Blue Lotus

Mikurajima

I really shouldn't have done it. Good wives are not supposed to take off on frivolous trips while their husbands stay home looking for work. Especially when they've barely gotten back from a one-month visit to Canada and can hardly claim they're starved for a vacation. Especially especially when their summers consisted of working five weeks of summer camps with just a weekend between each one, leaving very little time to even keep up with the laundry, let alone have quality with said husbands. But something keeps drawing my back, and I did it. I went to Mikurajima.

Mikurajima is a small island south of Tokyo, part of the chain of islands known as the Izu Seven Islands. It was my third visit, having gone last year and two years before that. I don't know if that quite qualifies me as a regular, but I'm beginning to feel like it (hell, google "Mikurajima" and my blog comes in second from top). And I mean that in a good way. It's a tiny place with an equally tiny population, and it doesn't take that long to feel like you know the island.

I went with my friends Emi and Etsuko and Etsuko's boyfriend Jeremy. We left on August 6th (figuring we'd take advantage of the brief time in early August when the water has warmed up but the jellyfish haven't arrived yet) by overnight ferry, which is the only direct way to get there from Tokyo. It is possible to get there from neighboring Miyakejima by fishing boat, and you can also helicopter over from Izu Oshima, which I almost did since I was already on Oshima that day finishing up an English camp. But then I saw how much it cost and realized it would be far cheaper to ferry back to take a ferry from Oshima to Tokyo, wait a few hours, and get on another ferry to Mikurajima. Quite a waste of time, but not only was the transportation itself cheaper that way, but by sleeping on the ferry I saved paying for a night's lodging. Plus Hideaki was nice enough to come to the harbour to not only pass the time between ferries with me, but to take home my dirty camp clothes and wash them for me. Either I'm a very bad wife, or I have a very good husband.

But you get what you paid for, and the seats on the ferry were about as comfortable as airplane seats, meaning I didn't get much sleep. At least my motion sickness meds worked though: Etsuko's didn't, so even though she and Jeremy were able to stretch out to sleep (albeit on the floor), she got less sleep than I did. Emi, going all out as she usually does, slept like a baby in her bunk and barely got off the ferry in time (it went on to the distant island of Hachioji after Mikurajima). The above picture is taken at dawn as we pulled away from Miyakejima, Mikurajima's closest neighbor.

An hour after leaving Miyakejima we landed on Mikurajima, shown above. Note the steep sides of the island: there are no beaches, a fact that mostly kept tourists away until the dolphin tourism boom started about a decade ago. Tourism is still well controlled by both the inaccessibility of the island and the islanders' dedication to conservation, with strict rules governing what tourists can do on the island.

We stayed the first night at our favourite minshuku (family-run inn), Nishikawa, shown below. Like most buildings on the island it is of utilitarian construction, but you don't go to Mikurajima for the architecture.

While everyone else spent the morning in the water, I had a refreshing nap (vowing, as I nodded off, to shell out for a first class ferry ticket next year). Then we all met up again for lunch at Yamaya, one of just three restaurants on the island. I had a bowl of ume shiso reimen (cold Korean style noodles with pickled ume and perilla) which turned out to be one of the most refreshing dishes I had all summer, with a tart, tangy kick that shook off the last of my sleepiness.

And then Emi, Jeremy and I headed out to see the dolphins. The only way to see them is by snorkeling in the open water (scuba diving is prohibited), and the only way to get out into the water is by tour boat. There are about a dozen to choose from and we went with Sirius Nature Tours, which we like for its small and relatively comfortable boat (it holds a maximum of seven people) and skilled captain. There are further restrictions about how many times tourists can go out per day and how long each tour lasts, but my plan of one tour per day was well within the limits.

There are about 100 dolphins in the waters surrounding the island, split into several groups which are constantly on the move but usually stick close to the shore. We had to travel halfway around the island before we spotting them, and for a while all we could do was watch them from the boat, since they were swimming erratically and it was hard to tell which direction they were headed. Dolphins are very fast swimmers, and often by the time the captain sees them, slows down the boat and sends his passengers into the water, the dolphins are long gone. So we just watched them come up for air and do the occasional jump above the surface for a while.

Finally the timing was right and we could get in the water. Sirius's captain is really good at predicting which directions the dolphins will swim and stopping in front of them, so we can see them coming and going, whereas other tours we've been on just dump us near the dolphins as they pass, which usually results in great views of their tails as they swim away, and nothing more.

Visibility wasn't great, as there'd been stormy weather the day before, but we still got to see lots of dolphins. Unfortunately my waterproof camera decided to stop being waterproof after just one picture underwater, so most of these pictures are Emi's. My camera was ruined but I had little time to think about it as I tried to keep up with the dolphins (and as luck would have it, when I finally had time to deal with it last month Pentax replaced the camera for free).

Back at our minshuku, after cleaning our gear and showering, we had a dinner so homey and local it could have been on the table of any family on the island (and I mean that in a good way). Clockwise from bottom left: chilled ashitaba somen (thin noodles made of wheat and ashitaba, a fast-growing plant with edible leaves found all over the Izu Seven Islands), served in a soy-based broth and topped with noriashitaba to tuna no aemono seaweed; (ashitaba greens dressed with tuna); potato salad; grilled takabe (a local fish called yellowstriped butterfish in English); kinmedai (alphonsino) sashimi; pickles; and mabodofu (tofu in spicy pork sauce); with rice available self-serve. It was all good, and I loved the bitter, fresh flavour of the ashitaba.

The next morning we woke up early to the breakfast above: shumai (pork dumplings), cheese-stuffed hampen (fish cake) and sauteed peppers on the large plate; rice; grilled salted salmon; mango pudding; miso soup; simmered satsuma-age (fried fish cake), carrot and konnyaku (devil's tongue jelly); pickles, and komatsuna greens simmered with egg.

And then we headed out for another dolphin tour. The day started out clear, with a nice view of Miyakejima to the north, and I came armed with my waterproof cell phone.

Which took really crappy pictures. The one above was taken in the middle of a big school of takabe, the very same fish we'd tried the night before. Below is Emi with her camera safely inside its waterproof casing, and the rest of the dolphin pictures are hers.

 

By the time the tour ended the top half of the island was covered in cloud, which didn't bode well for the hike we'd planned in the afternoon.

Lunch was at Yamaya again, but as I was still full from my giant breakfast I opted for matcha azuki kakigori (shaved ice flavoured with sweetened matcha tea and adzuki beans).

Hiking on Mikurajima is as strictly controlled as dolphin watching, with most routes requiring a guide. I had planned on doing a short hike on one of the routes not requiring a hike, but when Jeremy realized he and Etsuko's guided tour fell on the same afternoon,he kindly offered to pay for me to join. I was glad I did, as I learned a lot about the island's nature and history that I otherwise wouldn't have. And even though my camera was broken, I still got some pictures, as Jeremy lent me his camera.

We started by driving out of the village and into the mountains, stopping first at this giant sudajii (Castanopsis sieboldii, a member of the beech family).

Walking around its base we came upon this empty eggshell, once home to an oomizunadori (Calonectris leucomelas, or streaked shearwater) a seabird that nests on the island.

We continued driving, stopping occasionally for the view (unfortunately the cloud cover remained and we didn't enjoy the view of the ocean and distant mainland that the tour usually affords) and finally at this little roadside shrine. Next to the van was a patch of the ever-present ashitaba, and we were instructed to pick a leaf and bring it to the shrine.

