February Photo Competition

We have an Okinawa JET photo club that a mainland JET started in January. She posts how-to articles and organizes our monthly competitions. The competitions are really good for forcing me to think about the details of what I'm photographing. All five of the photos I've entered so far are shots that otherwise wouldn't have been taken, so the inspiration is appreciated.

The January theme was 'winter' and unfortunately we only drew four entries (two were mine, neither were winners!). But February's theme was all the different composition 'rules'. There were twelve entries which made the voting really fun. We're allowed up to three entries and have to pay 200 yen (about $2) per entry, so the pot was $25. Here were my three entries:

My 'diagonal lines' entry, also the contest winner.
(This is an old man making a broom.)

Depth of field and 'white' space.

Framing. Of my entries, this was my favorite,
but it didn't get any votes so that shows what I know!

Let's Die!

This morning I woke up at 1am to the sound of crashing rain. 'Crashing' is the only word I can think of that isn't a cliched way to describe a monstrous downpour. Maybe 'monstrous downpour' would have worked.

Seven hours later, at 8am, it came to an end. This is easily the most waterlogged I have seen Zamami. Our dam was overflowing via the spillway and so were all the foot-deep gutters built for heavy rain.

I wandered around the village assessing damage before making the best discovery in my own yard. I went to check on the kittens and they were all dead! It might have happened from exposure, but I choose to think that they drowned.

THEN, I found out my neighbor died yesterday! Unfortunately it wasn't the right one. It was the male (I'm not sure if he was her husband or companion or..?). He was a pretty cool guy who would give me a wink and a nod when he caught me throwing things at the cats. I think he was equally against them.

So there was a funeral today. I checked if I should go and I'm glad I got the no-go-ahead. I would've had to wear a suit and probably give money and maybe confront my nemesis.

Now, with five less beings between us, we march on: me, the cats, and her.

Cats

Cats signify a remarkably important part of my Zamami life. They are so important, in fact, that I could see their effect on my morale as being a swing vote in a future year's 'stay or leave Zamami' recontracting decision. I've mentioned previously the 100+ cats that I encounter on my pre-dawn runs at the east end of the island, but I haven't given proper blog attention to the cats that reside around my house.

My neighbor feeds and doesn't control them. There is no spaying or neutering (proof of that showed up this morning). There is no regard given to the effects on the neighbors of supporting a 30+ member colony.

[A small sampling of the morning feeding]

I hate the cats. I throw rocks and full water bottles at them, often hitting my target. Any given week finds me waking up at least once or twice to screeching cats. The most has been three times in one night. The dilemma I find in cutting my grass is either maintaining a white trash residence or opening up the yard for use as a litter box. I cut my yard last week and each of the last three mornings I have cleaned up six piles of cat crap from the immediate area surrounding the path to my door - not even the majority of the yard! Keeping to a give-and-take relationship, I throw the piles back over the wall into my neighbor's yard.

The warnings my predecessor (Nick) has been giving me finally came to fruition this morning: kittens arrived. In my yard. Nick says that Zamami is overrun with cute little kittens for a month or so until they become too old to be fed by their mothers and they get infected eyes and suffer from malnutrition and disease. I wonder how my new kittens will fare with the "stick to the head" disease?

The Teacher Switchover

Japan has an interesting school system for many reasons, but the most obvious difference (aside from not having a Real summer break) is that teachers switch schools every few years. In Okinawa every teacher has to teach at an island school at least once during his/her career. For many, this is not ideal. They have family or a house or a life on mainland Okinawa. They don't dig fishing, diving, photography, and small beautiful islands like I do. This is especially true for young, single teachers whose expectations of marriage in the next few years mostly become dashed with their island placements (except the female teachers who have a ray of hope in me).

Today was the day that five Zamami teachers left after their two-five years. Tomorrow their replacements come. There have been a couple goodbye parties in the last week and lots of present-giving (I got four presents: a tie and three hand towels... I don't get it either). I slipped a loaf of homemade cinnamon bread and some enlarged Zamami photographs to my departing English teacher today.

[This is the happiest I have ever seen the Zamami secretary.]

One neat tradition that is only possible on an island is the 'streamer holding.' No, that's not the official name. But those who are saying their final goodbyes hold one end of a streamer while somebody on Zamami holds the other. As the boat pulls away the streamers tighten and eventually break. I am falling in love with Zamami so much that I could see myself crying at a moment like this (except I don't cry).

[Hopefully they recycled those streamers.]

How Are You? I'm Sleepy.

For the past two mornings I have been waking up at 4am to take advantage of a brief break in our usual windy weather. The forecast had Tuesday and Wednesday showing winds as either light or 5-6mph, something I have only seen once since last summer. Perfect for kayaking and fishing. Unfortunately I still have to go to work, though now that school isn't in session the start time of work is somewhere between 8am and 9am. So, 9am.

I wake up at 4am, walk really fast to my kayak, paddle really fast across a bay, and begin fishing at 5:20am or so. I fish until 7am, then paddle and walk even faster to get home by 7:50am. After a shower and hurried breakfast I take a brief nap before struggling through the rest of the day.

But it's worth it. The 6:30am sunrise on perfectly flat, quiet water is serene. I've enjoyed the companionship of countless turtles. Today I had a fish make a halfhearted attempt at my lure and later I saw a mahi-mahi jump three different times. And today I forced a break in the fishing to take pictures just for the blog:

So, How About the Weather?

A couple times in recent weeks I've wanted to write about how our weather has 'turned the corner' and we are [un]officially on our way to summer. But then it starts pouring. This weekend I had three friends out from Naha for whale watching/seeing Zamami. Today I took them on the western high road loop. At the halfway point - the furthest from my house - the rain came. It took us about an hour to walk back. Fortunately we didn't have any whiners.

(The whale watching trip was awesome in a surprising sort of way. The weather was dreary, but the whales have recently given birth so they spend a lot of time near the surface since the calves can't hold their breath long. We were also blessed with a full-on close up breach of an adult whale as well as a baby breach. We had numerous tail-slaps, too, which are hard to describe, but they're kind of like a whale's version of a horse kicking its rear legs up. I wasn't in the photographic spirit and I didn't want to expose my camera to the salt spray, so no good whale pictures.)

Here is an attempt I made at photographing rain last week:

If You Eat, You'll Get Fat

Japanese school posters are unmatched: