Christmas Day festivities in Okinawa? Snorkelling!!

Was Christmas any different in Okinawa than what we're used to in our previous western hemisphere previous holidays? A lot of the SOFA community focuses on the warmth, which is definitely hard to find in North America, but since our childhoods were more tropical, the warmth is only so-so here. Yes, the boys (John, Jordan & Josh) went outside to frolick in the sunshine with new toys after waking up to see what Santa brought us, while the awesome gals (Jane, Jessica & Betsy) slaved away on an awesome Christmas dinner. After that things got a little less typical for us. Early in the afternoon we loaded up the van & headed up to the Maeda Point (Maeda-misaki) in search of some good diving or snorkelling. Unfortunately, the winds & surf weren't cooperating with diving conditions that day. So we spent the gorgeous afternoon doing some fantastic snorkelling at nearby Maeda Flats. It was a bit reminiscent of the Murphy members' childhood Christmas days in the Caribbean, but this time we had an underwater camera & wetsuits (to keep us from shivering). All 6 of us got into the action (even Jordan) & saw lots of colorful underwater life. Then after that, right around sunset, we checked out nearby Cape Zampa (Zanpa-misaki) & the very photogenic lighthouse, walking trail & lookout point nearby. That part (traipsing around a lighthouse in shorts & flip-flops) was a new Christmas activity for all of us. ;-) It was indeed a merry Christmas!

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Diving off the Sunabe Junkyard

For their 2nd ocean dive ever (the day after their first), Jane & John were introduced to the other end of the Sunabe sea wall, near the junkyard. The tide was pretty low (read: below comfort level) so the snorkel out was semi-exhausting (thanks, John, for safely transporting the camera for us). But after that intro was completed, the only bad thing was that the camera battery hadn't been recharged from the previous day's diving, so very few shots were captured of the area's lush coral scenery. The exit was actually even tougher since the tide was even lower so we actually did more coral walking (with very heavy gear in tow) than snorkelling. :-(

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Jane & John's First Ocean Dive

On my siblings' 2nd full day of their 2-week visit over the Christmas holidays, we took them on their first ever SCUBA dive in salt water! That's right, no more frigid fresh-water North American rock quarry. ;-) Having been recently certified in Birmingham, Alabama (at our suggestion) before coming to visit us here in the coral-reef-diving wonderland that is Okinawa, Jane & John were ready to see what they'd been missing. We chose the very novice-friendly & nearby Sunabe Water Treatment Plant location (at the southern end of that section of the sea wall) as the first destination. Unfortunately, it was fairly overcast (the day before having been absolutely spectacular, of course) & the visibility down under wasn't the finest, but the newbies had a great first dive (unlike the photographer, Josh, whose "new" but very used BCD just refused to hold onto his tank). Things were really fine with the dive until a surface brought us to the realization that conditions below were better than above, where we left Brittany & Jordan, who had become miserable once the rains started & our misplaced van keys were nowhere to be found. Before John & Josh thoroughly demolished the driver door trying to break in, the astute neighbor who received our misplaced keys in her bag returned them to us, having seen our plight from her nearby apartment. And before too much longer the ordeal was done & we made a few adjustments in our future planning (so as not to repeat such potential disaster). Sorry again, Jordan & Brittany!

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Couchsurfers, Part II (Checking out Ie Jima & enjoying "Pizza In The Sky")

Our couchsurfing friends, Jo & Brendan, returned to stay with us for a few more days, after a few weeks in mainland Japan & before heading back to Taiwan for several more weeks. And we were able to spend another lovely day showing them around our beautiful island home a bit more.

So we took them to a place we've been wanting to check out ourselves for quite some time, Ie Jima, a small island just west of Okinawa, off of Motobu Peninsula. After the short ferry ride over, we had a lovely time exploring by bicycle (which we rented for 1000 yen for the day). We were surprised to find that our 4.5 hrs (between ferries) did not afford enough time to see quite every sight that we wanted to.

We first found the Monument of Hokon & its adjacent park. It was a welcome first "catch-our-breath" break, being at the top of a rather steep hill. Then we made our way to the base of the prominent Mount Gusuku (shaped like a volcano), where we parked our bicycles & began climbing stairs. We first arrived at the mid observation deck & gift shop building. After a few minutes looking around, we made the hike to the top, which was only about 15 minutes of stair climbing. The views from atop the peak were wonderful. By the time we descended we were ready for some lunch, so we rode our bikes back into the town. Finding a COOP grocery store & a Hot Spar convenience store, we purchased some tasty food & settled down at a table in a little park nearby to enjoy it. Next, we decided to bike along the southern coast in search of the Niya-thiya Cave, where 1000 local people sought refuge during WWII bombings. We passed the Ernie Pyle Memorial park & inspected the monument to the US war correspondent who was killed there during WWII. Then we stopping along GI Beach, where we thought the cave should be. We explored several smaller caves & crevasses before deciding that we must not have gone quite far enough. And true to that suspicion, about 100 meters further on down the road, we found the very well-marked stairs leading down to the entrance of the large cave & it's legendary stone of power (which legend holds will assist a woman in becoming pregnant, if she lifts it; none in our group were allowed to attempt the lifting). Then, with only had a few minutes to play with before needing to be back at the port to return the bikes & board the ferry, we rode to Nishizaki fishing port nearby & stared down from the piers into the crystal clear waters at the sea life below. We did capture a few photos & video of some interesting fish out of water on a concrete pylon. And then it was a speedy bike ride back along the coast to Ie Port for the last returning ferry of the day at 4pm.

Once safely back on Okinawa around 4:30pm, we made our way to our favorite pizza joint, Cafe Kajinho (or "Pizza In The Sky," as the ex-pat community here fondly refers to it). There we had some wonderful views of the sunset skies & of course, some delicious pizza, salad & drinks.

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SCUBA Diving Just Got Even Better!

We love getting to delight in one of our favorite parts about living where we currently do - SCUBA diving!! It's especially fun when we try a new location or see new sights or have new toys to play with. So for our first experience aboard Captain Mark's "Sea Lady IV", we were delighted with several new things. A new place was introduced in the way of the very vibrant corals at "Ammo" (aka "Mark's") Reef, not far out from the western shore of Okinawa, about halfway between Kadena Marina & Araha Beach (straight out from Sunabe "Junkyard," sort of). The name is derived from the WWII ammunitions still seen from time-to-time in the area (hopefully never handled in any way by divers that see them) or from one of the few boat captains that knows about it (if you prefer the latter of the names presented). It was indeed pristine (relative to the popular spots right up against the same shore that we've frequented over the past year). It was also our first dive with our new dive camera (SeaLife DC500 with an external flash) which isn't actually new to the ocean but it's new to US! We purchased it from one of Betsy's coworkers that is moving back Stateside in a few short weeks. We went a little nuts taking photos in our 50-min dive (these are all from the first of our 2 dives of the day, because we exhausted the battery & about 2/3 of the memory card in that short time span). But we got some fantastic shots (& some half-decent that I probably should have deleted but didn't)!!

