different from my small rustic island! The above picture is of the busiest intersection in the world at Shibuya, one can probably see more people in this picture than live on my whole island...perhaps.

The first Shrine we visited was Meiji-Jingu in Harijuku. We had the good fortune of being shown around by a group of Japanese university students who wanted to practice their English. Among other things they showed us how to properly purify ourselves with the spring water found at the entrance of all Temples and Shrines in Japan. This served as well as we visited many, many Temples and Shrines throughout the course of our trip. Meiji-Jingu boasts the largest wooden Tori gate in the world and a building especially dedicated to people want to bless and purify their cars.

Many unusually dressed individuals inhabit Harijuku, amung my favourites where a group who dress in black leather and danced energetically to rock and roll music. The picture shows one member of the troupe taking a rest. While watching the performance I was kindly informed by an elderly Japanese gentleman that rock and roll music came from America.

Most of the 'crazies' as I affectionately refer to them do not dance or perform but just sit and be admired by the crowds. They will also pose for photographs if you ask them nicely. I do wonder why they do it.

Our first Temple was Senso-ji. As a side note a Temple is a place of Buddhist worship while a Shrine in a place of Shinto (native Japanese faith) worship. It was a very lively place compared to Meiji-jingu (everywhere the sound of chanting and smell of burning incense). There was also a cute little garden in the complex, We found that the Shrines and Temples made for a good way to escape the noise and bustle of the city around them. Afterwards we took a boat ride down to Ginza and had a wander around a park which had been in previous times the duck hunting ground of the Shogunate. From there we went to the Imperial Palace.

At the Imperial Palace! Very expansive and impressive but one cannot get inside to have a closer look. Understandable as the Emperor and his family do still live there. It is like everything else in Tokyo mostly a reconstruction. The city was quite comprehensively flattened during the war.

A pleasant view of one of the gaurd towers which punctuated the outer wall of the Palace. I found Tokyo to be a very exciting city, lots of hussle and bustle, something grabbing your attention all the time. We managed to see every major district of Tokyo even if it was only for an hour or two. Each one had it's own distinct feel and often as not it's own particular type of crazy. Shibuya for example plays host to the tanned and bleach blonde variety.

We took the shinkansen to Kyoto, a journeyof 8hours by regular train but only two and a half with the Nozomi super express. The Nozomi super express is the fastest of the skinkansen train services and the trains reach speeds of 300 km.hr! The Shinkansen typify Japanese attention to detail and desire for perfection, there have been zero fatalities in the 42 years of service (despite one derailing due to an earthquake) and during 2003 the average lateness was only 12 seconds . Boarding the train is also a very precise operation, one must wait at the designated stop on the station platform according to your car and seat number and when the train stops the door you need to enter via is exactly in front of you. The above picture is of Kiyomizu Dera in Kyoto, one of the two temples we saw there. Kyoto has many, many temples but we had a tight schedule and lots of see and do!This picture is slightly out of chronological order. We went to see kabuki in Tokyo (at the Kabuki za theatre in Ginza). It was interesting and visually alluring but not gripping, the English language headphones did help immensely, I would have had no idea what was going on without them. What was unusual was the cat calls (kakegoe) from the audience. The cries are of encouragement or appreciation and there seem to be particular points during the performance when these calls are acceptable.

We took a day trip north of Kyoto to a Holy mountain and town which share the name Kurama. It was easily the most pleasant day of the whole trip. A gentle hike took us to the top of the mountain, along the way we passed many beautiful temples and shrines before we got to the main temple at the top which was bathed in sunlight (after the shade of the wooded mountainside) and surrounded by Cherry blossoms (sakura) which were in glorious bloom. Unlike in Tokyo and Kyoto there were very few westerners about and the place felt less 'touristy'. This photograph was taken near the bottom; I was attracted to the sunlight on the red of a Japanese maple tree.

Sorry, another out of order photograph. This one of a pretty little street in Kyoto, such a contrast to the towering glass and steel of Tokyo!

Taking a photo break during the accent of Mt.Kurama. One my favourite things about Japanese gardens and landscaping are the elegant bridges. I think they have a very natural shape to them.

At the top! This was my first experience of Japanese Sakura, the okinawan variety is somewhat different and I am sorry to say not quite as pretty. The Japanese Sakura manage to be both more delicate and more richly opulent.