The leaf was placed on the altar and covered with a rock as we prayed for a safe journey. This is apparently the traditional thing to do when venturing into the mountains on Mikurajima, with travelers returning to the shrine on their way down to remove the leaf being and give thanks to the gods for their safe return.

Then we walked into the forest, passing more giant trees as well as giant ferns, and plenty more eggshells.

Not everything was giant, and although I wasn't used to the camera and couldn't get any shots of the many pretty flowers and plants we saw, I did get some shots of the pretty tama ajisai (hydrangea involucrata, or ball-shaped hydrangea). These look like regular gaku ajisai (lace hydrangea) when fully bloomed, but start off quite differently with the flowers tightly wrapped in a white ball. They bloom throughout the summer, later than regular hydrangea, and although they can be found on mainland Japan they are especially abundant on Mikurajima.

We eventually made it to Oojii, a giant tree said to be the largest sudaji in Japan, which is protected by a fence and very hard to get a good view of (but that's it behind us). 

We hadn't been able to reserve our second night at our minshuku, so we had to move to Mikurasou, the island's only hotel. I don't like it as much as Nishikawa,but the meals are totally different, so it was nice to experience both home-cooked food and fancy food in the same trip.

Clockwise from bottom left: ashitaba dressed with local kikurage (cloud ear mushroom); locally caught kinmedai and summer vegetables in sweet and sour sauce; oven-baked chicken and local potatoes; kampachi (yellowtail) and ama-ebi (sweet shrimp) sashimi; miso soup with limpets; itoyori-dai (threadfin bream) over spinach in a tart "Japonaise" sauce, topped with deep-fried glass noodles.

After dinner we saw the sunset as we walked down to Camburi, Mikurajima's only bar (which we'd visited earlier for coffee as it turns into a cafe during the day). It's a nice place made of local wood and has been around for just a year, and we enjoyed our cocktails and snacks very much. Below is takabe sashimi, yet another form of the local fish.

The next morning was our last dolphin swim. This time we were all together (Etsuko had canceled the previous day's tour due to her seasickness) and the dolphins were more active than we'd ever seen them.

By active I mean sexually active, and we saw quite a bit of dolphin foreplay. It was mostly groups of two or three males (visibly excited, as can be seen in two of the pictures before playing around with a single female, or each other. They completely ignored us swam in circles, which was neat because it allowed us to watch them for a long time, but also weird because, well, we were watching dolphins get it on. I felt a bit like a pervert then, and now that I'm posting dolphin porn I feel like a pervert all over again.

 

Breakfast had been served while we were away and was packed up for our return. Our little breakfast packs consisted of rice topped with okaka (bonito flakes flavoured with soy sauce) and kurogoma (black sesame); ashitaba dressed in soy sauce and sesame seeds; grilled mackerel; pickles and atsuyaki tamago (thick omelet).

Then we walked down to Minminan, another restaurant, where I had an iced coffee (all I could fit after breakfast) while the others had lunch, then on to the third restaurant on the island, Marufuku, for a gelato cone to eat on the way down to the dock to meet our ferry. It was sad to leave, even sadder still knowing we'd arrive back in Tokyo late at night and I'd be waking up early the next day for another week of camp. But it was a wonderful trip, and just like to say thank you to Emi for organizing it, and to Etsuko and Jeremy for bringing me along on their hike and letting me use their camera, and to Hideaki for his laundry services and good husbandry. I hope he'll come with me next year.

 

To see more pictures from the trip, check out my Mikurajima album on Flickr.

Tokai Kisen has a daily route from Takeshiba Sanbashi Pier in Tokyo to Hachijoji, stopping at Miyakejima and Mikurajima on the way. The ferry departs nightly 10:20, arriving in Mikurajima the next morning at 6:00. The return ferry departs from Mikurajima at 1:15am and arrive in Tokyo at 10:30pm; one-way tickets start at 7200 yen for seats or floor space and 10,810 yen for second class bunks.

A night at Nishikawa costs 8000 yen per person, breakfast and dinner included; other minshuku range in price from 6900 to 8500 yen per night including breakfast and dinner; Mikurasou charges 10,500 per person (based on double occupancy) including breakfast and dinner; Bungalos are 2000 yen per night with no meals or amenities (bedding and cooking equipment must be rented, showers are pay-by-the-minute).

All dolphin tours costs 7000 yen, including pick-up and drop-off from hotel, but service varies between tour companies. I highly recommend Sirius Nature Tours.

Canada, week one

My trip to Canada last month started as it always does, with a dose of jetlag. But I don't know if it was the result of a pleasant flight (did I really just describe a 12 hour flight as "pleasant"? why yes, yes I did. thanks Air Canada and your endless stream of movies and TV shows) or the homeopathic anti-jet lag pills I took, but this time around I had the mildest jet lag ever. The worst I had to deal with was a week of early nights, spontaneous naps and very early mornings, which wasn't bad at all. And I have a feeling that even without jet lag I'd be waking up at 4:00, because that's when our backyard starts to come alive with robins and other birds announcing the coming day.

The early mornings were also a nice for walks in the nearby park, as that's the best time for picturesque fog, dewy flowers and active birds. The birds (and a local beaver) eluded my camera but the snails, which seemed to be everywhere thanks to some very wet weather, obligingly stayed still for me.

That wet weather kept us indoors more than I would have liked, but as a consolation there was lots of good food. Some of the biggest cravings I get in Japan are for simple, humble food like Jamaican hot patties or perogies, shown above.

I also miss Mexican and Tex-mex food, which although available in Tokyo is either prohibitively expensive or not very good. Luckily my brother Greg and his girlfriend Sherry are masters of Mexican cooking and whipped up several excellent meals for us. Above are condiments for quesadillas: mango salsa, sour cream, mild tomato salsa, guacamole, hot salsa and a side dish of (why not?) sauteed gai lan (a rapini-like Chinese green).

These were chicken quesadillas, cooked up on the barbeque and so, so good.

And of course no trip back home is complete without a few big breakfasts.This one was at Cora's, an lovely breakfast chain that originated in Montreal but has happily spread across Canada. Tempted by waffles and omelets, I chose brioche French toast topped with a poached egg, bacon, and mounds of fruit. Yum.

My niece Zoe and nephew Aaron flew up from  for a visit shortly after I arrived and we tried to keep them busy, starting with a trip with my Dad to Belfountain, a local conservation area with some nice and easy hiking trails. The area once belonged to a wealthy and slightly eccentric inventor, who in addition to building a house and trails also put up a fountain topped with a bell (get it?),

 a small and mysterious cave, (called Yellowstone Cave, and said to be modeled after a similar cave in Yellowstone Park, although I don't know if such a cave actually exists),

a miniature Niagara Falls,

and a suspension bridge (also shown in the previous post).

One of the trails is a loop that runs along the West Credit River and takes about an hour to complete, so we had a nice little walk.

There were flowers blooming everywhere, from the exotic yellow lady slipper orchids, below, to mundane but pretty buttercups and brassicas.

We were also lucky enough to see three salamanders, which I think were easter redbacks. Not much wildlife otherwise.

Except for the kids, of course.

See more pictures from Belfountain in my Hikes and Walks album, and all the pictures from my visit in my Canada 2009 album.

