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.

So much has happened but I don't have time to post right now, sorry! I promise I will post soon! Here is a sample.

My sister and her boyfriend, David, arrived in Okinawa on Friday! However it was not until Monday that we could get to Izena because of a Typhoon. We had a great time on the mainland thanks to Kelly who did a fantastic job of entertaining us, we especially enjoyed the ice skating! Once we got to Izena things got a bit crazy, I rushed them to school for my after school English conversation classes and then rushed them to a festival with no time for dinner. The festival was good, a bit of a shock for my sis and David but fun none the less. It was a little rowdy and a little violent at times. Nothing compared to my first experience of a festival last year when I had no idea of what was going on though. I won a bag of rice at sumo and managed to escape drinking with the 'bad boys' of the island. Instead I went to a snack with Teru, Nagi and a few others and we ate, drank and sang karaoke until too late. We even got my, apparently, shy sister to sing karaoke, eventually! Good times.....and there are three more festivals to go this month! Don't worry Mum and Dad I am looking after wee Sis despite determined efforts of the islanders they only drank green tea and aserola (okinawan fruit) juice all night, sorry I can't say the same for myself but I'm an islander don't cha knooow!

This weekend I trained (for the triathlon), cleaned my house (for my sister arriving this Friday) and performed Tiako (practiced tiako lots too). The training went pretty well, I even survived doing a mini triathlon during the midday heat on Monday (we had the day off) as I had the taiko later that afternoon. One is not supposed to do anything strenuous in the midday sun right now but I had no choice. Besides I had trusty aquarious (sports drink) to keep me going, although the heat was a tad bothersome during the run. My desire for more tiako practice has been satisfied, on Sunday I practiced for 5 hours straight (with the elementary school kids and then the junior high schoolers). The performance was yesterday and I dare say it went well. I and a mixture of elementary and junior high school kids performed for a group of visiting high school students from somewhere near Tokyo. It was my first tiako performace, I am hoping to do it again in the big summer King Shoen festival. The only cloud on my horizon is an incoming typhoon which may hit Naha at the time my sister is due to fly in (Friday), hoping it veers off and gives Okinawa a miss!
Please go to this link and read (including the comments at the bottom)!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/5140912.stm
Thank goodness for our sense of humour! Probably the last redeeming feature of our small island nation, nothing else springs to mind anyway.

What are the chances of this happening! It was the last game of the lesson and somehow they all managed to score 24 points. Perfect ending and I didn't cheat or anything, it was as much a surprise to me as the class.

Me at a rehearsal for the peace play.
Campfire!
This past week was a fairly busy one. On top of the usual classes I coached two girls for a English story contest and also got involved in the peace play at my shogakko (elementary school). Two of my 3rd year students wanted to take part in the English story contest so for the past month I have been practicing with them at least once a day. They did well I think but I wish they had had more time to practice. However with all their other commitments, sporting and academic it must have been hard for them. They had two tennis games to compete in, a Japanese test and all their end of term tests this week also to consider. Either way it was fun. The peace play was last Thursday, Friday was Irei no Hi (peace day) which is an Okinawan holiday commemorating the battle of Okinawa and wishing for world wide peace. The play was of surprisingly (for me) meaty stuff. It started in the present, some old ladies telling young kids about the war. It then whooshes back in time and we see a family struggling to get food during the war. The invasion then starts and the grandmother refuses to leave the house and flee to the caves, she dies as a result. Some more things happen culminating in the Okinawans sheltering in the cave only to be bullied by some mainland Japanese troops. The play ends with the death of a little girl in the cave. There was also pictures and video footage of the war shown. They certainly didn’t censor anything for the kids! I and my keyboard helped with sound effects; thunder, explosions, gunshots etc. It was a little hard keeping track and timing things (especially the explosions which ‘killed’ people) due to my lack of Japanese but I managed and it was a success. The highlight of the week was a night spent camping on a beach in Ogimi (Okinawa Honto) with Kelly. Great sunset, beautiful stars, lots of convenient wood for the campfire and of course fantastic company. Also what better way to wake up than to go straight into the sea for a swim!

It appears birthdays are a bit like London buses,

Happy Birthday Dad!
I know you will have a good time.

Happy Birthday Cindi!!
Hope you have a great 50th birthday!
All the best!