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Our second (unphotographed) dive of the day turned out to be our first night dive. We did not plan it that way but fortunately at least 1 diver decided not to go down so he loaned us his awesome UK HID dive light (costs over $200 which is a lot for a flashlight, y'all!). So yeah, we're now officially spoiled for life on choice of lights, but boy, was night-diving cool. I bogarted the light so poor Betsy just held my hand & had to either look where I was aiming it or stare into darkness. It was so cool to see the same reef area before & after dark. You can really concentrate on the details at night. We saw an awesome pink stonefish & bright red shrimp (under a ledge) & multi-colored eel (medium sized) protruding with his mouth agape. We're definitely looking forward to getting our Advanced certification (probably soon after we buy much cheaper dive lights) & maybe a few free specialty certs!

P.S. Thanks to Kadena Marina's free specialty course of the month promotion (sponsored by PADI), Betsy & I are now also enriched air (aka nitrox) certified. It happened just 2 days after this day of diving, so we're anxious to get out & try a new gas! Yippeee!!!

Turkey Day - Okinawa Style

Since we were too lazy & tired of other recent travels to take advantage of the long weekend to plan & take a trip (although we should have, we now realize in 20/20 hindsight), we are more than happy to report that we had a very lovely Thanksgiving holiday with several good friends. And we did the American traditions grand honor, being very thankful for the feast that we assembled & attempted to consume. We had some great food, including a 20+ lb turkey & sides (purchased from our friendly MCCS - I think it was prepared at Camp Foster's Globe & Anchor club) as well as numerous home-made items that different people contributed. We definitely ate more than we should have allowed ourselves to (continuing that tradition). And we didn't just enjoy the food on Thanksgiving Day itself but also for several days after!

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One of our favorite Thanksgiving companions was 18-month-old Cayce. Here's a fun video of her digging into some cool whip after we enjoyed leftovers 2 days after Thanksgiving: The main objective (well, besides watching her make a mess) was getting her to say "Hi, Grampa!" We thoroughly enjoyed her version:

We Are CouchSurfer Hosts!

We recently opened up our humble abode to some very fun guests that we met via couchsurfing.com (a site that matches up travel hounds like ourselves with each other to overcome some of the travel industry's high prices). A lovely couple hailing from Australia (formerly of Sydney, soon to be Melbourne) flew in from Taiwan (where they'd been visiting her family). And we were happy to meet them at the airport & provide about 4 nights of lodging during the last full week of November (since we hadn't made travel plans for the Thanksgiving holiday for some reason). Most days they were forced (or chose, or a combination of both) to fend for themselves (walking or bussing or renting a car).

But on their last day with us, we were finally able to spend a full day discovering Okinawa with Jo & Brendan. Discovering a day that began cloudy/drizzly/windy but became sunny & clear, we drove out to east-central side of the island, across the peninsula in Uruma. We explored the ruins of Katsuren Castle before venturing onto the bridge out to Henza Island. We then explored coasts, shrines & caves on Hamahiga Island before continuing on to Ikei Island's Big Time Resort coast. After finding an afternoon snack on Ikei, we drove back to Miyagi & along some of the less-popular roads (as evidenced by the vegetation covering a lane or more). We eventually discovered the park & lookout pavilions at Ato Gusuku Observatory, before leisurely making our way back to Okinawa Island & into Naha to find the Shinko Port.

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Yaeyama Islands: Delights Await Ye Nature-Lovers

After arriving on Ishigaki (main island of the Yaeyama group, due east of Taiwan), catching a bus into town, settling in at the comfy guest house (where we found communication most convenient via translation services from a friend that we phoned), we slowly realized that our Japanese mastery or lack thereof (especially written comprehension, which is not far above 0% fluency) was not going to be nearly as forgivable in the Yaeyama-shoto as it often is here on Okinawa. And since there were quite a few activities we were interested in taking part in during our long weekend (3 nights) there, we decided to seek some assistance & spend a bit more money than we normally allow ourselves to. So we booked a tour thru Hirata Tours at the nearby ferry port for Saturday, called an English speaking dive shop to set up some SCUBA diving for Sunday & decided to only chance our partial day on Monday to our own fallible communication skills. After those plans were made, we followed a lovely walking tour (printed from a website) of the main town before finding a delicious dinner at Yuna, across the street from our guesthouse.

On our first full day, we embarked on a day tour to Iriomote Island which included round trip ferries from Ishigaki, bus transportation on Iriomote, boat trip up the Urauchi-kawa, hike to the Maryudo falls, delicious resort lunch, star-sand hunting/gathering, & a wooden cart pulled by water buffalo to tiny Yubu-jima for a scenic stroll about the gardens. Though it certainly wasn't cheap, it sure was easy to do more than we could probably have figured out on our own & we thoroughly enjoyed each part of that was included. Dinner back on Ishigaki that night consisted of some yummy bento box food we found from a local vendor in town.

We did some SCUBA diving on Sunday, finding a dive shop in Kabira that could handle our language needs (Umicoza). Unfortunately, the Manta Scramble location (famous for regular year-round sightings of awesome, huge Manta Rays) was too choppy for the dive boat to visit, so we had to settle for 2 dives in different areas that boasted coral reef life in Nagura Bay. It was quite lovely, but not terribly different from what we witness around Okinawa Island. Still, our very knowledgeable divemaster (Satoki-san) showed us quite a few things we'd never seen before (arrow crabs, jawfish, etc), often using his underwater flashlights to illuminate places normally concealed to our view. Also provided by Umicoza was a delicious lunch of curry, rice, spaghetti & salad (very nice after diving). After getting dropped back off at the guest house in town that afternoon, we quickly realized that not bringing our AAA-issued international driving permits would be preventing us from rental of any motor-powered vehicle(s), so instead we rented bicycles to get in a few hours of riding across the southern coastline (great sunset views & monuments & a small lighthouse). On our way back, before returning the bikes, we happened to see a fresh seafood shop & purchased some fresh fish sashimi which we paired with some bento food from a Hot Spar store near our guest house.