Mikurajima

Between the first two camps of the summer my friend Emi and I slipped away to Mikurajima, a tiny island south of Tokyo. Mikurajima is known for the 200 or so dolphins that live in the surrounding ocean, wild but completely unafraid of humans. I was busy at the time and really needed some rest, but our departure date, July 31st, was well-chosen as it was during the brief period before the jellyfish have arrived and after the water has warmed up enough to swim in without a wetsuit.

This was our second visit and I'll direct you to my Mikurajima Dolphins post from two years ago for more information about the island.

 

The simplest way to get there from Tokyo is by night ferry (although it is connected to other islands in the Izu Shoto chain by airplane and helicopter) which takes about eight hours. It's possible to get a full night's sleep on the way, but there are a few hours at each end of the journey with views good enough to stay awake for. In the picture above you can see how the heavily industrial strip of Tokyo Bay, so ugly by day, actually can look kind of nice.

Several hours later the sun was rising and we were there. There isn't much to do upon arrival except head straight to your hotel or minshuku (family run inn), where some visitors get ready for a morning dolphin swim and the rest try to get some sleep. We chose the latter option. 

At noon we woke up and headed out for lunch. We chose a brand new cafe, which when it opened became the third restaurant on the island (or fifth if you count the two bars). From the small menu we chose ashitaba udon, thin wheat noodles flavoured with ashitaba (a healthful herb from the Angelica family that the grows abundantly on the Izu Shoto islands). Served cold, topped with fresh ashitaba and iwanori seaweed and dipped in a cold soy-based broth, it was perfectly refreshing. We noticed they had gelato, a nice selection of souvenirs, and one of those complicated glass contraptions for making cold drip coffee, and vowed to come back the next day.

In the afternoon we headed out to meet the dolphins with Sirius Nature Tours, the same company we went with last time (and that Emi, who's been several times, always uses).

The captain, guide and six tourists headed out in a small boat and began circling the island, keeping an eye out for dolphins breaching. It took a while to find them but there was plenty to see in the meantime. The island itself is beautiful and the sea creatures were plenty active--several times we saw sea turtles at the surface of the water, and there were plenty of flying fish shooting about.

Once dolphins are spotted the captain has to make a guess as to which direction the dolphins are heading, then he brings the boat ahead to the spot he thinks the dolphins will pass. Then we get out, sliding gently into the water so as not to scare the dolphins away.

Sometimes the dolphins are nowhere to be found, having changed direction, and sometimes they pass by far below us or off in the distance without taking notice of us. It's impressive enough to see them pass, but they are so fast that they are gone before you know it.

When we are lucky we land right in the path and the dolphins will head straight to us, slowing down to check us out.

 

And sometimes a dolphin or two will come right up for a closer look. It's hard to describe the feeling of being within a metre of one of these amazing creatures, of swimming alongside them, of making eye contact; suffice to say it's damn cool. 

And although it feels like much longer, it rarely lasts more than a minute. And then they're off, swimming into the distance and leaving you dumbstruck.

They were much more curious and interactive than they were last visit, and I wonder if it was my shiny new waterproof camera that attracted them (I was empty handed last year), or my crappy new snorkel that blows bubbles underwater--it's actually really annoying to me but might have looked pretty cool from their point of view. But for whatever reason I got plenty of dolphin attention this time.

The tours are supposed to last about an hour and a half (or two hours total including pick-up and drop-off at your lodgings) but I'm pretty sure each time we've gone with Sirius it's been longer. They clearly love what they do: the guide's delight at seeing the dolphins is obvious, although she goes out twice a day for much of the year. And this time the captain, who on previous tours had driven gently, noticed we were a brave bunch and treated us to some fancy boatwork, jumping over waves to catch some air and speeding us through narrow rocky outcrops. The thrill of the ride was almost worth the cost of the tour, especially for the two little boys who got to take over the controls on the way back.

Back on land there wasn't much to do except get ready for dinner. We were staying on Mikurajima's only hotel, Mikurasou, which has little to recommend it besides the view. I vastly preferred the Nishikawa, the minshuku we stayed at last time, but as we had booked this trip rather late we didn't have any choice but the hotel. Let that be a warning to you: Mikurijima's popularity is greater than its size, and it's best to book months in advance, especially in summer.

The food was pretty good though, if a little insubstantial. Our dinner was tako carpaccio (vinaigrette dressed octopus sashimi and sliced onions served over mizuna greens), cold tomato cream soup, and grilled shima aji (a type of horse mackerel) with summer vegetables. Rice was self serve and all-you-can-eat, and dessert was blueberry jelly.  

We had come on the second day of the island's four-day summer festival, and although we missed the fireworks and mikoshi (portable shrine) parade, we did get to see a bit of the fun. After the sun went down the local shrine was set up with lanterns, food stalls and a drumming stage and little by little the islanders stopped by to celebrate. We recognized lots of them but here they were no longer in tourism mode, and although we were made welcome this was very much an event for the locals. Still, Emi and I enjoyed some festival food and cheap shochu (a vodka-like liquor) while watching the local folks doing taiko drumming, dancing their version of bon-odori (the summer festival dance), and making merry.

The next morning we took another dolphin tour, this time with a different boat (Sirius was booked). I enjoyed it less, partly because of the aggressiveness of our five fellow tourists--I was bumped several times, kicked in the head once, and many of my pictures had more people than dolphins.

Still, we saw plenty of dolphins and I even got to play with a mother and baby (and looking at Emi's pictures it seems they spent some time with her too). They came right up close to me, close enough to touch (although touching the dolphins is strictly prohibited) and circled around me a few times, swimming ahead and then waiting for me to catch up before circling me again.

Although the baby stuck close to its mother's side, as all young dolphins do, it was interesting that it always stayed on the side closest to me--I would have expected to mother to keep her baby on my far side, for protection.

Was the mother trying to teach her child how to act around humans, or was she merely curious about me and knew I was safe enough that she didn't need to protect her baby? I'm not sure, but it was an amazing and moving experience and I'm glad they stopped to check me out.

When it was over we returned to the hotel, ate a late breakfast, and packed up. Arranging to have our bags to be brought down, we walked to the harbour, stopping at Fukumaru for a coffee and picking up some onigiri to eat on the ferry, some souvenirs and a gelato. The hotel and minshukus have pick up and drop off service, and upon arrival it's well appreciated, as the roads up to the village are steep. But it feels a bit odd to be whisked around the village by car without ever seeing anything, so we were looking forward to seeing the island and stretching our legs.

That's Emi up above with the festival grounds in the background. It was a nice walk, half on the road and half on a series of little paths and staircases that we hadn't noticed before, that snaked through people's gardens and offered some nice views. The gelato made it even nicer, and we got some envious looks from tourists being driven down to meet the ferry. This is the way we're going to do it from now on.

We took a few pictures on the dock before boarding the ferry, and between seeing Mikurajima fade into the distance and watching the sun set over Tokyo Bay we had a nap. And then suddenly the lights of the city were upon us and we were home.

 

 

See more pictures here (note that some of the pictures here and in the album were taken by Emi). For more information about Mikurajima, see:

Mikurajima Information (Japanese page)

Mikurasou (Japanese page)
Rooms from 8500 yen per person, including dinner and breakfast (we paid 10,500 yen each for a twin western-style room)
No English spoken

Sirius Nature Tours (Japanese page)
7000 yen per tour, rental equipment available
Guide speaks Japanese only, captain can speak some English

JapanSoc it!