Craig

Miscellaneous post; Japanese TV, soccer and mold. I feel like a whimsical post. A few weeks ago I had dinner with a neighbor of mine and (husband and wife) and during dinner we watched TV. Every so often out of boredom I flip on the TV and try and make sense of what is going on. The programs we watched that evening were fairly typical; a nature documentary, a period drama (samurai and the like) and a program about health. They are very obsessed with health here in Japan. It is no wonder they live so long, most Japanese employees have a yearly health check which if they fail for three time in a row (I think) they have to go to a hospital for more checks and probably dietary advice and such. This is quite incredible I think, I don’t know what the penalties (if any) are for serial offenders but it seems something of an intrusion. I will eat and live as a darn well please thank you very much! As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted by my own rant, we were watching TV. I have found the period dramas mildly entertaining but mostly boring but my hosts were riveted and reacted to everything very strongly, when the Shogun was ranting away at a poor subject they were quite cowed and I heard murmured ‘Kowai’ (scary!). Next up was the health program, I am not sure what it was exactly about, there were examples of unhealthy (looked fine to me) people and their terrible diets (a lot better than most western diets) which drew much tut tutting and distain from my hosts. There was some doctor type talking about an obscure health indicator, this it was all getting a bit too much for my house wife host, perhaps feeling guilty for having fried the chicken (all that fat!) she suddenly got up rummaged in the freezer and produced some soybeans. So we all munched on those and felt much better for it (even though we were stuffed from the dinner). I have never seen the influence of TV working for quickly. Next topic is soccer. It’s the world cup don’t you know! If you don’t I would be mighty impressed. So although I am rooting for England, watching the games while I can and reading about them on the BBC website when I can’t, I still have my misgivings about this sport. Why are soccer players so unsporting and when it comes down to it, so un-manly? And why then has such a sport roused the passions of the worlds people like no other?! My major gripe is with diving. This is when a football player will throw himself at the grown at the slightest touch (or something excessive proximity only) and writhe there in agony until something is done about it. At which point he will pop up, hop for a few yard and then energetically enter back into play seemingly no worse for wear despite his recent agonizing injury. Sometimes the team better at faking fouls (diving) will win a game. This varies from place to place and English football for instance tends to allow much harder tackles but that doesn’t help them when they face teams of a much more tender constitution (in fact it is almost a disadvantage). When this is coupled with the rather more sporting habit of kicking the ball out of play when a player is injured to allow recovery/treatment time it is even worse. For example during the Australia Japan game a Japanese player went down to a fair tackle by an Aussie (the ref. didn’t blow his whistle) as the Aussies started to break back the Japanese team stood still virtually boycotting play. The Australians then kicked the ball out of bounds. The ‘injured’ player then received treatment went off the pitch but came straight back on! Thus the Australian counter attack was reduced to nothing. Case number two (the evidence mounts up). While watching the Portugal Iran game I was even more disgusted, Iran were one nil down, Portugal were slightly running amuck. Cristiano Ronaldo was making a run down the left wing; he slips the ball past the Iranian captain Golmohammadi who without looking at the ball (even less turning and chasing it) he runs shoulder first straight into Ronaldo’s chest. Ronaldo of course is knocked down however Golmohammadi also falls, suddenly clutching his shoulder, apparently in real pain (Ronaldo merely suffers a bemused expression). Golmohammadi was in so much pain he had to hobble off the field, Portugal got a free kick. It was also Golmohammadi whose needless foul on Figo gave Portugal their second goal (penalty kick). I should say that in both these cases Iran did not benefit due to good refereeing. Perhaps because I am more of a Rugby fan where players have finished games with broken bones (cut and bruises are run of the mill) this seems rather undignified. I wish they would have a video referee (as in rugby and cricket) so that more dives would be caught and punished but this doesn’t seem like happening soon. I think part of the allure of soccer is dodgy refereeing. If you win, all good, if you loose it was the ref’s fault and your team are innocent victims. That and the fact football can be played on any patch of open space with anything even resembling a ball. Despite all this complaining I will be keeping my fingers and toes crossed for England and eagerly following their progress. The post is too long so I will only briefly mention mold, it is everywhere! Well not quite but as a result of the rainy season a number of ALTs have been discovering mold in their houses! I myself found some on my leather belts so I have been running the aircon 24/7 to dry out my house. Also my running shirt has mould spots that are still their after numerous washings, a little unpleasant, I will try beach next.
PS. Had a good Taiko (Japanese drumming) practice yesterday, I have numerous blisters on my hands, as Yoshiaki-san said, NICE!

It was one of those small coincidences in life with utterly no significance but It must have impressed me a little as I feel like blogging it! I wore my Kilt to Okinawa Honto this weekend and among other things I wore it while watching the England Paraguay football game. As a result I was feeling a little Scottish! While browsing a magazine on Okinawa I came across an article on Okinawan Spiders. It interested me a little as I have notices the large black and yellow Forest spiders (and sometimes Banana spiders). These are quite large, I have seen them up to 10cm and being Orb spiders make huge webs (diameters of 6 feet plus). In the article I saw there was a spider called the St. Andrews spider! Being the Scottish patron Saint this caught my eye. It is so named because it rests with its legs in a cross, like the St. Andrews cross (the same cross which is on our flag). Anyway I forgot about it but when I returned to my island and was walking home from the ferry port I happened to glance down to my right and lo and behold! There was a St. Andrews spider! Of course I had to stop and take a picture. The small one is the male I believe.