On Monday we awoke to bright, gorgeous weather (the clearest of our days there) & ferried over to Taketomi-jima, where we rented bicycles (highly recommended) to see the island's beaches, typical Ryukyu village architecture, shrines & historical sights. In only 3-1/2 hours we found that we had seen basically all of the small island's very interesting scenery & we docked back on Ishigaki-jima JUST in time (i.e. 30 min before time was up) for a DELICIOUS lunch buffet at the Chisun Hotel. We even had enough time to leisurely stroll with our backpacks from the ferry port to the airport instead of taking the bus! ;-)

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Our longest bike ride so far

Since Betsy has only a 2-hr workday on Fridays, we decided to spend one lovely Friday doing some bike riding around the island. So we charted a course we'd been considering for a while, over to the Pacific (east) coast of the island, then south along the coast & back across the steep ridges that run north & south. We included a lunch stop at a buffet that we'd read good things about (lots of sushi!). The route we followed is available if you CLICK HERE.

Basically, it was a big loop along roads we'd driven several times but never ridden. Only 3 of our 4 total tires survived in an "able to contain air" state. But Josh didn't let a flat front tire keep him from riding his free bike (found on the side of the road beside other large trash items on "large trash items" day) without an inflated front tire (the tube has since been replaced & feels just as good, which isn't that good, as it ever did). It was a good workout & great fun besides! And we even remembered to snap a few photos!

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Kyoto: Traditional Japan Meets Tourists!!

Possibly our best trip so far in Japan was our 4 days & 3 nights in Kyoto. Yes, the city is quite amazing. Filled with temples, shrines, gardens & castles, it offers a glimpse into Japan of years gone by as well as today. We delighted in seeing so much history & culture in such close quarters. The weather was gorgeous (just before leaf-changing season when we're told the city became so crowded it was tough to move) & we were fortunate to have a gracious, knowledgeable guide (our good friend Kuro, who went to university in Kyoto for several years) to show us the very convenient bus, train & subway system. In addition to Kuro (who currently resides in nearby Osaka), we were able to rendezvous with American friends Richard (a teammate & friend of Josh's from the Triangle, NC) & Kat (Richard's friend & English teacher in Hokkaido, northernmost island of Japan). They were convinced to interrupt adventures in Tokyo to come to Kyoto for the weekend & stay in the Kyoto Backpacker's House with us! We also got to meet local Kansai region friends & family of Kuro's, all of whom were extremely delightful. So this trip wasn't just about seeing gorgeous sights, but also about getting to know very fun people! We could easily have stayed for a full week in Kyoto before feeling like we really got a good taste of life there, but we thoroughly enjoyed every minute of what we did experience.

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Hong Kong: The final day

We were actually ready to come home & decompress after our jam-packed travels through the 2 Chinese SARs. (That's not something I can say about every place that we visit for just a long weekend or less.) So the final day was one of our best, mood-wise & weather-wise. After checking out of Cosmic Guesthouse first thing in the morning, the staff was kind enough to store our bags free of charge until later in the day when we would be ready to make our way to the airport. Then the day's activities included finding some breakfast (sold by a very friendly Nepalese emigrant) at a PARKnSHOP grocery store near the Salisbury YMCA hotel, a courtesy harbor tour on the Duk Ling (an authentic restored Chinese fishing junk), a cheap Star Ferry ride back across Victoria Harbour, a walk & "bio break" in the Harbour City mall complex, & a stroll through Kowloon Park. The captions on the photos give more details on some of our fun:

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We had a mid-afternoon flight out, so after grabbing our bags from the guest house in the early afternoon, we jumped on the K3 Airport Express shuttle bus (at the Kowloon Hotel stop). After checking in at the Kowloon station & getting rid of our bags, we were able to comfortably take the fast Airport Express train to the enormous, modern HKIA & then spent most of our remaining HK currency on a yummy final HK lunch at the very popular King's Palace Congee & Noodle followed by some sweet Millie's Cookies.

What a fantastic & exhausting trip!

Hong Kong: Day 7

Having spent the previous night in Macau, we didn't even make it back to Hong Kong until after noon & to the Cosmic Guesthouse in the Mirador Mansions building in Kowloon until after 2pm. And we still managed to find enough fun & adventure to fill 57 photos (mostly at Victoria Peak or en route via the Peak Tram on Hong Kong Island):

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We also re-visited the Temple Street Night Market & negotiated some awesome deals on a suitcase, backpack, mahjongg set, a Kau Cim set (a.k.a. Chinese fortune sticks), Chinese bamboo chopsticks, porcelain tea cups & various other goodies! Dinner at another open-air seafood restaurant (Temple Spice Crab) was as yummy (if not more so) as it had been on Day 1!

Macau: Fusion of East & West - Portugal & China

In order to see all we possibly could for our 9 days of traveling, we took a 55-minute high-speed ferry from Hong Kong to the other nearby Special Administrative Region (SAR) of Macao for a 2-night stay. We arrived on Wednesday evening (a.k.a. Hong Kong - Day 6) & figured out which bus would get us reasonably close (within a 20 min walk) of the Macau Masters Hotel on Macau's west coast, just across from Zhuhai. We later ventured out & found a lovely Latin-style dinner at Restaurante Vela Latina, before strolling about the attractively lighted Senate Square. Rising early on Thursday to see the sights, we spent all day exploring the Macanese peninsula, both exhausting & delighting ourselves at the same time. We didn't make it to the other 2 islands to the south (by bridge), Taipa & Coloane, but only because the sun went down before we found time. The hotel bed really felt good that night (despite the fact that it was an overly firm mattress in a very inexpensive hotel)! On Friday morning (a.k.a. Hong Kong Day 7) after grabbing some Sino-Portuguese bakery products for breakfast, we caught the ferry back to Hong Kong for a final 2 days of sight-seeing.

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Hong Kong: Day 6

We visited the highly recommended Cheung Chau Island & it was well worth the time, one of our favorite days spent in Hong Kong.

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Hong Kong: Day 5

Ocean Park was the main activity of the day (& the vast majority of the photos in this album support that claim) but we also visited the overpriced Jumbo Floating Restaurant & later witnessed the highly recommended annual Fire Dragon Dance & Lantern Festival.

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Hong Kong: Day 4

We visited Lantau Island. After a thrill-ride on a public bus hurtled us over green hills, we perused the fishing village & its many residences lining canals built on stilts. Then we checked out the world's largest outdoor seated bronze Buddha statue in the town of Po Lin, before having a vegetarian meal (every was tasty except the congee soup, possibly our least favorite dish of the week) at the monastery.