Summer's end?

I'm back in Japan with all of my summer jobs and travels over, and while I'm glad to have the time to slow down and relax I am no where near ready for summer itself to end. Certainly I'm happy that the awful heat and humidity of midsummer Tokyo is gone, but there is enough warmth lingering in the air to fool me into thinking summer is still here, that there is still time to do all the hikes and picnics and barbeques and camping trips that I didn't get around to.

And then today I noticed it on my morning walk: a red spider lilly in full bloom, signalling the arrival of autumn. I like to think of it as my birthday flower, as it's abundant in early October just when I'm celebrating my big day, but in Japanese it's called higanbana: literally "equinox flower", as the blooms begin to appear around late September. Whatever you call it, the flower's presence announces the end of summer, and as lovely as it is I was not happy to see it.

And then upon closer inspection I noticed the blossom was hosting a guest: a brand-new cicada, still pale green in places after emerging from its skin. This cheered me up immensely, because if the cicadas are still coming out of the ground then summer's not over. The next time time I passed the spider lilly (it was just off of a one kilometre track) the cicada had turned dark brown, and on my third pass it had flown off to join the army of cicadas in the trees. I wish it well.

So was the lilly early, or the cicada late? I'm not sure, but as long as the weather stays warm I'm going to keep considering it summer, and pay no attention to what the flowers say.

Takao-san

On Saturday I finally convinced my husband to climb Takao-san (Mount Takao, a small but beloved mountain in western Tokyo) with me. It was his first time, and although I've been there several times it's been a while since I hiked all the way up--there is a lift and cable car that take you most of the way. I figured it was a good way to jump-start the summer as I'm working at three summer camps, all of which involve lots of hiking and physical activity, and I'm not really in shape for it. In fact, I'm badly out of shape and sometimes find myself out of breath even from going up long flights of stairs. A bad sign, so I think the reason my husband agreed to go after all these years of pestering him was more out of genuine concern for my health and less due to the effectiveness of my nagging.

Takao-san stands at a mere 599 metres and takes just an hour and a half to climb, so we had a late start (timed to coincide with the 4:00 opening of the beer garden near the summit). We took route 6, unlike most people who take route 1 (which is paved) or the cable car or lift. So we encountered few people going up, and most of them were heading down, having started early like good hikers are supposed to. The cloudy, sometimes rainy weather might also have helped keep people away, and it was really nice not to have to deal with the usual crowds.

One of the highlights of route 6 is Biwataki, a small but pretty waterfall. It is considered holy (actually the whole mountain is) so has its own shrine, and nearby are the Iwayadaishi (two small caves that are more like nooks). The great monk Kobo Daishi was is to have taken shelter there during a rain storm--according to legend he also cured a sick mother and child in the caves, but I'm a bit fuzzy on the details--anyone know the story? The bell above hangs at the entrance to one of the caves.

Biwataki is used for takigyo (waterfall meditation) and when we got there a couple was preparing for the rite, wearing white robes and chanting. I stuck around as long as I could but apparently a lot of chanting is required before taking the plunge, so we gave up and left before they started.

Throughout the hike we saw plenty of critters, and among those that stayed still for the camera were moth above, the leaf frog below, and festively decorated stink bug below that.

 

 

 

It was an overcast day so this was the view from the top. Not bad, but not as nice as the view of Mount Fuji on clear days. Once at the top we had a snack and hiked around a bit before heading down route 1, which passes Yakuoin Temple on the way to the beer garden.

Along the way we passed this little shrine dedicated to the health of hikers. This is the place to pray for healthy legs and relief of back pain, and as I've been suffering from a sore lower back for a few weeks I gave the bell a ring a asked the gods to fix my back. Just for fun of course, but amazingly my back pain disappeared and still hasn't returned. I know it's just the placebo effect at work, but I'm grateful just the same.

 

The beer garden was a disappointment. Called "Beer Mount", it is located near the top of the mountain by the cable car station and is only open in the summer months. 3000 yen (3300 yen for men, 1500 yen for children) gets you all the draught beer (and liquor, cocktails, and soft drinks) you can drink and all the food you can eat in two hours. I've been wanting to go for years because the view is supposed to be great and, let's face it, there are few things nicer after a few hours of hiking than a whole bunch of ice cold beer.

But apparently I'm not the only one who feels that way, and a few minutes after it opened it was already full. The few seats with a good view were taken (our seats came with a view of the poor saps lining up to get in), and because everyone had just arrived at the same time there were mad lines for food and drink.

The food I finally managed to get. The oden (stew, shown in the bowl), smoked duck (or was it chicken?) and yakisoba (fried noodles) were good; everything else, not so much. And I was way less hungry that I thought I'd be so I couldn't even finish my plate, let alone go up for more. The beer was good, of course, but I certainly didn't drink 3000 yen worth.

So now my curiosity is satisfied and I know not to go back. Next time I do Takao-san I'll save myself some money and get a can of beer from one of the vending machines on the summit--is there any part of this country that isn't covered in vending machines? I've just learned to appreciate them a little bit more.

JapanSoc it!

Hydrangea again

 

Did I say I was done with hydrangea pictures for the year? I must have forgotten how long they last, and how many different types there are. Even as most of the flowers are drying up and losing their colour, there is always a bush or two still at its peak. And even as their beauty fades they are lovely--how could I forget?

 

Unlike the cherry blossoms, which fall from the trees while still at their peak of glory, hydrangea blossoms stay where they are as they fade and dry up. A bush covered in dead brown flowers is not a very pretty sight, but before they get to that stage there is a certain charm the their decay, especially with the -ajisai (the type shown above and below). The flowers wilt and fold under, hiding their faces as if they were ashamed of their fading beauty.

The insects don't mind the aging flowers either, and hydrangea bushes, with their big leaves offering shade and shelter, will continue to be bug central throughout the summer. On a recent visit to the park I found one little group of bushes crawling with young praying mantises, stink bugs of several types, ashinaga-bae(teeny-tiny members of the Dolichopodidae family of flies that have no name in English), and all sorts of other little critters that declined to sit still long enough to be photographed.

 

Even other plants like the hydrangea, with twisty vines sidling up to the remaining flowers. So there really is no end to my hydrangea pictures, and I know that long after the blossoms are gone I'll be checking back to see what creatures are hiding under those big green leaves.

Hydrangea

Hydrangea season is nearing its end, and I haven't been able to get out to see them very much this year. Luckily, as long as I keep my eyes open I can see them all over the city, in parks, people's gardens, even on my own balcony. That's the great thing about hydrangea: they are not terribly show-offy and tend to tuck themselves inconspicuously into nooks and crannies, so they just seem to sneak up on you. Hydrangea can enliven even the dreariest, shabbiest street, and spotting a few blossoms hidden here and there in the concrete jungle is a joy.

I was hoping to get more hydrangea pictures this year and was determined not to let the rain stop me. But this year it's not the rain that is stopping me, it's the cold: this rainy season seems to be extra chilly, and today I've even been debating whether or not to turn on the heat (so far I've resisted--thank goodness I haven't packed away my winter clothes yet). By the time the weather warms up the hydrangea blossoms will likely be gone, so I might as well go ahead and show you the pictures I've taken of them so far.

I'll finish with a few pictures featuring bonus spiders (bugs love hydrangea for some reason). I realize that not everybody loves bug pictures, even if the bugs in question are the cute little green sasagumo (lynx spider), so I'll give you fair warning: don't scroll down!

