Diving in the Keramas

Yesterday we went SCUBA diving in the Keramas. The Keramas are a series of about 400 islands, mostly uninhabited, about 15 miles west of Okinawa. We booked the trip through the base marina and headed out with our friends Magda and Blake and about six other divers.

Luckily for me the water was glass. I can remember my old professor seeing water that smooth in the Gulf of Mexico and commenting that "you could roll a marble to Texas" on it. After the hour ride when the boat anchored the swaying made me a little nauseous, but I didn't get sick! That's a victory right there.

The water was amazingly clear and just so many shades of gorgeous blues and greens. I was a little nervous when we first got there because you could see little jellyfish in the water, but they weren't the kind that hurt. I got stung by a couple on my legs and it was just a little itchy.

On the first dive the dive master led us around the bay in search of sharks, rays, and turtles. We struck out on the rays and turtles, but did catch a glimpse of a few white tipped shark pups. My sister later told me that these sharks are very aggressive - something she recently learned on shark week. I'm glad I didn't know that when the dive master was encouraging us to get closer to get a picture. Ignorance is bliss.

On the second dive we went to a more open water area that had an incredible wall (where the coral/rock meet the ocean). This wall went to about a 130 feet, but we stayed around 60 feet so we wouldn't have to do decompression stops on our way up. The wall was amazing - full of different corals and tons of fishes.

The visibility was 150 feet! That is awesome and they said it gets even better in the winter when there aren't so many algae and coral blooms. We bought a cheap underwater camera (thanks for the recommendation Liza) and we're very pleased with the results. We still have some tweaking to do. We avoided the flash because we thought the casing would cause a glare, but in the one picture when the flash accidentally went off the colors were incredible.

Here are some pictures of the trip. I like coral so don't bother trying to find a fish in every shot - it might just be a coral pattern that I thought looked cool.

Our friends, Magda and Blake:

Some of my favorite shots are these clown fish on their bed of anemone. Click on the second and third shots so you can see the detail. You should be able to see the baby clown fish that the parents were aggressively protecting.

I know this was a lot of pictures, but I promised I pared them down (we started at 190 shots!). I hope you enjoyed our adventure and here's one last shot for you:

Bingata

Bingata (bean-guh-TAH) is a textile that is hand-painted in a variety of beautiful designs. Michiko-san, one of my English students, is an expert at bingata and was kind enough to teach me and the rest of the class. I made sure it was still an English lesson by having her give the instructions in English.

Michiko bought these basic patterns for us at a local material store. You start with a piece of fabric that has a pattern on it. It's hard to see in this photo, but there are also some lines of a waxy substance that helps add to the detail of the end product.

Michiko gave us all patterns with suggestions for colors, but you really could be creative and just go by feel. In the above right picture you can see there are 2 copies of the pattern. The top one suggests the basic patterns and the bottom one shows you how to add the "kuma" (details).

Above, Michiko shows us the brushes as Chieko, Yukiko, and Takako look on. The brushes are different than normal paint brushes. They are short and stubby because you don't really use paint strokes to decorate the material. You kind of grind and smudge the color on - almost like you're putting out a cigarette (not that I know from personal experience). In the above picture, the blue bottle is paint, one of the other bottles prevents the colors from bleeding, and the third bottle sets the paint in the fabric.

Here Michiko gives us some final instruction on technique:

After about an hour this is the basic pattern I wound up with:

Michiko showed us how to add the kuma. You use two brushes to add paint and then smudge. I had to use one brush, put it down, pick up the next brush and smudge, but Michiko was able to use both hands and do it at the same time.

This is my fish after the added kuma:

And all of us with our bingata:

You then have to let the material dry for 3 days, iron the back of it, soak it in hot water for 3 hours, swirl it through room temperature water to remove the blue pattern part, and then hang to dry. After all that you wind up with a beautiful piece of art:

Mine is very basic and I love it, but Michiko's are absolutely incredible. They truly look like a machine printed masterpiece - they are perfect. This project was a lot of fun and I'm hoping to talk Michiko into teaching a session for my kids at the Youth Center.

Cultural Exchange

One of the best parts of my job is the fact that we have opportunities for cultural exchange with local students. Recently a Japanese summer school where the kids learn English asked if we could bring some students out for some interaction. A little bit of the email was lost in translation and we were basically told that "we would play tug of war in a rice patty" and we were asked to bring the rope. With those sketchy directions we gathered 13 kids and headed off for a day of fun.

When we got there we were surprised at how many Japanese students were there. We thought it would be a small gathering. Despite the numbers, they were a very orderly and well behaved group and they had prepared a song to greet us:

After the song our students introduced themselves and we participated in a game of Telephone. Sometimes it would be English words passed down the line and sometimes it would be Japanese words. It was fun to see the kids faces when they didn't know what the person had whispered. Then we played some tug of war. Sadly, we just played in grass. There was no rice patty to be found.

After lots of rounds of tug of war it was time for lunch. Their idea of a picnic was awesome! They busted out some gas powered wok/bbqs and made yakisoba, chicken skewers, and hot dogs.