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Hong Kong: Day 3

The day was spent on the Kowloon Peninsula & New Territories areas of Hong Kong SAR. After a Chinese-style (well, more so than American anyway) breakfast at a local chain, we jumped on the MTR & made our way to the Tsuen Wan Station. Nearby we found the Sam Tung Uk Museum & learned about past culture & life in Hong Kong. We then walked to the town's KCR West Rail station which led us to our next destination near the Tin Shui Wai Station, exploring the Ping Shan Heritage Trail's interesting pagoda, shrines, temples & ornate town halls. Arriving for a late lunchtime at the Fung Ying Sing Koon Monastery, we enjoyed a delicious vegetarian meal in its dining hall before really checking out the grounds & gardens. The day was capped off with visits to the Museum of Art & adjacent Space Museum (they were included in our week-long museum passes so we decided to just quickly explore each).

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Hong Kong: Day 2

We started our 2nd day on the Kowloon side and stopped off at a McDonald's for breakfast (mainly because we knew they had coffee & actual breakfast food). Fortunately, it was a little different than McD's in Japan & the US so we still qualified it as a Hong Kong experience. ;-)

Then we made first use of our 7-day unlimited Museum Pass (for just HK$30=US$4 each) & visited the Museum of History. We watched an informative little film about HK's history before joining a wonderful guided tour, courtesy of the HK Tourism Board. We learned all about the history. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable & even handled our many questions very well. We felt compelled (since our pass included it & we were right there) to then visit the adjacent HK Science Museum. We figured out that it wasn't exactly unique info to HK, so we probably wasted time there (a nice lunch would probably have been better).

Next we made our way back over to the Central MTR station on Hong Kong Island, where we utilized the world's longest outdoor escalator system, the Central-Mid-Levels escalator, to make our way to the Dr Sun Yat-Sen Museum. There we took a guided tour (thanks again, HKTB!), learning all about the medical doctor's training in Hong Kong & subsequent efforts to abolish the long Chinese imperial rule. That tour was followed immediately by another, following the historical trail in the area, visiting several places that Sun frequented in his HK days.

Having only a few minutes left before it closed, we next inspected the nearby, under-repair Man Mo Temple. It was kind of cool to see how they used bamboo for scaffolding in the repairs instead of less eye-pleasing materials.

We than again crossed the harbor (via MTR) to find the Lei Yue Mun Seafood Bazaar, where an impressively large numbers of live seafood vendors & restaurants awaited the many hungry customers. Unfortunately, we encountered a few too-pushy vendors & the many too-foreign customs (of knowing how to select & then purchase, maybe negotiating for, we're not sure, the live seafood for immediate preparation, possibly at our direction) so we were convinced to snap some photos but then go elsewhere to find more familiar cuisine. So we finished our day with a yummy meal at a chain restaurant, Tai Hing Roast, where we still had very unique food experience, the way we like it.

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Hong Kong - Day 1

After sleeping in (to recover from our late night) we investigated the Causeway Bay area where we were staying a bit. We tried the Tsui Wah Restaurant franchise on the other side of Cannon Street from our building, since our host had agreed with some favorable online reviews & further recommended it specifically for a good, inexpensive breakfast. Indeed it was both cheap & tasty! Betsy even declared it her favorite coffee ever (dark, sweet & heavy on the cream). Then we located an ATM in the nearby World Trade Centre building & found a Hong Kong Tourism Board visitor information center on the other side of the Causeway Bay MTR station. After getting plenty of info (possibly too much!) on what all we might do with ourselves for a week in Hong Kong, we meandered a bit, discussing our plans before eventually settling down to plot our week, upon a bench on 1 of the 9 floors of "vertical shopping mall" in the Times Square complex.

An hour or so later, with a plan in hand, we then set out via MTR, passing underneath Victoria Harbour, to the Kowloon Peninsula side. Our first stop was the very popular Wong Tai Sin Temple, which represents China's 3 main religions - Buddhism, Taoism & Confucianism. We snapped many photos of the very colorfully decorated structures & watched the worshipers burn incense & chant, although we declined to purchase (from the many vendors) & burn our own. We especially enjoyed the Good Wish Gardens on the temple grounds, but we declined the fortune tellers.

We next considered checking out the Kowloon Walled City Park, formerly a high-rise slum that was transformed into a park in 1995. The distance from the nearest MTR station dissuaded us & we instead to decided to check out 3 street markets in the Mong Kok area. First, we strolled through the Yuen Po Street Bird Garden. Vendors sold all kinds of caged birds as well as food & supplies. We were fairly careful not to touch any birds (signs reminding us that avian flu concerns are prevalent in Hong Kong). But we couldn't resist a bargain on a fancy wooden souvenir cage (new & clean) of our very own (to display without an inhabitant, probably). We then strolled through the adjacent Flower Market streets where vendors sold every type of plant we could imagine (meaning we'd have plenty of green to turn brown if we lived in HK). And we then made our way to the Tung Choi Street Goldfish Market, where we discovered that keeping aquariums is considered by many Chinese to bring good fortune. Thus, there were a multitude of vendors selling every type of aquatic life, habitat, food & accessory we'd ever known. Our camera did not go unused. ;-)

As the sun descended on our day, we found the Temple Street Night Market & learned how negotiable (VERY) the prices were on all kinds of products being sold. We made some mental notes & plans to come back towards the end of our trip, and made the highlight of the market a delicious open-air meal of seafood (fried prawns) & vegetables (spicy stewed eggplant) at Tong Tai Seafood Restaurant.

Our final stop for our first full day in Hong Kong was the Kowloon waterfront promenade near the ferry piers. There on the HK Cultural Centre Piazza, beside the clock tower, was a massive lantern display (of an 80-meter long dragon & 10 life-size boys) called "Dragon Dance by the Ten Brothers," part of the Mid-Autumn Festival & also highlighting Hong Kong's 10th anniversary as a Chinese Special Administrative Region (SAR), following its return from Britain to China in 1997. Our camera battery didn't stay with us long enough to inundate you with too many shots of the lanterns, just a couple to prove we were there.

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Hong Kong (Day 0) - Travelling & Arriving

We didn't leave Okinawa until 7pm on Thursday. It was our first time using Okinawa's international terminal building (a small building right beside the main one). We flew via China Airlines (based in Taiwan) to Taipei (their hub) before continuing on to Hong Kong, arriving not long before midnight (GMT+8, our Okinawan body clocks indicating it was even later).

We cleared customs, exchanged currency (learning the hard way that you don't get a good rate in the Hong Kong airport), bought MTR (the very convenient subway train line system) passes, & called the guest house to announce our arrival & proximity. The efficient train system delivered at the Causeway Bay Station, only about 2 blocks from Alisan Guest House in the still-quite-alive-for-that-time-of-night district of Causeway Bay on Hong Kong Island.

After finding the entrance to the HoiTo Court building (not the easiest feat we accomplished; no signs were posted for the guest house itself), the staff (who had been indulging in late-night eats) found us & ushered us in. And introduced us to our home for 6 consecutive nights, a very cozy (small) & clean (very nearly brand-new) room. It was basically a studio flat with a small bathroom (a shower curtain would have been more familiar to us but we did fine without) & a kitchen area (sink, counter space & mini-fridge) separated (via sliding privacy-glassed doors) from the double bed (with drawers built in underneath) room that included a window A/C unit. It was nothing resembling any of the Chungking Mansions horror stories that I'd read about & it was actually quite a HK value for only HK&360=US$48 per night. Despite a much firmer than usual mattress, we got a very late-to-commence but pretty good first night's sleep!

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** We do realize there are only 25 photos in this first album, but don't worry, we just wanted to start off "reasonable" before eventually hitting that "downright insane" number of photos that we inevitably will (if you know our camera happy selves at all)! ;-)

Huge snails!

Along Betsy's bike route to work early (around 6:30am) in the mornings she often sees hundreds of these huge snails on the sidewalks along a road that runs along the edge of Kadena Air Base. They look more like ocean conch shells than land snails. I snapped a few photos of them (2 are dead & 2 are alive) when I was biking along the route later in the day. Here is the first & closest of 3 shots I captured (check out the 2 following it in the album for size perspective):

In doing a little research, we think this is the species we're seeing: Achatina Fulica (click to check out details on Wikipedia.com)

More fun with the Engrish language

Posted sign on a shelf in a gardening store on Convention Center Road:

From Engrish

Some type of container (waste basket) in a grocery store (San-A) in Hamby Town (2 blocks from our apt):

From Engrish

Okinapa

We attended the very popular Friday night fall edition of the semi-annual Okinapa Wine Festival. Vendors representing vineyards from around the globe provided all types & flavors for sampling. The wine was tasty & the food was spectacular. The atmosphere was fun & festive. We had a great time with our friends, Jessica & Jason (who scored the tickets for us before they quickly sold out).

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Labor Day weekend trip: "REAL" Japan!

For our first trip to mainland (aka "real") Japan, we chose to spend Labor Day weekend in the Kansai region. Flying the gorgeous Japanese skies on JTA (part of the JAL group) from Naha to Kobe (an airport that has only been open since 2006), we snapped some awesome shots on our way there, mostly thru the plane windows (good thing it was a bright, clear day):

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The Kansai region's 2nd largest city, Kobe is known worldwide mainly for the disastrous Great Hanshin earthquake that struck in 1995, which is only now evident to the most thorough of examinations. Taking the Port Liner train from the airport into the city, we got to admire the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge (the longest suspension bridge in the world). Around the Sannomiya station we discovered bustling city scenery, so we walked around a bit (snapping photos all the while, of course) before finding a yummy lunch at a crowded (so we knew it was good) sushi restaurant (the term "dive" would apply in this case). Bellies full & knowing only that we wanted to utilize the Japan Railway (JR) line to reach neighboring Osaka, we then headed back into the station & successfully boarded the appropriate train & headed east in search of a larger metropolis.

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We had decided to focus the majority of the weekend on the Kinki region's largest city (& Japan's 2nd largest metro area), Osaka! We arrived on Saturday afternoon & promptly purchased some 1-day passes for Sunday, then made our way from the Osaka train station to our nearby home for the next 2 nights, the Hotel Kinki, in the Umeda district of the city's Kita-ku ward (north borough). We found it conveniently located on one of Osaka's many covered pedestrian retail streets, the Hankyu Higashi Nakadori arcade, situated very close to the well known Hep Five building's huge red ferris wheel. Restaurants & city life surrounded us. After settling into our cozy room we ventured out & strolled thru shopping malls that reached up into the sky as well as others that dove down into the ground. We ate a yummy dinner in an underground shopping mall. We had 2 of Osaka's famous dishes, typical okonomiyaki followed by some oshizushi (literally "pressed sushi"; Osaka's alternative to the more common Tokyo-originated nigirizushi, literally "pressed in the hand sushi"). We slept well that night!

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We hit the ground running on Sunday, our only full & complete day in Osaka. Bearing 1-day Osaka Unlimited Passes for unlimited subway usage & 24 city sights, we made our way southeast to the appropriately famous Osaka Castle. Josh enjoyed a breakfast of takoyaki (literally grilled octopus, colloquially octopus balls) while Betsy chose a Pepsi Nex in a funky aluminum bottle. Nearby we found Peace Osaka, a museum detailing Osaka's devastation in WWII & plenty of convincing reasons to avoid war if at all possible. Next, we visited the Umeda area & checked out the magnificent Umeda Sky Building. We found lunch on the basement level in a fun maze called the "Takimi Lane of Restaurants" that reproduces a street from the early Showa era, before marveling above the city from the lauded Floating Garden Observatory. From there, we discovered ancient Shitennoji Temple's serene beauty, among its gardens, ancient treasure building & main temple courtyard. We then strolled to the nearby Shin-Sekai neighborhood, finding a very crowded Tsutenkaku Tower, which afforded more aerial Osaka views & a very popular good-luck-to-rub-his-feet statue of a funny-looking god named Billiken. After a rest back in our hotel room, we ventured to brightly lit Dotombori in the Minami district, where we ate a wonderful dinner of negiyaki & modanyaki at Chibo okonomiyakiya (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED).