For more hydrangea pictures, see my flower album, and more bugs (all of them cute, I promise) can be seen in my creepy crawly album.

Sunday at the park

 

On Sunday evening we heard the news: tsuyu (the rainy season) had officially begun. Overnight, the weather obligingly turned cool and rainy, but Sunday itself was a lovely sunny day, perfect for spending at the park. We went to Wako Jurin Koen in Wako City, Saitama, a very nice big park just a few minutes' walk from our apartment.

As if they knew that tsuyu had started, a few hydrangea were in beautiful full bloom. The rest were holding out for the rain to begin, but were pretty in their own way.

 

 

The park was not as full of people as it usually is: a nice day like this and it's usually packed. Almost everyone headed for the brand-new playground, which seems far too small to support the kids it was swarmed with. It is completely dwarfed by the giant taikukan (gym), which is run by the city (not my city though, so as a resident of Nerima I have to pay twice as much as Wako folks). It is about a year old, and I was surprised to see how well the grass and greenery on the side of the building is doing. It's certainly in better shape than the grass on the ground. Lawns are in imported idea and it seems the Japanese still have trouble getting it right, but that's a subject for a different post.

 

 

We had a picnic lunch and then I set off to find dessert. Hideaki didn't join me as he's not much of a forager: e knows wild fruit sometimes comes with bugs. The wimp. I say a little extra protein never hurt anybody, so off I went, leaving him to nap the afternoon away.

 

These are sakura no mi (wild cherries), from the same trees that produced the sakura (cherry blossoms) I took so many pictures of earlier this spring. Hardly anyone knows they are edible, and indeed most of them are unpleasantly bitter, but a few trees produce good sweet-tart fruit.

 

 

It seems I'm not the only one who likes the cherries. These little bundles of pits and skins litter the ground around the sakura trees, and I'm not sure what they are. The park's bird population explodes this time of years, with crows especially numerous, so I'm guessing these are regurgitated pellets from the crows. Or maybe (very clean) droppings from the tanuki (raccoon dogs) that are said to live in the park. Can anyone help identify it?

 

Another interesting discovery, this one not needing to be identified: the giant beak gives it away as a crow skull. Perhaps a bit gloomy to include in this post, but I hope you'll think of it as I did: a reminder that life is short and should be enjoyed while it lasts. And that's exactly why we head to the park on sunny Sundays: life is too short not to take time to nap on the grass and smell the flowers.

Kobe Kachoen

While I was visiting the in-laws in Osaka we took another trip to Kachoen, the bird and flower park in Kobe that we went to last summer. We stayed for a shorter time than before and although I didn't get a chance to see the owls or play with the toucans and parrots, it was even better because my niece Marya was with us. Watching her delighted reactions to the birds was just as fun as watching the birds themselves.

She had been really excited about seeing the penguins, and while she did like them it turns out that was she liked best feeding the ducks. "Come for the penguins, stay for the ducks", that's Kachoen's motto.

But for me the highlight of the day was the hot swan action:

But Kachoen is not all hungry ducks and randy swans. There's plenty else to see and do, so I'll leave you with a bunch of pictures from the rest of our visit. There are lots more in my Golden Week album, so if you just can't get enough of exotic birds, pretty flowers and cute nieces, have a peek.

Spring is here

In Tokyo there's some kind of flower in bloom all year long, and that's one of the things I love about this city. Early bloomers like roubai (winter sweet) and ume (Japanese apricot) are often thought of as harbingers of spring, but to me the true herald of spring is jinchouge (sweet daphne).

As the pictures of snow-covered ume blossoms I took a few months ago attest, the early blooming spring flowers can stand cold temperatures, but the jinchouge burst open in March with a promise that the cold weather is over.

The blossoms themselves are pretty, especially up close, but what jinchouge is really celebrated for is its fragrance. My old apartment had a large jinchouge bush in the back yard and I used to leave the back windows open all day, braving the chill (the flowers may signal the end of winter but Tokyo in March is hardly balmy) in order to fill the house with the lovely sweet scent. One of the hardest things about moving was leaving that bush behind, so imagine my delight last year when the landlady planted several jinchouge bushes by our buildings entrance last year! This was in late March and the blossoms were pretty much finished, so this is the first time to enjoy a full jinchouge season here.

Jinchouge aren't the only flowers in bloom around here: the sakura (cherry blossoms) started late last week and the ground is covered in sumire (violets), hana nira (spring starflower) and other wildflowers. And these bell-shaped blossoms, called asebi (Japanese andromeda) are putting on a very showy display at the local park.

This feral rose-ringed parakeet is hardly a sign of spring, as the flock stays in Tokyo year-round, but it sure made me happy to see it. I first encountered a whole tree of these birds last month but didn't have my camera with me, so on a recent walk with my camera we made sure to pass the tree again. This time there were only four of them, which makes us wonder where the others were. Is this tree their home base or do they move around? Is this part of the same famed group that lives at the Okayama campus of the Tokyo Institute of Technology, or are there different groups scattered throughout the city? I'd love to learn more about them.

Away this week

You may have noticed I'm posting even less than usual recently. One reason is because I am doing a week-long food blog at eGullet, a wonderful website devoted to food. With the eGullet food blog I go into quite a bit more detail than I usually do here on this blog, listing everything I eat and showing what life is like here in Japan. If you're interested, go have a look.

And to (hopefully) keep you occupied here for a while, I'm doing a round-up of stuff from the past month or so.

A few weeks back my husband and I had sushi at a local kaitenzushi (conveyor belt sushi) place. Most of the phone camera pictures didn't turn out, but here are the ones that did (kind of). Above is tai (sea bream) and tororo okura (grated yam and chopped okra).

Miso soup with crab and shirako (cod milt). The crab was just used to flavour the broth, it didn't have enough meat to eat (although I tried my hardest).

Aburisamon (seared salmon) topped with sliced negi (green onion), pepper and sea salt. We ate 9 plates each, plus the soup: the most we've had in years.

On the way home we discovered the fabled flock of parrots. I've heard of it, and know that many other big cities have parrots, but I didn't quite believe it till I saw these guys. Dozens of them were in someone's yard, sharing the trees peacefully (but noisily) with sparrows, all the same size and colour. Amazing.

A student brought back sanuki udon (a specialty wheat noodle from Kanagawa prefecture) so I made bukkake udon: the noodles are topped with cold broth along with katsuobushi (bonito flakes), negi, tenkasu (tempura batter) and umeboshi (pickled plum). It was good, but not the reason I'm sharing this picture. Check out the plate in the back: that's dashimaki tamago (thick omelet). I finally made it, and it didn't turn out half bad! It was far easier than I thought, and although this one wasn't very pretty it seemed to have the right taste and texture. I can't wait to try this again.

Lunch at an Indian place in Hibarigaoka. It took over the space where a really good Thai restaurant used to be, and we were pretty sad at first. But this place is pretty good. My chicken curry and daal were OK, but the naan was really good (despite the burnt tip on this one) and Hideaki's keema curry and egg curry were fantastic. Will go again.

Sauteed chijimi horensou (winter spinach), scallops with soy sauce and butter, penne with roasted tomato sauce. My sister introduced me to sauce made from roasted tomatoes last year, but this sauce uses canned tomatoes rather than fresh. The idea comes from last week's Mark Bittman column in the New York Times (the recipe given is for tomato soup but the idea works equally well for pasta sauce). Bittman now has a blog, by the way, and it's full of good ideas.