Nestled at the foot of Mt.Kurama is the village bearing the same name. The buildings were all wooden and very traditional and the main road (only road) had a stream running along it. Kurama has a natural spring and therefore an Onsen (Japanese hot spring bath). I have wanted to visit an Onsen since visiting Japan and I wasn't disappointed. Lying naked in the hot spring water surrounded by the beautiful mountain scenery, what could be better to sooth a footsore and tired soul. I think on future trips to the mainland of Japan I will give the big cities a miss and seek out places such as Kurama.

The final picture shows a 700 series Shinkansen, the type we used to and from Kyoto. After Kyoto we returned to Tokyo and pulled an all-nighter before returning to Okinawa. This was not planned but our digs in Kyoto turned out to be a bit pants so we decided to be adventurous. Okinawa did seem like another (poorer) country upon returning from mainland Japan but it did feel good to be back to nice friendly relaxed Okinawa.

The sunset on saturday night

Me with a student in front of all the rubbish that was collected

Time to relay my weekends various goings on to those of you who read my blog. It was a pretty decent weekend as far as these things go nothing to really write home about but on the other hand nothing to complain about either. On Friday I and the other junior high school teachers all ate and drank at the headmasters house. It was most enjoyable, the new headmaster is quite bonhomie, although I was flagging due to tiredness more than anything else toward the end of the evening. It amused me greatly to watch the male teachers struggle to prepare food before the female teachers arrived, we were literally eating frozen shell fish, but when the teachers of the fairer sex did arrive, oh boy! Plate of scrumptious food did follow plate of scrumptious food. The following day I took part in a beach clean up. As worthy a cause as cleaning up beaches are, and it’s a little tragic to see Izena’s stunning beaches littered with rubbish, my main cause for excitement was the chance to be a sea ranger for the day. Alas it was not to be! Due to a mix up, Kaichi thought the costumes were in his car when they were in-fact stowed away in the car of some unknown other person, I did not get to for fill my dream and be a sea ranger. Maybe next time! Regardless the day was pleasant and what a lot of rubbish we collected! The operation was fairly large scale and involved all the ‘important’ people on Izena (the Mayor, assorted village office staff, Board of Education members, teachers etc.) and I think we cleaned all the major beaches on Izena. After a short break during which I took a much needed shower and mourned my loss of Japanese study time (not really but I am going to struggle to complete this months test, I’ve been too busy!). I don’t find I pick up Japanese just by spending time with/attempting to speak to Japanese people, I really don’t. Which is unfortunate because I have more than ample opportunity for that, I need to sit down and study to learn, so we come across the odd situation that my spending time with Japanese friends is hampering my Japanese language studies. Back to the course of events. After the shower I was picked up by Teru and we went down to the beach to prepare for the obligatory otskaresama party or nomikai or whatever it was called. In grand Izena tradition it involved sitting on blue tarpaulin, consuming moderate amounts of food, imbibing copious amounts of awamori (local booze) and having a generally merry time. The food was good; onigiri, tempura and those little spherical cake things and I did proceed to stuff my face. I got a little bored later on but some elementary school pupils decided it was playtime, so after giving them an impromptu English test (they did very well and impressed the head of the BOE who was sitting next to me and I am sure scored me good browning points) I got down to being as immature as possible. I had a jolly old time with them and probably got a bit of a workout too (all that lifting, spinning and swinging)! Afterwards I watched a movie with Teru and then gratefully slipped into the land of nod. I realize my post is getting quite long now but I have more to say….. Oh the dilemma. Well ok briefly then, the snake I saw (the small brown one) was probably Hemihabu according to Teru and I don’t doubt him! That would be Trimeresurus okinavensis for those particular for scientific names. It is poisonous and a Habu, so I am not sure how they can claim Izena has no Habu, however they didn’t seem surprised or incredulous when I said I had seen one. Oh well. I also now know that a hermit crab can survive without food and water for at least 20 days! Pretty impressive for a species whose subphylum (sorry to be pedantic) have only VERY recently began to attempt to make the transition from sea to land. I also know (from previous lab work) that spider crabs (marine) can survive with no oxygen for about nine hours! Truly hardy creatures. I didn’t learn this out of cruelty or negligence I feel I should stress (ok well the latter was derived by deliberately cruel means but all in the name of science!). The last time I went snorkelling was 20 days ago and I found yesterday at the bottom of my snorkelling bag a hermit crab. I naturally assumed it was dead but after a highly scientific prod with my finger I noticed slight movement! A quick does of H2O and it was right as rain! It is now my new pet; called spiky (it has a rather nifty spiky shell). I have just finished a volleyball tournament between teachers and pupils, quite fun, this year school is much more fun than last year (pre April and teacher change over year). That is all for now!