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We slept late on the 3rd & final morning of our trip, thoroughly exhausted from previous days' exercise. Wisely we had only one destination for the day, the heralded Osaka Kaiyukan Aquarium. After checking out of Hotel Kinki, we had no trouble arriving at the Osaka Bay Area & the little island that boasted Tempozan Harbor Village. We gawked a bit at the huge ferris wheel before stowing our backpacks in a rental locker. Then we made our way thru the 8 stories of impressive aquarium. Rather than taking the Okinawa Churaumi approach of focusing on one or two of the earth's environments thoroughly, the collection spanned multiple continents in 15 distinct enviroments of the "Ring of Fire", basically running the perimeter of the earth's largest body of water, the Pacific Ocean. Our favorite animals were the enormous Ecuadorian freshwater Pirarucu (or Arapaima), fat hungry sea otters, freakish ocean sunfish, waddling Antarctic King & Gentoo Penguins, & many fascinating jellyfish. Since the awe & wonder of such creatures is so involved in their motion (& because our camera's battery was running low), we used our cell phones to capture 37 short videos of the creatures. It's actually hard to believe that we only spent about 2 hours in the aquarium. In the next-door Tempozan Marketplace retail mall, we ate a yummy lunch of kitsune udon (literally, "fox" but actually fried sweet tofu pockets, when referring to udon) & tempura udon. Then we strolled around Tempozan Park, boasting Japan's lowest mountain, Mount Tempo-zan (what?! it's man-made?! does that count?!), before leisurely making our way back to Osaka's JR train station & then to the Kobe airport.

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Birthday weekend up north

In honor of celebrating Betsy's completion of 28 years of life, we spent a lovely weekend on the far northern end of Okinawa. We spent much of the time at Okuma Joint Forces Recreation Facility. There we did such things as SCUBA diving (off a boat, for once), camping (although we never got in our tent, opting instead to try sleeping in the back of our van; if there had been any wind at all, there's a chance that we could have slept thru the raucous noise from young Marines in the campground), biking & hiking. And, of course, eating at the Surfside Restaurant. From there we drove to the northern tip, Cape Hedo-misaki, where we took way too many photos. Then we checked out a hiking park nearby with some very cool rock formations & vegetation. On our way home, we stopped at a roadside beach on the Pacific side & did some snorkelling. Yes, we got a LITTLE sun & a FEW bug bites! ;-)

10,000 Eisa Dancers!

We ventured with John, Amanda & Cayce down to Naha & its infamous Kokusai Dori on a gorgeous Sunday to witness the annual "10,000 Eisa Dancers" performing in the streets. Hoping to avoid a headache in parking (both in terms of time & cost) we decided to park at Jusco & take the monorail, which turned out to be quite easy & kinda fun! We'd seen Eisa dances previously but this was the first time to see quite so many spectators & definitely so many young kids dancing in the groups.

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Festival at Sunset Mihama Beach

We heard there was a festival going on quite close to our apartment on Sunset Beach (we often ride our bikes or even walk by there). Sure enough, there was! They had yummy festival food & we saw some cool fireworks!

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Biking in the morning

Betsy has started biking to work (2 days in a row now) with a coworker & friend (Kristen Pon). And this morning (2nd day) Josh joined them until they hit Gate 1 of Kadena AFB, where the gals went inside & Josh kept going around the base! He made it successfully all the way around, but admits that he did get off his bike on one long, arduous hill. Maybe next time he won't have to (he doubts it). He ended up completing about 14.5 miles total. Here is the route he took:

Expensive fruit!!

We've noticed that locally grown produce tends to be a LOT more expensive than imported varieties. Our rudimentary knowledge of economics (some might say lack thereof) would assume the opposite, that costs would be decreased for production locally. But take a look at these mangos:

From Okinawa - FOO...

The exchange rate averages about 115 yen to the US dollar, so this wooden cushioned box of 5 Okinawan mangos costs the equivalent of US$111. The Mexican imports cost about $2 each. The explanation we've heard thru word-of-mouth is that strict agricultural laws/standards here in Okinawa tends to produce a very high quality of produce, hence the outrageous price difference. Wish we could afford to investigate!! ;-)

Trip to the States

So we made the destination of our first vacation since moving to Okinawa to visit loved ones back in the US! I know, I know, we want to check out Asia while we're here, but we can't help that we're lovers! ;-) We had a GREAT trip too, so we're glad we did it. We began our 2 weeks with a long weekend at a house on Lake Oconee in Buckhead, GA, setting for Betsy's 10-yr CA class reunion. There were 10 former classmates in attendance (average CA class size was about 16), many with spouses & even kids. It was so much fun. We almost won the prize for farthest trip also, but Kelly beat us, coming all the way from Manila!

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From there we headed to Birmingham, Alabama for 3 nights to visit family & friends. Our close friends Ludwig & Ana flew in from RDU to visit us for a full day. While in B'ham, we managed to squeeze in such things as a McWane Center visit & some yummy lunch at Surin West, plus many more adventures that we forgot to document photographically! We then went to Atlanta for 2 nights & Josh's family followed. Betsy had to spend 16 hrs of 2 days at a continuing ed course (conveniently close to Josh's Grandma's house). Josh got to go to 6 Flags with his siblings & nephew, but the whole family found time for a delicious Caribbean dinner at a golden restaurant discovery by John!

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Upon departure from Atlanta, we kidnapped our 6-yr-old nephew Jordan (not really, his mom gave her consent). First stop was 2 nights (but only 1 day) in Fayetteville, NC with close friends Lisa & Alex. We had fun in the sun at a park near their house, followed by a fantabulous dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in the world, The Mash House! (We turned the camera over to Jordan around halfway thru this album! He's got some talent, huh?)

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And our last 4 days were spent in SC with Betsy's family. First stop was her cousin 's family in Columbia, the Jackson 5! We only got to spend about 4-5 hours with Carolyn & Bryan but we had a great time playing with little boys. Somehow our camera was completely neglected (perhaps we were distracted?) while we were there or else we'd prove how yummy our falafels were! ;-)

The next 3 fun-filled nights we spent at Folly Beach with Betsy's parents & grandparents & cousins (on her mom's side). We ate too much & got quite sun-burned before it was time to leave, so you know it was a GREAT time!!

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Kelly's visit

Our childhood friend from boarding school (CA) in Venezuela, Kelly Schlonecker, came to visit us for a week en route back to visit her family/friends in the US for the summer (she lives/works in Manila currently). We had a great time with her & she made sure we took lots of photos!

Remembering WWII in Okinawa

Since it was the anniversary of the WWII Battle of Okinawa, we decided to visit Peace Prayer Park on a very nice (but very hot) Saturday. It is a venue we have been planning to check out for a while now. John, Amanda & baby Cayce were our chauffeurs & companions on the excursion. And we were certainly not the only people on Okinawa in our decision to do something so appropriate on such a day! The park was quite busy, as were the roadways nearby. Let's just say parking was an adventure (& not a quick one)! There were special memorial services set up that attracted the largest crowds. The language barrier did not make those quite as meaningful to us, so we mostly concentrated on what we could definitely absorb.

Peace Prayer Park

We absolutely recommend a visit to the park, if you're able. It was HIGHLY informative in regards to Japan's history related to WWII, especially what happened on Okinawa (both during & after the fighting). The Battle of Okinawa was the bloodiest battle of World War II, with more than 12,000 Americans and 107,500 Japanese troops killed, along with at least 42,000 Okinawa citizens dead. Make no mistake, it was sobering to learn of the horrendous effects of war, especially on innocent civilian lives that are most likely taken for granted by both sides of the conflict. But it was good to see such a venue for us, dedicated to achieving peace through understanding the experiences of others. Since we did not experience any of that piece of history first hand, this type of memorial allowed us to get as close to being there as possible. Time ran out on us before we could visit the Memorial Hall monument (including Butterfly Garden & Art Gallery) so we'll probably be back at this park again! Come join us!!

Another gorgeous sunset - June 19

We took 8 good photos of this one!

Okinawa Zoo

We visited the much maligned (by those few who we know have visited) Okinawa "Kodomo no Kuni" (a zoo & kid's park), which is not far from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa City. The weather cooperated for us (especially considering that it's very much rainy season right now) & the animal collection they housed was actually pretty decent, in terms of quantity, variety & exoticity (is that a word?). I guess, coming from North America, it's not hard to show us animals that we'd consider exotic. We were a little saddened by several of the habitats (mainly the ostriches & hippos & a few others), but otherwise we thought it was worth the time & 500-yen entrance fee.

Okinawa Zoo

The centrally located pond was kind of amusing. Walking along the boardwalk, the carp would actually follow you because they were so used to people throwing food (which was sold in vending machines) to them. And when people did throw food in, it was utter madness seeing all the teeming mouths gaping to get the crumbs. The way they behaved you'd think they were starving, but they were all fat & huge! The Okinawa Marine publication recently did a nice little write-up on the park (which includes a couple more attractions targeted directly at kids)/

Drink? Pack of cigarettes?

What does it mean that my first thought upon observing these 2 vending machines was, "Hey, those drinks are 10-20 yen cheaper than normal!"? ;-) Only Betsy was immediately impressed at the proximity of the cigarette to drink machine. Am I just becoming immune to the pervasive cigarette use, price & availability here? :-(

Weekend in the Keramas!

As a fun & fond farewell to our good friends, Aaron & Masayo, who will be spending the next 6 months living & working in Fiji, we spent a delightful 3-day/2-night weekend on Tokashiki Island, largest of the Kerama island group, about 35 km west of Okinawa. We can prove we had a good time with the 200+ photos we captured (between our 2 cameras):

Tokashiki

We had good weather (considering it was the rainy season) & enjoyed some fantastic snorkelling each of the 3 days that we were there. The waters were blue & clear, boasting such fascinating marine life as large sea turtles (that we each got to pet) & sting rays & eels. The hotel (Tokashiku Marine Village) where we stayed was quite comfortable & provided delicious Japanese breakfast & dinner buffets. Masayo was amused at our enthusiasm to sleep on futons upon tatami mats, but we had fun (kind of glad we don't do it every night at home though). The only sad part of the weekend was saying goodbye at the end. Thanks for the fun weekend, Aaron & Masayo! We'll miss you!! Hope to see you again soon, either in Fiji or back in Okinawa!

Camping & biking around Yoron Island

We took advantage of the long Memorial Day weekend to remember our nation's heroes from another Japanese island!! We journeyed with a group of friends (7 adults & 4 kids, many of them coworkers of Betsy) to do some camping & biking on Yoron Island (southernmost part of Kagoshima Prefecture, due north of Okinawa Island).

We boarded a ferry at Motobu Port with way too much gear (including bikes for everyone). And 2.5 hours later we got off on Yoron-tou, which we discovered for ourselves was a small rural island, about 8 square miles total of land. We had decided to just bike across it once we arrived, so we stuffed (literally) our gear into a taxi & let Betsy accompany it to the campgrounds. The rest of us arrived approximately an hour later, having miraculously ridden straight to it (over road & hill), joining her at the very clean site complete with cold showers, bathrooms, lighted pavilion with sinks & fire pits, picnic tables & flat tent plots. And there we enjoyed a relaxing 2 nights, only about 100 yard walk from a gorgeous beach. The weekend's weather wasn't awful, but it wasn't wonderful (somewhere in between). The bugs (mosquitoes mostly) were about the same way. Deet was our friend. All in all, we had a fun time sight-seeing, biking, swimming, biking, beach-combing, biking, taking cold showers, biking & eating Yoron soba (we found the restaurant menus weren't as picture heavy as on Okinawa so we were left to come up with those typical southern Japanese dishes we could think of). Click on our photo album below for proof & more (some might say "too much") info!

Yoron Island camping trip

I'm not sure that we'll again combine the whole ferry transportation with camping (gear, mainly). But we'll definitely do another ferry ride & we'll probably go camping again (on Okinawa).

In fact, we're considering purchasing a van (upgrading out little Daihatsu Terios) to be able to lug around gear & people in the same vehicle. And we're seriously investigating another ferry excursion to another hotel-bearing island in less than 2 weeks (as a send-off adventure with newlyweds Aaron & Masayo, who will be heading to Fiji for at least 6 months). We'll keep you posted & take too many photos!

Creamy Powder

So one of our favorite things is to figure out how the bad Engrish got so bad. Often with a bit of thought (sometimes creatively) we can figure out why things are worded, or in this case, named, the way they are in Engrish. Here's a fine example: We bought it at the little convenience store 2 buildings over from our apartment, Lawson's Station (1 of 3 big chains here, along with Family Mart & Hot Spar). We were out of creamer for coffee & this was on the aisle end near coffee stuff. It turned out to taste about as attractive as the name sounds. :-( Anybody want us to send you some Creap?

Another sunset

We snapped a few shots of another gorgeous Okinawa sunset from our apartment balcony:

Hiking around Nago

After giving ourselves a full week of recovery from the Aha Falls hike/climb, we ventured northwards yet again for some hiking. This time we towed John's wife Amanda & their baby, Case, along with us. And we decided to consider the "hard-core" list of venues appropriately, and went for the easy/moderate venues of Todokori-no-Taki Falls & Nago Central Park. Both places turned out to boast some very scenic sights. The falls came first along the way (although the MCCS website's directions again proved to be somewhat less than adequate). It was located not far from Okinawa's main roadway, Highway 58. And it consisted of a short easy walk to some quite gorgeous water falls. After poking around there for a bit, we then the Nago Castle ruins, a portion of the large Nago Central Park. We spent several hours (more than we'd planned) hiking all around it, finding some gorgeous views including an impressive suspension bridge & a fun playground!