A quick lunch last week: instant miso soup and futomaki (thick rolled sushi) with a thick omelet, negitoro (chopped tuna belly), cucumber, shake no naka-ochi (chopped salmon), shake (salmon), maguro (tuna) and thin omelete.

Here's a healthy dinner of sake-steamed clams; atsu-age (fried tofu) and komatuna greens; quick-pickled cabbage and cucumbers, squid and broccoli sauteed with miso sauce; miso soup with shimeji mushrooms, wakame seaweed and mitsuba (trefoil), and mugigohan (white rice and barley) topped with umeboshi (pickled plum). Now that spring is almost here clams are cheap and widely available, and I'm very glad.

I had clay pot rice at a Chinese place in Roppongi Hills with a friend. Not the most attractive presentation, but pretty good: rice topped with bok choy, pork belly, tororo (grated yam) and a thick soy-based sauce. The rice was perfectly crispy on the bottom and I'd love to have this again, if only it weren't so pricey. I wonder if they have a lunch special?

神戸花鳥園

While we were in Osaka we drove with the in-laws to Kobe, the capital of nearby Hyogo prefecture. Many things come to mind when you think of Kobe. As a cosmopolitan port city city with a large foreign population, Kobe is famed in Japan for its superior western style cakes and confectionery; while throughout the world the city is known for its beef. Kobe is also known for the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995, when much of the city was destroyed. But for many Japanese the name "Kobe" is synonymous with pork barrel politics, with the city constantly starting expensive and largely unnecessary building projects. Massive land reclamations, needlessly impressive road and bridges, and a recently completed-- and hugely unpopular-- airport have made Kobe the most indebted city in Japan.

And our destination of the day happened to be located on one of these pork barrel projects. Man-made Port Island is billed as a "cultural city on the sea", but what I saw out of the car window was just a sprawling landfill topped here and there with charmless convention centres, hotels and housing projects. And then we reached the far end of the island, where Kobe Kachoen is located, and my opinion changed. 

Kachoen literally means "garden of flowers and birds", and that's exactly what this place is. My mother-in-law had been looking forward to visiting since it opened this spring, and although I was prepared to be underwhelmed (Japan is full of disappointing museums, zoos, flower parks and the like) I ended up falling in love with the place. We started by having lunch in the cafeteria, which was housed in a large greenhouse lush with hanging flowerpots. At first I thought the plastic chairs looked a bit cheap, but then I noticed the many sparrows flying about and realized that ease of cleaning was probably a bigger factor when they chose the chairs (luckily we didn't get pooped on).

I wasn't expecting a great meal. Indeed, in this beautiful setting, almost anything would have seemed delicious and most tourist attractions could get away with offering bad, overpriced food. But the buffet was surprisingly good, and at 1380 yen was not a bad deal at all. The buffet featured a large selection of mostly Japanese food, with an entire table was devoted to healthy Japanese appetizers which I loaded up on. There was also a snack bar selling drinks, ice cream and bento (boxed lunches).

This certainly wasn't the best food I've ever had in my life, but the setting was lovely enough to make it a memorable meal. If I lived nearby I might come here just for the buffet. Wait, forget that. The best was yet to come, and if I did live close by I'd be coming regularly for the birds. 

Kobe Kachoen is especially known for its owls, with dozens of varieties. The cages were so small and bare that I took them for displays at first, and since the owls were completely still I assumed they were stuffed. Not until one of them blinked did I realize they were real, and I could't help feeling a bit sorry for them in their little prisons. About a quarter of the cages were empty with signs saying the owls were temporarily absent, so I guess they're all allowed out once in a while (although that's most likely just to pose for pictures with visitors or do flying shows).

After getting our fill of owls, as well as checking out two ponds full of waterfowl and penguins, we checked out the flowers. The trumpet flowers and several types of begonias were especially pretty, but my favourites were the water lilies. They were beautiful and came in more varieties than I knew existed, all of them clearly labeled; the waters were swimming with minnows and goldfish. I was very sorry I only had my cell phone for pictures, and if my camera had been working I could have spent hours here.

The next section featured peacocks, guinea fowl, ibises, swans and more, with little cups of pellets for sale to feed them with. And then more owls, looking much happier and cuter in slightly more natural settings (although they were tied up).

The last section was definitely the best. Toucans, turacos, parrots and other tropical birds flew freely around, and were happy to land on your arm if you happened to be holding a cup of fruit (100 yen per cup, with fabric arm guards offered free of charge). I dug deep into my pockets and gave several beautiful birds a good meal, and it was fascinating to see-- and feel-- them up close. The first bird to take the bait was the relatively plain turaco below, and I was just blown away-- check out my goofy look in the picture: a mixture of nervousness and fascination than perfectly reflected how I felt.

You can see that I quickly warmed up to the birds, and they to me. This conure was particularly friendly, spending a long time on my hand licking my fingers, which felt really cool. I suppose that sounds gross if you've never been licked by a bird before, but it wasn't-- its tongue was dry felt kind of nice and tickly and the bird was very gentle and cute. It was such a good experience that I am toying with the idea of getting a bird as a pet. I've never been into pet birds at all and could never understand why they are so popular, but now I think I get it. I am almost certainly anthropomorphizing, but this little bird felt so gentle and sweet and  intelligent, and I even felt like we were communicating or connecting on some level. Surely its brain was the size of a pea and its only interest in my hand was the trace amount of salt in my sweat (we were in the middle of a heat wave), but I came away feeling like we'd bonded, and it gave me the same relaxed, happy feeling that I get from playing with a cat or dog. Ugh, that doesn't sound like me at all, but that's how I came away feeling. Any bird lovers out there know what I'm talking about?

After expecting to be disappointed it was so nice to visit this place and see all of those birds and flowers (it's also nice to know that Kobe doesn't completely suck). I definitely want to go back. Kobe Kachoen is well worth a visit if you have any sort of interest in birds and flowers and find yourself in Kobe. And if you have kids the place is a must-see; watching childrens' amazed faces was almost as fun as interacting with the birds, and I doubt there is a kid alive who wouldn't enjoy this place. Owl flying shows, penguin feedings, and photo opportunities are scheduled throughout the day, check the schedule (Japanese only) for details.

Kobe Kachoen is located next to Port Island Minami Station (a 14-minute ride from central Kobe's Sannomiya Station). Entrance is 1500 yen for adults with discounts for children, seniors, and the handicapped (the place is fully wheelchair accessible). Open 9:30 to 5:30 year-round. The free full colour pamphlet is in Japanese, with an English map available; all flora and fauna are labeled in Japanese, English and Latin. The website is Japanese only, but Kakegawa Kachoen in Shizuoka (there are 5 similar parks throughout Japan) has a good English website.

Kobe Kachoen
         078-302-8899       
7-1-9 Minami-machi, Minatojima, Chuo-ku, Kobe-shi

Black-capped night heron

We came accross this handsome specimen on the weekend, at Inokashira-koen in Kichijoji. It's a black-capped night heron, not the most common bird to be found in Tokyo (but not terribly rare either). Wasn't bothered by the rain at all.

Mikurajima Dolphins

Last weekend I blogged about my trip to Mikurajima, but with my cellphone I wasn't able to post any decent pictures. Luckily Emi had her underwater camera, and now that she's sent me her photos I can do a proper post about the trip.

