晴れ はれ ha-re

It means "clear weather" in Japanese. And what clear weather it has been for the past few days.

I spent my weekend on Zamami with Dave, just hanging out and making a few social rounds on Saturday night. Sunday we took off on a mid-day bike adventure to one of the lesser visited parts of the island, a little hamlet called Asa. We visited the nearby beach, and since the tide was out, we walked around more so than we would have been able to otherwise. I got a little sunburned, too.

Monday was Higashi school's annual 海の体験学習 Sea Learning Experience Day. I made sure to cover my face well and apply thick layers of sunscreen to keep from repeating the exposure on Sunday. In general, it was a much better day than last year, with only occasional clouds and wind. It was a perfect day for getting into the water and herding fish into a net (追い込み), cleaning and cooking our fish on the beach (this years catch was much better than last), and just generally enjoying being outdoors for a day.

The weather has held up well this week and it has been sunny so far today. The forecast also shows sun tomorrow and even into this weekend. Here's hoping the skies decide to stay clear for me as I make my way to Taiwan next week for Golden Week. I'll be heading to Alishan, a mountain famed for its delicious tea; Taroko Gorge National Park for some exploring and hiking; and two nights in Taipei staying with Couchsurfers who have graciously decided to host me. One of my hosts is a couple who love to bike and compete in triathlons. Seeing as I'm doing the Izena 88 Triathlon (biking portion of 66km), I'm sure we'll have a lot to talk about.

Deep Blue

This past weekend, I went deep sea fishing for the first time. Several weeks ago, my friend Dave sent out an invitation to join the trip on a charter that he was organizing. I jumped right on the chance to go. It had been so long since I’d done any sort of fishing and I was really looking forward to what I heard was supposed to be a great time.

Okinawa at 5:30 in the morning.

And it was. For about half of us. Seven of us started the trip out to sea on Saturday morning, leaving port at around 5:30 am. The sunrise was beautiful, the sea was calm, and the weather turned out to be fantastic ? clear skies and warm weather. Unfortunately for some, the inner calmness didn’t last. While four of us were doing just fine, the other three were alternating between lying on the deck, leaning over the side of the boat, and in one case, fighting sickness long enough to pull in a few fish.

Eric with his first catch.

We fished for about 8 hours and, though I stopped counting, pulled in lots of fish ? mostly tuna, but also some smaller bonito. Kerri even managed to snag a flying fish, but threw it back (I learned a few days later than they are apparently really tasty).

Dave cleans the first fish on our way back to port.

It was a blast! My freezer is now full of thick fish fillets. I made a nice dish last night. I roasted tomatoes, onions, olive oil, garlic, and seasoning for about 10-15 minutes at 200 C, then added the fish for another 10-15. Topping that off with a bowl of rice, it was a nice dinner.

At the very least, I learned something important about myself ? I like providing my own food. Granted, we chartered a boat and had to travel pretty far out to sea, but the feeling of reeling in a fish by myself was something I needed. It’s got me wondering what other sorts of things I can do on my own.

Money...well, spent

Don't be fooled - not all of Japan has access to the latest internet technology (I'm talking about hi-speed fiber optic networks). While this technology has reached as far north in Okinawa as Nago, it has not come past there into the villages of Higashi, Ogimi, and Kunigami. The reason? Perhaps, revenue versus cost. It's my guess that there are not enough people up here that would use internet to make it worth building a network. Which leaves me confused as to why some of the outer islands have better internet access than we do - who decided to build networks out to those islands?

But speed is only part of the point here. I've come to accept my slow internet. During downloads and page loadings, I do other productive things, like study or run. The other aspect of my internet service, one that I'm reminded of monthly, is cost. I pay around $90 US a month for slow ass internet. It's more complicated than that, so let me explain.

I use what is known as ISDN, the technology that emerged after the introduction of the dial-up modem. For some of you younger readers, you might be thinking, "what's a modem?" or "what's dial-up?" I remember talking to my friend Cliff one day about how I used dial-up modems and bulletin board systems (BBS) back in high school - he had no idea what I was talking about. Anyway, it's not fast and it requires a phone line. And this is where NTT (the phone company) makes a killing (I assume).

The internet connection fee is around $25 US a month. The phone line rental is $65 US. So with about twice the money it took to wire my Chicago apartment with relatively fast cable, I get internet that kind of sucks.

This doesn't really bother me anymore, except when I can't connect. Yesterday, the phone line refused to connect despite all my attempts to get it to dial. I eventually gave up and during errands in Nago stopped by the internet cafe. But I was starting to get a little pissed off at NTT and I had this months bills on my desk, ready to call them with threats of cancellation and a loss of revenue. So of course, this morning, I connected and everything's back to normal. Close one, NTT. If it wasn't for my study habits, which require internet resources, you might have one less reason to build that network in Higashi.

Zamami

My friend Dave lives on an island village off the west coast of southern Okinawa. It's called Zamami.

Over the past year and a half, I've made it to Zamami around half-a-dozen times, twice for whale watching, other visits just to see Dave and hang out on the island. This past weekend was the second whale watching visit and it was really fun. A number of ALTs from the southern part of Okinawa made the trip as did a few of their Japanese friends.

The great part about this weekend, besides the whale watching, was the festival that was held on Saturday. Starting at 5:30, there were all kinds of musical presentations ranging from taiko and eisa (traditional Okinawan dance) to a really cool trio of sanshin, piano and percussion. After the last performance, we headed back to the apartment and played a random assortment of card games and discussed as many dirty Japanese words as possible before going to sleep.

Sunday, it questionable weather, we all head out for the main event. And it turned out well. Though we didn't see as much activity as we did last February, for a few of the people on the trip who had never seen whales, it was still very cool. And so I recommend, that if you ever get the chance to take a whale watching trip, that you do. It's something you'll really enjoy (just be sure to take your sea legs with you).

Photo credit: David Clumpner

Fiestavus

The adventure isn't over. Check out the video and support some awesome dudes at Fiestavus.com.



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