First night dive as "Advanced" divers

Having recently gotten our advanced open water certification (from PADI), we were excited to join some local dive buddies on an evening adventure to Maeda Point in Onna-son Village. We convinced our friend Aaron to join us & managed to find enough dive lights for all of us. Our first dive was actually still mostly in daylight (we finished it up right about the time the sun set) although a few of us did turn on the lights towards the end. We forgot our dive camera but our new buddy Dean snapped a few good shots of us:

It was fully dark for the 2nd dive, as planned, and it was excellent. All kinds of huge urchins were moving around (they don't do that during the day much) as well as fully active crinoids (they're so still during the day that it's hard to believe they're not ferns, as in plants). And, as we'd seen before, there were hundreds of glowing eyes that belonged to shrimps of all sizes & colors. The large sleeping parrotfish were pretty interesting (they move quite quickly during the day, feeding on the reef & staying away from us). And it was sort of adolescently fun to blind the puffer & other fish with our dive lights, then lightly pinch their tails (not easy to do when they can see who/what you are). But the highlight for us were the huge lobsters moving about! When we saw the first one poking out of a crevice, we figured we were lucky to have seen it. But it wasn't long before we realized there were lots of them out there. After our 5th or 6th, I think we even got tired of watching them. As we rounded a bend in the rocky walls we were exploring, we felt a pretty strong current began to carry us, so we decided to make that the turn-around spot (a good idea).

We're eagerly anticipating our next night dives & we plan to make sure we bring our camera!

Hippotherapy volunteers

Betsy & I have begun volunteering with a hippotherapy program provided on here Okinawa by a group consisting primarily of Betsy's therapist coworkers at EDIS. Betsy provides her expertise with pediatric physical therapy & Josh helps make sure the young folks do not fall to their death (on the rare occasion that they do lose their balance) as well as helping out with care & handling of the horses (that means he knows how to shovel horse manure now - nice resume builder, huh?). Here are some photos that we have snapped with our phones when out at the stables:

The rest:

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Occasionally one of us gets the opportunity to actually get up on a horse which is quite fun. It reminds Josh of his adolescent days spending too much allowance money & odd-job earnings on the horses at Ashari's Ranch in Curacao (especially his favorite, "Flaco y Feo," who lived up to the name but was favored for his eagerness to gallop for any or no reason at all). Here is a cell phone video of Betsy getting lead around the yard atop of often feisty mare Pepper:

Strongest earthquake we've felt yet

This afternoon, shortly before Betsy arrived home from work, Josh felt the strongest earthquake (although "tremors" would be an applicable term, since nothing was damaged in any way) that we have felt thus far (and we've felt quite a few in our 18 months living here). Here is a news summary about it:
AP News - Strong offshore quake shakes south Japan

Josh thought at first that a cat that we're watching (Mushkie) for neighbors (Jay & Genean) was just messing with our wine glasses (causing them to knock against each other), before quickly realizing that the whole apartment was shaking (it started off slow & increased in intensity). ;-) He then found a doorway, meanwhile the "scaredy" cat just sort of froze for the 10 seconds until the quaking subsided, at which point Mushkie ran around in a couple of circles before accepting some petting to reassure him things were fine. It was interesting but plenty of excitement for us. No more earthquakes necessary, God! ;-)

Returning from Kume-jima

We had such a fun weekend on Kume Island that we were a little silly on the ferry back to Naha.

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Kume-jima Days 2 & 3: A Ra Hama Beach

" Proceeding from Gima Village on Kume Island, you'll come to A Ra Hama Beach, a private beach surrounded by pine trees. From this spot, the sunsets are superb. The beach itself is a shoal and one can see many fish and shells among the algae, so snorkeling is recommended."

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True to the quote, we found A Ra Hama beach quite delightful, both for its evening sunset viewing (Hotto Motto dinners optional but recommended), as well as for its morning snorkeling (especially after you get past the grasses growing in shallower waters near the shore). Hence, we ended Day 2 & began Day 3 at this lovely beach.

Kume-jima Day 2: Tatami Ishii

"Tatami Ishii on the southernmost beach is a group of lava type (andecite) rock formed about 500 years ago by the cooling of magma. Over 1000 of these 5-sided and 6-sided flat rocks with a diameter of 1 meter are lined up there like turtle shells. They spread east and west 250 meters, and 50 meters north and south, but are now partially hidden by sand so that one sees only part. It is extremely rare for these rocks to have a diameter this large and to be pillar-shaped."

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We actually checked out this site the night before & at high tide (so it took us a while to find the rocks). But returning by daylight & at low(er) tide, we discovered much more success in inspecting the interesting geology.

Kume-jima Day 2: Uegusuku-dake Castle Ruins

"A castle was built on top of Uegusuku-dake on Kume-jima Island and is the castle with the highest elevation in Okinawa Prefecture. During the reign of King Sho Shin the military of the Shuri royal government destroyed the castle. Within the castle Gusuku era earthenware pottery and Chinese celadon pottery have been discovered. The locals refer to it as Uigusuku. In 1974 it was designated a Historical Site by the Prefecture."

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We quite enjoyed the daytime views from this peak. We even returned after dark & were thrilled to spot quite a few fireflies (a tip mentioned by the proprietors of the Firefly Museum) as well as a wondeful night-time sky chock full of stars!

Kume-jima Day 2: Mi Fuga (& Female Rock)

"Mi Fuga is a seaside shoal seen from Gushikawa Castle. There is an odd rock called “Female Rock.” Tradition says that the infertile woman who prays there will have her prayers answered. Visitors have never stopped coming to see it."

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We had fun climbing & being silly around Mi Fuga on the NW coast. Fortunately, neither couple seems to have been jinxed by its fertility-enhancing powers as of yet.

Day 2: Circumnavigating Kume-jima

After a fantastic morning in the sun & sand on Hateno Hama, we were ready to jump in a rental car & see the rest of Kume-jima. We started with some soba at an outdoor restaurant on the east side of the island, before finding the Firefly Museum near the main town of Gima (SW coast), which actually turned out to have basically every OTHER animal found on Kume BUT fireflies (including snakes, frogs, fish, turtles, pigeons & a gorgeous owl that we got to pet).

After checking out Mi Fuga & Gushikawa Castle on the NW coast, we tried some yummy pineapple at a farm we drove past. We then found some great views from the Hiyajo Banta lookout on the north coast.

After checking out Uegusuku the first time (during the day), we drove past the large Churafukugi trees in the town of Maju in Nakazato village of NE Kume, before completing the circle back to Ou-jima.

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Kume-jima Day 2: Hateno Hama (Faraway Beach)

We got up bright & early to try to hit the beach before the sun got going full force in the mid-day. Our destination was Hateno Hama, basically a large strip of sand peeking out of the ocean (technically, one of a group of atolls) just to the east of our accommodations on Ou-jima.

We arranged with the Guesthouse to have a glass-bottomed boat ferry us over for a few hours, where we did some fantastic snorkeling.

We were sure glad they had some shelters set up, because it was HOT!

On the way back, the boat captain went over some reef areas in spots where we spotted some turtles sleeping & feeding. And that was just the START of the day!

Slideshow of full photo set:

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