The picture above is of Mikurajima, taken from the approaching ferry after a 7 hour/200 kilometre overnight journey. Notice how steep the coast is-- the entire island is like that, unlike the flat coastline and gentle slopes of the neighboring volcanic island of Miyakejima (whose residents have only recently started returning after an eruption 6 years ago). The way Mikurajima juts out of the ocean is impressive and the cliffs, a mixture of layered rocks and lush vegetation lined here and there with thin cascading waterfalls, are certainly beautiful. But the steep sides of the island mean there are no beaches, and this little island (about 20 square kilometres) has just one small village with a handful of inns, a few tiny grocery stores and one restaurant. So what the hell is there to do on this island?

Pretty much just one thing:

That's right-- go swimming with dolphins. The waters around the island are home to approximately 200 dolphins (compare that to the island's human population of about 300). From April to October dolphin tours are offered from Mikurajima and the nearby Miyakejima, allowing tourists to watch the dolphins from small boats or don snorkeling gear and slip into the water for a better look. The dolphins will sometimes play with the swimmers, but mostly just ignore them and go about their business.

And that's what they did with us. Apparently by mid-summer the novelty of seeing humans up close has worn off and the dolphins aren't as inclined to play. But simply watching them do their thing is plenty cool enough. They are amazing creatures and seeing them up close in the wild is completely different from seeing them in an aquarium. I've always had a certain image of dolphin lovers as flakey New-age hippy types and I have to admit that image has rubbed off onto the dolphins themselves, and whenever I thought of dolphins I'd imagine them as part of a tacky Lasser painting. So until Emi convinced me to come on this tour I really had no interest in the animals at all, and I agreed to come on the trip more to hang out with her than to see the dolphins.

How wrong I was! Dolphins are truly are amazing creatures. Just being near them was an incredibly moving and magical experience. I really did get a sense that they are intelligent, complex and playful animals, not so very different from humans. And I can't wait to go back and swim with them again.

We did two tours, one on Saturday afternoon and the other Sunday morning. On each tour we motored around the island on a small boat with two crew members and 7 touritst, stopping whenever dolphins were spotted, about 6 stops in total. Occasionally the dolphins were already gone by the time we got into the water, but usually we managed to see them. And we also saw plenty of other neat stuff like tropical fish and two sea turtles, which were surprisingly fast and graceful.

The water was warm so wetsuits were not necessary (although I noticed that every single member of the other tours--there were several out there--were wearing them. The tour companies must do very good business with wetsuit rentals). It is not necessary to be a great swimmer- one lady couldn't swim so used a kickboard to float, only putting her masked face in the water when her daughter alerted her to the presence of dolphins nearby. Her daughter, on the other hand, was an excellent free diver (suba diving is not allowed) and could could follow the dolphins several metres below the surface, staying down without air for a surprising amount of time. A couple of non-swimmers just stayed on the boat and enjoyed seeing the dolphins surface--they were treated to several jumps and a few flips, things that those of us underwater missed out on.

We had to leave a few hours after Sunday's tour and I was very sad to go. The picture above is of the Camellia Maru, the ferry that took us back to Tokyo, and below is the Rainbow Bridge welcoming us back to the city that evening.

For more pictures, see my Flickr Mikurajima album.

Information:

Access to Mikurajima is by ferry, and helicopter (it is also possible to fly to nearby Miyakejima and take a dolphin tour from there). Tokai Kisen has ferry service 6 days a week; it takes about 7 1/2 hours and costs from 9250 Yen for second-class tickets (discounts are available for students, seniors, large groups, and early reservations). We stayed at Onjuku Nishigawa, which costs 8000 Yen per night with dinner and breakfast. For the dolphin tours we went with Sirius Nature Tours, which offers 2-hour tours (it feels much longer) for 7000 Yen. Snorkeling equipment and wetsuits are available for rental, or you are free to use your own equipment.

Mikurajima Information (Japanese)

Tokai Kisen (Japanese)

Onjuku Nishigawa (Japanese)
04994-8-2106
23 Mikurajima Mura, Tokyo

Sirius Nature Tours (Japanese)
04994-8-2256
Mubanchi, Mikurajima Mura, Tokyo

Cujo and George: a tale of two cats

How do you save something that doesn't want to be saved?

A stray kitten has been hanging around our apartment building's small garden for 5 days now. It is tiny, maybe 5 weeks (but I've been away from cats for so long that I'm not really sure). It is adorably cute and a true stray-- totally afraid of people. But its way too young to be on its own. Especially considering our location-- on the corner of two roads, one fairly big with lots of speeding trucks. There are also tonnes of dogs around here, with a big park across the street and a dog accessory shop on the first floor of our building. So when this kitten eventually leaves the garden I don't think its chances are good. And if it does survive and manages to join the pack of strays at the park, it is just going to breed more stray cats. So I've I've made up my mind to rescue this kitten.

We were first alerted to its presence by its pitiful mewing- we hear a lot of cat sounds from our second-floor apartment, but with plenty of kitten rescues under my belt I know the difference between regular meowing and the cries of a baby in distress.

When I went to check it out the kitten hissed and spat and then ran away and hid, so I left it some food. I've been leaving food and water for it since then and little by little its been letting me get closer. It knows I am the one feeding it and will now appear out of the bushes whenever it hears me, but the hissing and spitting hasn't stopped. And despite coming right up to me, it won't let me touch it.

Yesterday was a breakthrough-- I held out a niboshi (small dried fish used for making stock) and it cautiously approached, snatched the fish and ate it where it was, before hissing and running away. And then today when I left for work, another breakthrough. I held out my hand, without a niboshi, and the kitten came right up like it had yesterday.

And bit my finger.

Not after I tried to grab it or anything-- it just came right up and bit me. My first thought was that my hands must smell like the niboshi I'd been handling, and the cat had mistaken my finger for a fish. But then a few seconds later the kitten decided to give my hand a few swipes with its little paws for good measure (those tiny kitten claws are surprisingly sharp!). So I guess it was personal.

Returning home tonight, I sat with it for about 10 minutes, as the kitten ate from my hand and bit me in turns. Finally, when I thought it had relaxed a bit, I made my move and grabbed it. And that tiny pathetic kitten turned out to be a hellcat, and put up an incredible fight, which resulted in me dropping it. And it was gone.

Then at 5:00 this morning the cries started again and I couldn't get back to sleep. So I went down in my pajamas and amazingly the kitten came right up to me again. And after 15 minutes of it running away and coming back and hissing and scratching, I tried grabbing it again.

The kitten seemed to have taken a few self-defense lessons since the earlier grab, perhaps with a pitbull as the teacher. Because this time around the squirming and scratching was supplemented with biting. And not the little love bites it had been giving me before-- it chomped onto my finger and held fast, stopping only to select another finger, and then another. It was so incredibly painful that once again I let go. And burst out crying. Not from the pain so much as the disappointment at my utter failure to rescue this kitten. Luckily my husband was awake by this time and he let me bawl and blubber for a while before gently nursing me back to my normal non-crying state. It's great to be loved.

So why do I want to rescue this little ingrate hellcat so badly? It probably has a lot to do with George. George is the cat I had for a short time in Toronto about 11 years ago, before I moved to Vancouver and then on to Japan. He had been given to me by my sister, to cheer me up during a difficult break-up. It worked- he was a great little cat, cute and intelligent, but not knowing how long I'd be living in Vancouver I had to give him up. Norah, a family friend, kindly offered to take him in despite hating cats. And of course, George being an excellent cat, she was soon converted to cat-loverdom.