One of my little nipppers!

My Garden in its (glorious) entirety.

Like a proud father I feel compelled to post pictures of my little 'garden'. It is currently the warm and nurturing home to cherry tomatos, carrots and cosmos seedlings (all on the right hand side as you see it in the photograph). Today I added to my angiosperm family sunflowers in the rear left and in front of them white chrysanthemums and some coreopsis. To be honest I don't have much clue what I am doing in terms of gardening but so far it's been working. I guess I picked up a few things helping my Granddad in the garden back home in Scotland. Although growing anything remotely exotic in Scotland means growing plants in a greenhouse until they are big and strong and then only putting them outside for the approximately two weeks of nice weather we get a year.

I saw a snake today! Well in-fact I saw a snake 2 weeks ago too but that one was of the deceased variety. Having had an unfortunate run in with a car its profile had been severely diminished. The dead snake I have identified with some certainty as 'Akamata' to give it its Japanese name. Its scientific name is Dinodon semicarinatus. Upon describing it to a co-worker he also thought it was 'Akamata'. The second snake is a little more of a mystery. I didn't get a picture of this was as I was on a run but I did get to observe it up close (a few feet) for a couple of minutes. It was also on the road so not obscured by vegetation however judging by the size (about one foot) I think it was a juvenile and therefore possibly not fully displaying its adult characteristics. It is possible it was a Habu (The term Habu is actually a blanket term for three species of Viper). This would be interesting as it is claimed Izena has no Habu. Its colouration suggested Habu (probably Trimeresurus flavoviridis) but it definitely did not have the arrow shaped head typical of Vipers (to contain their heat sensing pits). Perhaps Vipers do not develop the characteristic head shape until later in life but I shall have to look into it. Stay tuned to discover if Izena is being infiltrated by the deadly Habu!

On Monday I attended my first Nyu-gakko party, celebrating a child starting elementary school. The most notable thing about this particular Nyu-gakkoIwai was that the only food on offer was goat and duck sashimi, yes that's right raw goat! It was a fun night though and apparently I do like goat sashimi. There is very little I will not eat. The following day I was invited back to finish the job and this time all the teachers came and there was an even bigger feast! In addition to the raw goat there was goat meat soup and regular fish sashimi as well as vegetable and tofu dishes. I think I ate for 3 hours solid and still had room at the end for cake. I was very tired and left at around 9ish. Lame I know! But in my defence I haven’t had a proper nights sleep for about 2 weeks what with having guests on my island and what not. I had hoped to get to sleep early that night but no! I was called up for a farewell nomikai for Nagi, she will be leaving today (wed), I suppose the date must have slipped my mind! I had to leave that early too, at about 11.30, but I really, really needed sleep. I had a class with my new ichinensei first period so energy was required, that and I am an old man. A very young old man, but an old man none the less. Although I enjoy the busy times in Izena I am also beginning to appreciate the quiet times more and more. It's a shame I have no control over when and where they happen. Oh and apparently they wanted me to join in with their sea ranger thing during Golden week but unfortunately I will be in Tokyo/Kyoto during that time. It is a balancing act trying to give time to my island and do other things; I'll get it down eventually, perhaps.
Ah yes! In other news! My plants are growing! The Cosmos, carrots and tomatoes have all germinated and are little baby plants now! I will plant some more plants in the other half of my plot soon, I weeded it yesterday. Although perhaps I should save some space for transplanting the carrots when I thin them out. Oh the simple joys of gardening! I reckon my minigarden will be the horticultural gem in the crown of Izena Junoir High ;). Yeah right!