Hiking in Nago

Protesters

Upon arriving back in our near-home part of the island (after hiking Aha Falls & viewing the northeastern coast), we discovered a group of organized peaceful protesters of the US military presense (we'd had some forewarning that they'd been organizing something along the lines of what we witnessed). It caused us some minor congestion & delay, but it was kind of interesting to watch so we weren't too upset. We decided to snap a few photos while we watched them.

Prostesters around Kadena

Views along the Northeastern Coast

As we drove back down the coast from Aha Falls, we stopped to snap a few photos of the gorgeous views we were afforded, both inland over the mountains & out towards the Pacific Ocean.

Views along the Northeastern Coast

Hiking at Aha Falls

We decided to venture north on a gorgeous Saturday for some hiking at Aha Falls (the MCCS website rated it "hardcore"). Armed with what turned out to be very vague & incomplete directions, we headed that way, taking way too much time (after missing a couple of turns) to arrive. We quickly discovered that it was really more of a climbing experience than hiking. It started off with ropes leading down a steep hill to the river where the falls were nearby. We spent the next few hours hiking through the thick undergrowth & playing along the river banks (sure would have been nice to have brought swimsuits).

Hiking at Aha Falls

Josh's brother is a college grad!

Well, my little brother, John Murphy (youngest sibling in my family), has finally caught up to me in terms of education (I'm still taller & better looking though). Today (Thurs, May 10) my little brother graduated from Auburn University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting. I was not proactive enough to venture there for the event (sorry, John!) but I was able to capture the video feed that Auburn broadcast live on their website. Since the commencement ceremony was at 2pm CDT, that meant 4am GMT+9 (Japan time). I couldn't stay up that late or get up that early (sorry again, John!). But I caught up on the event after I woke up & saw Betsy off to work. I was happy to see that my PC was able to capture & hold that much video time for me (don't get too excited, the album below is just still screenshots not actual video):

John's Graduation from Auburn

Ain't technology grand? Pardon the interruption from our regularly scheduled posting (Okinawa-related topics). Just wanted to give a shout-out & declare my love, support & pride for my little brother. Congrats, bro!! - Josh

Enjoying a May Sunset

So Tuesday (8 May 2007) was a gorgeous day here & included a gorgeous sunset. After we enjoyed a delightful Kobe beef Teppan-yaki style at Jack's Place (on Kadena AFB) we still had a little time for a quick sunset bike ride. We didn't remember any of our fancy cameras, but good thing our cell phones have 3 MP cameras built-in, huh? Thus, we were able to capture some shots of the sunset:

Okinawa Sunsets

Enjoy!

Karma

Category: Computer Jokes It was time for Bill Gates to make the transition from his earthly home. St. Peter agreed to be his guide. Since Bill had been such an important person on earth, St. Peter decided to allow him to make a choice between Heaven and Hell. So Bill was first escorted to a tour of Hell, it was not at all what he expected. It was actually a pleasant spot, with good food, wine, and music, entertainment, beautiful women an all around very fine place. St. Peter and Bill then toured Heaven; again Bill was surprised it was a stark and dreary place, very simple and pastoral with only very basic amenities. Bill was not impressed, and so he chose Hell as his preferred destination. A few weeks later, St Peter paid a visit to Hell to check in on Bill. Bill was extremely unhappy, tied up to a post with flames all around him, burning, hungry, and scared. He called out to St. Peter, "Hey, this is not what I expected! What went wrong? How could I have made such a mistake?" St. Peter listened patiently and then replied, "Bill, I'm sorry about the misunderstanding, but what you first saw was only a demo!"

Bad Day

Since we're now certified scuba divers (although nowhere near pros), we especially enjoyed the following "perspective" story (even though it may not be true) for those bad days on the job: Are YOU having a "jellyfish" kind of day? If you don't laugh out loud after you read this you are in a coma! This is even funnier when you realize it's real! Next time you have a bad day at work .... Think of this guy, Rob a commercial saturation diver for Global Divers in Louisiana. He performs underwater repairs on Offshore drilling rigs. Below is an E-mail he sent to his sister. She then sent it to radio station 103.2 on FM dial in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, who was Sponsoring a worst job experience contest. Needless to say, she won. Hi, Just another note from your bottom-dwelling brother. Last week I had a bad day at the office. I know you've been feeling down lately at work, so I thought I would share my dilemma with you to make you realize it's not so bad after a ll. Before I can tell you what happened to me, I first must bore you with a few technicalities of my job. As you know, my office lies at the bottom of the sea. I wear a suit to the office. It's a wetsuit. This time of year the water is quite cool. So what we do to keep warm is this: We have a diesel powered industrial water heater. This $20,000 piece of equipment sucks the water out of the sea. It heats it to a delightful temperature. It then pumps it down to the diver through a garden hose, which is taped to the air hose. Now this sounds like a darn good plan, and I've used it several times with no complaints. What I do, when I get to the bottom and start working, is take the hose and stuff it down the back of my wetsuit. This floods my whole suit with warm water. It's like working in a Jacuzzi. Everything was going well until all of a sudden, my butt started to itch. So, of course, I scratched it. This only made things worse. Within a few seconds my butt started to burn I pulled the hose out from my back, but the damage was done. In agony I realized what had happened. The hot water machine had sucked up a jellyfish and pumped it into my suit. Now, since I don't have any hair on my back, the jellyfish couldn't stick to it. However, the crack of my butt was not as fortunate. When I scratched what I thought was an itch, I was actually grinding the jellyfish into the crack of my butt ... I informed the dive supervisor of my dilemma over the communicator. His instructions were unclear due to the fact that he, along with five other divers, were all laughing hysterically!!!! Needless to say I aborted the dive. I was instructed to make three agonizing in-water decompression stops totaling thirty-five minutes before I could reach the surface to begin my chamber dry decompression. When I arrived at the surface, I was wearing nothing but my brass helmet. As I climbed out of the water, the medic, with tears of laughter running down his face, handed me a tube of cream and told me to rub it on my butt as soon as I got in the chamber. The cream put the fire out, but I couldn't poop for two days because my butt was swollen shut. So, next time you're having a bad day at work...think about how much worse it would be if you had a jellyfish shoved up your butt. Now repeat THIS to yourself, "I LOVE my job, I LOVE my job, I LOVE my job." Whenever you have a bad day, ask yourself, "Is this a jellyfish bad day?"