George died a few weeks ago. He had developed a tumor, and despite Norah's loving care his health deteriorated to the point that he needed to be put down. It was really sad news but I took it well at the time. He's been on my mind since then though, and inevitably I've begun thinking about Manute and Kitty, other beloved cats that had died in the years since I came to Japan. And naturally I started to think about the people too. It really sucks being half a world away when people or pets that I love pass away, and having to mourn them from afar. One effect of this long-distance mourning is a delay, possibly because I'm already so cut off that a loss has no immediate impact on my life.

So I'm pretty sure my crying fit was as much for George as it was for the kitten, and maybe for everyone else I've lost in recent years.

I have no idea what I'm going to do about the kitten. Even if I did manage to catch it, what then? Our apartment doesn't allow pets and our landlord lives in the apartment next to us, so keeping it is asking for trouble. Also, on Monday I'm going away for a summer camp job for 5 days, and I can hardly expect my non-cat-lover husband to take care of it. Plus I'm terrified of the thing now. I've nicknamed it Cujo, since the painful swelling of the bites on my hand had me worried and an internet search turned up "rabies" (hint: paranoid people in highly emotional states should avoid searching the internet for health information at 5:30 in the morning). Sure, Japan has been rabies-free for decades, but this cat's behavior totally matches the descriptions.

Have you all seen Old Yeller? Good-- if you see me foaming at the mouth, you'll know what to do...

Okinawa Day 4: Churaumi Aquarium

The typhoon hit on Sunday, ruining our plans for hanging out on the beach all day. The beach was totally closed, which got me worried about what to do with the hermit crab I accidentally took from the beach the day before. How was I going to return it to its home?

With no car, we had no choice but to spend the day at the nearest attraction to the hotel: the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. I hadn't really wanted to go, because I can't help feel sorry for the bigger fish. Especially the magnificent whale sharks. Apparently aquariums are getting better at keeping them, but they still tend to die off quickly after capture. It just doesn't seem right. The place is also expensive, but it turns out that our bus tickets came with free admission to the aquarium. So that's where we went, bringing along the hermit crab in the hopes of getting near enough to the ocean after wards to release it.

I tried to get over feeling sorry for the underwater prisoners and just allow myself to be wowed. The place is not as big as the Osaka Kaiyukan Aquarium, but it's impressive enough. The main attractions are the whale shark, of which there are currently three. They were amazing to see, and we spent almost an hour just staring at them, transfixed (the aquarium has a few rows of seats set up in front of the whale shark display, like a little movie theatre).

Here are some of the pictures:

We never did get near the ocean, but the aquarium had a kind of hands-on shoreline display featuring a pool of starfish and such as well as a rocky area with shallow pools of water, beachy-type foliage and yes, hermit crabs. So I clandestinely released the little hermit crab I'd been carrying in my purse and it happily crawled away into the water. Not as good as returning it to the beach, but better than the certain death that would result if I'd just chucked it on the side of the road or brought it back to Tokyo with me. Hope it's happy at the aquarium.

In the afternoon we caught the bus back to Naha. On the way we stopped for a lame tour of some kind of pineapple wine factory, which I didn't mind because free samples were generously offered. I drank as much as I could and as I walked tipsily back to our bus I noticed I was the only one who hadn't bought something. This place must make loads of money.

We checked into separate hotels- Emiko had an early flight home the next morning and wanted to stay near the airport. I stayed at Stella Resort, which is actually more of a hostel, with cheap dormitory-style beds. After dumping our bags we met up again on Kokusai Dori for dinner. We chose a place specializing in Okinawa Kateiryouri (Okinawan home-cooking).

On the left is jimami-doufu (peanut tofu), right is suku-doufu (Okinawan tofu topped with aigo, tiny salted fish), and in front is a special treat called hija-sashimi (raw goat). It was all good, and I loved the aigo, which were somewhat reminiscent of anchovies. The goat was not as gamey as I thought, and in fact had very little flavour. It must be enjoyed for its texture, with the contrast between the soft meat and chewy skin. We also ate rafti (stewed pork belly) and drank awamori (Okinawan distilled rice liquor), and finished with hirayachi (Okinawa's version of hirayaki, a savoury pancake):

More aquarium pictures can be found in my Okinawa album.

Okinawa Day 3: Motobu

On Saturday morning Emi and I took a bus up to Motobu, in the northern part of the island. We had originally planned to rent a car but the approaching typhoon worried us a little, and the bus turned out to be cheaper. The drive was very scenic, at least once we were out of Naha, and the ocean seemed to get more beautiful the further north we went.

After dropping our bags at the hotel we headed to the beach We were staying at the Royal View Hotel, which was the only semi-nice hotel outside of Naha that had rooms. It is not a beach-front hotel, so we had to walk about 10 minutes to  Emerald Beach, a small public beach.

It was pretty and there were few people, so we felt lucky. But no sooner had we spread out our towels than an announcement was made over the loudspeakers: the water would be off-limits in 10 minutes! The sun was shining and the water was calm, but apparently the typhoon was expected to hit at any minute. So we had our 10 minutes of swimming in the ocean, and the rest of the day was spent on land.

We sunbathed and walked around a bit, then I tried to build a sandcastle. It turned out to be the worst sandcastle I've ever made- the sand was too full of coral and shells. So I switched from sandcastle-making to shell-collecting. I'm easy-going that way.

When we got hungry we walked back to the road and ate at the only restaurant that was open. Luckily it turned out to be an Okinawa soba shop. Okinawa soba is a hot noodle soup, kind of like a cross between ramen and udon. But not really. I love the stuff, so was happy to slurp up this big bowl. It went down very nicely with a can of Orion, Okinawa's beer. Orion tastes just like an American beer, but not in a bad way- served ice-cold on a boiling hot day, it is very refreshing.

Back at the hotel, I gave my shells a cleaning and discovered that once again I'd accidentally kidnapped a hermit crab. No problem- I'd keep him safe in a cup until we were back at the beach tomorrow.

For dinner we stayed at the hotel. Lame, but there are no restaurants, supermarkets or even convenience stores nearby and without a rental car we couldn't really go anywhere. This is what I had (the cheapest option, but still much more than I wanted to spend).

Top row: fruit, jimami-doufu (Okinawan peanut tofu), salad; middle row: chawan-mushi (savoury egg custard), goya sunomono (bitter melon dressed in vinegar); front row: tendon (shrimp and vegetable tempura over rice), pickles, miso soup.

It was pretty good, and I was grateful for the Okinawan touches like goya tempura and aasa (a kind of Okinawan seaweed) in the soup and chawan-mushi. Another Okinawan touch- we drank it all down with awamori (a delicious liquor distilled from rice).

Plenty more pictures to see in my Okinawa album.

Dragonfly

My husband took this on our balcony. Nice to know that neat bugs still visit is at our new apartment.

Baby crickets

I came accross these tiny crickets while taking pictures of hydrangea last week. Aren't they cute?

Stray cats

Stray cats enjoying a lazy afternoon at the park. These three are part of a large gang that hangs out in this section of the park. I've seen up to 7 of them together at one time, and they all seem to get along well- not very cat-like.