Sunny left yesterday to continue her epic journey and I am back at school now. I have two classes today including one with the new ichinensei (1st yrs) so I am looking forward to that. Sunny's visit ended with a fun trip to Okinawa honto. We left a teachers dinner/party early on Friday in order to be able to make the 1st ferry on Saturday and it was definitely worth it. After a lunch in Chatan Kelly joined us and took us on a tour of her castle (by that I mean Kitanakagusaku-jo) were we had the singular pleasure of watching some Japanese posing in full samurai get-up and samurai swords. Later in Shuri castle we were joined by Chris. After a quick sorte to Kokusaidori (International street in Naha) we made our way back up to Chatan for Elvira’s birthday party and on the way managed to pick up a bottle of tequila and a lemon (limes were nai!). After joining Elvira and company in the bowling alley we undertook some deliberations it was decided our only course of action was to drink the tequila then and there. A kindly bar maid cut our lemon and supplied glasses while a trip to Makudonaludo bestowed us with salt. Much fun ensued. There was dancing and shenanigans, the usual heady Okinawa JET fun packed night out! I very almost did not make it back to my island on Sunday, as I arrived at the ferry port the gangway was detached and the ferry about to leave. Luckily a sailor spotted my predicament and alerting me with a piercing whistle indicated I should board by the car ramp. I did so and they began winching it up as soon as I had passed inside, by the time I made it to the upper deck we were already underway, a close call indeed! I intended to laminate some flashcards at the school and then have an early bed but no. I was summoned to a barby at the beach for a friend who was recently married, Naomi (of the Japan Forum) married a Turkish man in January and this was there first visit together to Izena. Naomi lives in Tokyo and is 50% of the Japan Forum team who organised the visit to Izena of 7 international and 7 Japanese students way back in November last year. The Izena connection comes from when Sunichi (then attending Izena Junior high school) was one of their first Japanese students on the program. He is sort of their 'showcase member'. After that I went to the school and finished the flashcards, it's a hard life ;).

My friend Sunny from australia is visiting me right now. She came to the teachers welcome ceremony on tuesday and the party afterwards and all the teachers loved her. We have also done some snorkling (you get used to the cold pretty quick) and saw some fun fish and wierd things. She also accompanied me on a run (riding a bike) and snapped this pic of me getting mobbed by shogakksei while getting a drink. More soon!

So today I got to take part in a Okinawan Oban ceremony. I and all the other teachers went to king Shoens (famous ryukan king from Izena) and there joined all the other prominent members of team Izena for the ceremony. I as I reached the top of the steps leading to the tomb/shrine I noticed on the left people sitting on tatami type matting and people standing on the right, a member of the BOE motioned me to the left so I joined the sitting people. I think this was something of an honour as all the other teachers stood to the right, and among the other seated people was the mayor if Izena and descendant of king Shoen. It is also possible I misread her direction and just waltzed in all gung hoe like. I was dressed in bright red running trousers and a blue t-shirt while everyone else was in a black suit, c'est la vie. I did sit seiza (legs under you while sitting on feet) for the whole thing though, causing some small pain and stood and bowed and sat and bowed (repeated several times) when everyone else did. Afterwards we all ate typical Japanese food; omochi, some seaweed I don't know, tofu and other things I don't know, all washed down with ocha of course. It was all very nice and I got to meet some of the new shogakko teachers (elementary school), one of which speaks good English, subarashi ne!
In other news I now have my own little garden. I bought some seeds a while back and planned to plant them in the garden of my own house, but then I decided it might be better to do it at the school. They grow allot of plants and have all the bits and bobs one needs. So I asked and they said how many? and I said oh just one! So now I have a smallish raised bed to play with. Today I weeded and dug half of it and planted; tomatoes, carrots and some flowers (Cosmos Versailes).

Kelly visited my island this weekend and I certainly had a rip roaring good time! I think she enjoyed herself too! Definitely took my mind of the impending departure of my Izenian friends. On Saturday we went out to collect shellfish (at low tide on the exposed coral rock) with Teru and Yoshiaki-san and I saw my first Octopus being caught. I helped a little but who am I kidding, it was Teru who did all the work. The little eight armed beastie as very tenacious and took a lot of getting out of the little hole he had wedged himself in. But we finally succeeded and it would later prove a tasty addition to our barbeque later that night. There were also a lot of shakugau about (a kind of clam) and we collected quite a few. I am proud to have found the largest one by some measure but then proceeded to gash my finger while getting it out, woops. I had planned some sea kayaking but the weather took a turn for the worse on Sunday and that plan had to be abandoned. I am still determined to kayak out to the uninhabited island which lies perhaps a few Kilometres North West of Izena Beach. It will just take the right combination of time, weather and company. The islanders thought I was crazy when I mentioned it a while back.