After lunch there was a rock, paper, scissor tournament where the kids could win prizes.

We took some professional pictures:

After the pictures we headed to the "rice patty" which was more like a mud pit.

The kids started off looking for 30 film canisters buried in the mud. 25 of them were winners and earned the lucky finder a prize and 5 were duds. After about 20 minutes of searching only 2 canisters were found, one lucky and one unlucky.

When the kids got tired of not finding canisters they switched the game to a capture the flag race. It was hilarious! Kids were diving into the mud and going all out to reach the flag first.

The kids were then hosed down, given popsicles to cool down, and loaded back on the bus to head home. Everyone had a great time and, despite our lack of verbal understanding, friendships were formed.

Well, I finally did it...

Today was the day. For the first time in the year we have lived here I went clothes shopping in a Japanese store. Not only that, but I went bathing suit shopping in a Japanese store! (gasp) Now, I'm not calling myself fat, but I am definitely larger than the normal Okinawan woman. A few of the reasons I was hesitant to shop in a Japanese store were:

1. When Chris had to buy bike shorts at the sport store here he was a large to extra large! If he's an XL, I don't want to know what I am.

2. Their sizing is different. For example, if you are a size 10 in the good old US of A, you are now a size 15! Thanks Japan!

3. I heard a horror story from a friend who was previously stationed here. She's about my size and when she went into a boutique she literally got shooed out of the store and told "we have nothing that fit you." Ouch. if that doesn't crush your ego, nothing will.

However, this weekend as we breezed through a Jusco (think large department store with a little bit of everything) I saw some swimsuits that looked like they would work for a triathlon and it looked like they would have my Japanese size. Combine that with the fact that Jusco is big so I was pretty sure I wouldn't get shooed out and I figured I was ready to shop.

I tried on four suits and liked two. I only bought one but I am thinking that this is a great success. It's nothing sexy - kind of a zip up tank and some bike short looking bottoms. I was feeling pretty good until I went to the register. The cashier made sure that I had tried it on because there is no bringing back swimwear. I told her I had and we were good to go. She takes the top off the hanger and unzips it (not sure why - probably so she could fold it into a beautiful piece of origami before putting it in my bag) and says a sentence where the only word I caught was "big". Well, I politely say, "sumimasen?" and again I hear "big" in the sentence multiple times. Due to my fragile mental state caused by bathing suit shopping I interpreted it as "I have never seen such a big piece of material except when my grandfather was making a car cover." So, I replied, "No, no. It fits." She folded it up, I paid, and I was on my way. But now looking back I think I'll interpret her words as, "how could this big piece of material fit on someone as svelte as you?". It's amazing how much better you feel when you employ positive thinking.

10,000 Eisa Dancers Festival

If you haven't heard, Chris is finally home! Woohoo! It's so nice having my better half back with me. We make real dinners, he helps walk the dog, and it's just nice to have him around. Also, our friend Pablo (he was stationed with us in England) just moved here on Friday. He's staying with us until he finds an apartment. He's a great house guest. Seriously, he even remembers to empty the lint tray on the dryer. Being the incredible hosts that we are (buy your plane tickets for a visit now folks!) we've been showing him the sites. We've gone out for sushi, taken him down to the seawall, viewed some cars, and on Sunday we went to the 10,000 Eisa Dancers Festival down on Kokusai Street. Some of you might remember Kokusai Street from our post on the Tug of War last fall. Apparently, this is where a lot of festivals are held.

An Eisa dancer is a folk dancer that is original to the Ryuku Islands. According to my students Takako and Yukiko who met us for the festival, each area of the island will have a dance group and each area's style of dance is different. This festival is held to mark the end of the Obon Festival. Obon honors the spirits of one's ancestors and was started by the Japanese Buddhists (Thanks Wikipedia!).

We didn't count, but it certainly seemed like there were 10,000 dancers there. It was really interesting to watch the dancers in all of their different costumes. There were kids as young as four years old participating in the dance. Here are some pictures of our day:

Long lost Chris and Pablo

This girl was very intense and fun to watch.

This girl was adorable. She did a great job, especially considering that her older sister was standing next to me making faces and distracting her. I guess annoying siblings are in every culture. I know Monica would agree with that, at least when we were younger.

This little boy was too cute to not take his picture!

Chris and I are as cute as ever despite our months apart.

A few locals will dress in their summer kimonos and they'll always flash the peace sign if you've got a camera.

This boy was tiny and he was awesome! He never missed a step, a turn, a song. He was great!

This was the group Pablo wanted to see, but they marched past us and danced further down the road.

Takako and Yukiko - it was nice to have locals with us so we could ask questions. This was the first time Takako had been to the festival or ridden the Okinawa monorail.

Me with some sanshin (guitars made out of snakeskin) players.

We parked at a Jusco and on our way back to the car decided to take a looksie so Brandon could see what it's all about. We were looking for the microwaves when we came across this horse riding practice machine. You can't tell from the picture, but that thing moves forward, backward, up, and down. It was a pretty sweet ride.