This weekend I played in a 7’s rugby tournament at Nago Senior High school. One of my teachers (who is leaving) is a member of a men’s rugby club in Nago and invited me to come and play for them. So I did and it was lots of fun, despite raining constantly and heavily throughout the morning and afternoon. My team got to the semi-finals which was pretty good I reckon. The final ended up being between Nago HS A and B teams; they are the number one or two school for rugby in Okinawa I think. For some unknown reason the tournament took place on a pitch which was not covered in grass but instead was sand! Not fine soft sand either, hard gritty stuff! It was about the most abrasive playing surface I could imagine, everyone had big grazes on their legs and arms by the time we were done. My left knee is going to have a quite impressive scab! Anyway it was fun. Got some bad news today, Teru (my best buddy on Izena) won’t have a job after the end of this week and will probably have to go to Okinawa honto to try and find a job. Jobs are few and far between on Izena it seems, he also said they were pretty scarce on Okinawa honto too. I hope he magically finds one on Izena! To make things worse Koshin has also gone to stay with family on Okinawa honto (for personal reasons) and Nagi also will also have to go to Okinawa honto to try and find a job. So that’s my three best friends on Izena gone or going! Bummer, and all this after they managed to convince the BOE to let a particular female teacher they liked to stay another year. My predecessor did say people came and went on Izena but still, I will miss them, although I am still hoping they will find some job on Izena. There have also been budget cuts to the education system here in Okinawa and some teachers are loosing their jobs, it seems not all is well with Okinawa/Japan plc.

On Thursday I attended the elementary school graduation. This was a much more elaborate affair than we have at home and lasted most of the morning. I was slightly apprehensive expecting tears and the like (I had heard this might be the case from other JETs) but it was a surprisingly pleasant affair with no tears at all! After all the kids are only going about 100 yards up the road to the Junior High school. They will of course be my new first year class at the JHS, quite looking forward to teaching them. One of them mentioned English in his farewell speech; I hope it was in a positive way. One minor curiosity was that one teacher pointedly sat down for the singing of the national anthem, she/he shall remain nameless but she/he was stood immediately before and after the anthem so I must assume it was a meaningful gesture. Potentially a strong one in this conformist and unquestionably patriotic (or so it seems to me) country. It still seems a little odd to me, all the flag flying and anthem singing, oh and the bowing to the Japanese flag before and after speeches. I don't think I have ever stood for the British national anthem except shortly before or after standing up to belt out 'oh flower of Scotland' at Murray field (our national rugby stadium) and I certainly don't know the words. At least they don't have flags in the classrooms here. Anyway! Yuko sensei (the teacher of the graduation year) looked quite splendid in her Kimono and other bit which I can remember the name off. Today (Friday) is the last day of term so the teachers who will be leaving all gave speeches and were given flowers, this time there was crying. The 3rd years (JHS students) turned up so say goodbye again which was nice. My favourite speech was by M.Sensei and went along the lines of;
'I taught the 3rd years for 3 years, the 2nd years for 2 years and the 1st years for 1 year. Do your best please. Thank you. That's it!'
Short and sweet!

I had rather a long weekend this weekend, for one reason or another. One reason was the India fundraiser which was held on Saturday. All the Okinawa JETs who went to India in December have been working on throwing a fundraiser at the popular JET haunt, Paul and Mike’s international bar. The night was a success despite a disappointing turnout and we raised a total of 8man (80000 yen or 800 US dollars) after all our expenses. This money will go to the anada marger (however that is spelt) organization to be used to fund their schools in India. The harrowing highlight of the night was the live slave auction; the five boys who had gone to India offered themselves up for sale as slaves/dates for the night. Another big hit were cookies cooked by the hottest gal in all of Okinawa, sold with the slogan ‘better than sex’ they raised almost a 100 bucks on their own. Other goings on over the course of the weekend involved a Gumball rally which despite acts of gross public indecency my team did not win, I suppose second place is better than a kick in the pants. The weekend was topped off with a visit to Nakagusuku castle, an ancient Ryukyu castle dating back to the 15th centaury and a world heritage site which boasts impressive masonry and panoramic views, one can see from one side of the island to the other (maybe). After exploring the castle we explored a haunted hotel which was built right next to the castle. I don’t know any of the details of the story; suffice it to say the hotel was build recently but quickly abandoned after it got a reputation as being haunted. This reputation arose by an alarming number of unexplained deaths which plagued the hotel. I don’t know the actual number but it must be assumed it was alarmingly large enough to cause this large and probably once impressive hotel to be abandoned. It is quite derelict now and covered in graffiti. It does have a certain spooky charm and include a picture of me pretending to serve a drink from behind what used to be a bar (I think). I was also very sick this weekend, terrible migraines.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4781688.stm
This is an interesting article. A bit sad and troubling but I post it because of the Japanese students who helped the unfortunate lady when no-one else did. My Japanese English teacher was happy when I told her about the article. It is my observation that Japanese people are very kind and eager to help and seem to view life with little malice. I have not noticed any bullying or nastiness between students at my school, I would definitely expect a little of that if this were a Scottish school. Another character trait I have noticed is a tendency for Japanese men to get stark naked when drunk. A phenomenon I experienced in the confines of my very own home last night. I am sure you are wondering if I participating in this activity, as a cultural experience perhaps? I am also quite sure I won't be telling ;).

A fun weekend but another one where spending time with my Japanese friends got in the way of actual Japanese language study. Ah well, such is the way of things. On Saturday four people from Tokyo visited Izena, one of them had traced her ancestry back to King Shoen and the others were just along for the ride. We threw a barbeque at Yoshiaki-sans house in their honour (any excuse for a party). I mostly brought this up because I wanted to post a picture of me eating a pig’s snout. A whole pigs head (minus bones) is typical Okinawan barbeque fare and upon spying the snout I claimed that delicacy for myself. It was a little chewy but not bad!

A Picture of me and Percy the Primula about to depart Unten port for his new home on Izena island! As requested by 'e'.

Aww cute, could you find anything better on your desk when you come into work?

On the front it said:
Letter for you kureigu
And inside: It is the cookie which we made. Probably, good.
Were you already used to Japan? from students 3 grad

I don't want them to learn english well, it's way cuter this way.

I finally fixed my internet! For two weeks now it has been semi-broken, not going to certain sites or loading up pictures, very annoying! I was pretty much restricted to gmail and bbc.co.uk but anyway is all good now cos I fixed it! Something to do with the IP and DNS addresses. I have had this post lying around waiting to be posted for a while now and finally, without further ado, my post:
Another update to my blog with nothing of immense importance to convey. But I say since when has important been a part of fun? I had a fun weekend on Okinawa honto (and if you haven’t picked up on it yet, that is the main and largest Okinawan Island). On Saturday I went to see the new Narnia film and I thought it was jolly good! I did love the books are a child so I am sure that had something to do with it. It really was the ultimate fantasy for a young boy, getting to go to a magical world and be given a sword and shield and told you could be king! Anyway I thought it was pretty good. Later that same evening I went ice-skating at Okinawa’s only ice rink. I was terrible but then I expected that, however since when has terrible not been a part of fun! Mmmm I am not sure that one works but I did have fun! On Sunday my ferry was cancelled again! I really hate it when that happens…… (Yeah right!). So that day was spent exploring the heavily forested mountains of northern Okinawa honto in the search of waterfalls. For the second time running the trail to the world famous Hiji falls was closed so our only option was to bravely set forth and discover hitherto unknown falls in a brave (some may say foolhardy) adventure. And yet find falling water we did! See above picture for photographic evidence! We also came across strange beasts lurking in the leaf litter (newts). So that was my weekend. Ah yes I also made a new friend, Percy the primula, he’s moving in with me. I also bought several helmets and a hammer that goes squeak, students of Izena beware! That’s all I have to say.

Teraryo, their eyes amuse me, I think they look quite startled to have been taken out of the water.




This Saturday (the 18th) I lived the day in the life of a mozuku fisher man on Izena Island. Mozuku is a brown sea weed which is something of a delicacy in Japan, it and sugar are Izena island’s main exports. My friend Koshin and his father are mozuku fishermen and two weeks ago Koshin had offered to give me a ‘workshop’ on his work. The day started early (I woke up at 6.30am) and we were in their boat heading out so sea by 8am. It was a small 25 to 30 foot boat, Koshin and his father work together in a two man team harvesting the mozuku. At the South West side of the island (off Izena beach) a small uninhabited island (Yamaho shima) and several rocks linked by reef form a large, shallow lagoon; this is where the mozuku is grown. It is grown on nets suspended about a foot above the sea bed. Once we had reached their nets we anchored the boat and set about harvesting the mozuku. There were several other similar small boats in the lagoon also harvesting mozuku, Koshin tells me there are about 50 fishermen (uminchu) in Izena village. It was a two man job, one member would dive down with a sort of hoover and suck up the mozuku. The mozuku and sea water was pumped up to the boat and then out over netting suspended over the side of the boat, the other member of the team would then brush the mozuku into crates while removing any other seaweeds or sea grass which was mixed in with the mozuku. I offered to help with the brushing and Koshin’s father seemed only too happy to let me, I ended up doing 6 out of the 7 crates we filled that day. I was determined to prove (to myself?) that I was up to the challenge of this work and I expect Koshin’s father was delighted to have a bit of a holiday. The mozuku fisher men work seven days and week and typically spend all day out at sea, hard work! I also went down and snorkeled to observe the ‘hoovering’ process. While I was down there I saw a white moray eel swimming along, it was perhaps 3 or 4 foot long. We harvested the mozuku without break until about 1.30pm when the compressor broke and Koshin was forced to surface. So that brought an end to the mozuku harvest for the day and to be honest I was quite relieved! We brought the mozuku to the packing plant and then had a quick lunch (bento) before heading back out to sea to do some shell fish collecting. For the record 400kg of mozuku brings in 7 man (350quid) and each crate weighted about 70kg, judging by the number of empty crates on the boat I think they would be able to fill 15-20 in a day. By now the lagoon was about 1 meter deep, perfect for collecting shell fish. A type of cone shell called teraryo is in season right now so that was our chosen prey. Now you those not in Okinawa may not be aware but cone shells can be very dangerous as certain species are extremely venomous (potentially fatal) and one is recommended to avoid all cone shells. So my first lesson was how to recognize the different species. Fortunately the most common species is the edible variety and the venomous species have a distinct pattern (triangular blobs instead of stripes) and are conveniently bright orange or purple. We collected toritsu from roughly 2.30 to 4.30 and after a while I got my eye in and collected quite a few, all together we must have collected several hundred at least. I also spotted some weird and wonderful marine life along the way, I have jotted down descriptions of them and will endeavor to find out what they were. Once back on dry land we boiled the shells and shelled them, quite a task as well! We split the teraryo equally three ways so now I have quite a lot of them in my fridge! Later I and Koshin met with Teru at Nakagawakan (the restaurant/hotel near my house) for dinner and drinks. I was pretty exhausted from the day’s exertions and had to pass on karaoke, I think I was sound asleep by about 11 o’clock. So that was my day in the life as an Izena mozuku fisherman, it was hard work and to be honest rather monotonous, it makes me even more grateful for the wonderful job I have now. I am very grateful to all those factors which have conspired to give me an education and therefore such exiting prospects and opportunities in life.

So today was Valentines Day! Valentines Day in Japan is a little different to Valentines Day back home. Instead of being mostly about couples where usually the man makes the effort here in Japan on the 14th of February women give men chocolate. Not only do they have to give chocolate to their lover/partner but also to male co-workers or any man they like/are close to. Then on White day, the 14th of March, Men return the favour giving chocolate to any women who gave them chocolate, although this may not in practice happen. So anyway the female teachers banded together to give all the male teachers chocolate and I also got chocolate from some of the pupils. One came with a cute note saying ‘happy valentines Craig, thank you for teaching English for us for half years,’ pretty sweet I thought. Oh and also we had chocolate cake with our school lunch (valentines cake) and as there was some left I got an extra slice, wicked! To make things even better when I popped down to my elementary school at the end of the day to check on the topic for Thursdays lesson (review!) I got more valentines chocolate and they were opening their valentines cake so I had some more, double wicked! In other news I got recontracted today and while up at my BOE (Board of Education) the head of the BOE offered me some tea and over tea we were chatting about running and working out (he is a decathlon athlete) and he offered me the use of his weights at his house. In fact he was so kind as to drive me to his house then and there so I could look at his weights, he had a nice old traditional okinawan house. So one of these evenings soon I will drop by and lift with him. Not sure I want to get into lifting again what with my running thing right now but a little won’t hurt and it would only be polite. So all in all it was a good day, I also only had one class to teach all day.