I opened up one of my marathon packets, which includes a paper I have to trade for my tshirt/number on race day, directions to parking, and race day instructions. I was surprised to also find this advertisement for burial plots:
[Computer's down again, this time for at least two weeks. Posts will be spotty, there will be no pictures.]
Today while waiting for a light to change at a major intersection in Naha, I happened to be looking in the right direction at the right time to see a woman jump out of a car that was speeding (15-20mph?) through the intersection. She was opposite me so I saw the door open and then saw her legs and body tumbling under the car. I don't think the car ran over her, but she also didn't do very well at landing on her feet. The driver stopped, as did all the other cars while she slowly picked herself up and began walking in the opposite direction from the car she escaped from (which had a male driver and a small boy sitting between the man and where the woman used to be). The man, realizing the woman clearly wanted nothing more to do with him, closed her door and drove off to get traffic going again. The woman stumbled to a crosswalk then walked over to a convenience store. She looked sorta rough - like maybe this wasn't the first time she'd jumped out of a car.
We had a Zamami fishing tournament on Saturday which nearly every fisherman participated in. Ordinarily, with the type of fishing I do, I'd have a crack at taking the whole tournament (the fish I go after tend to be big, but are also hard to catch), but yesterday the weather didn't work for my non-boat-owning self. I took out my kayak at daybreak to check out the waves out west, but I got sucked into an outgoing tide and out to sea into the huge rollers. But they weren't just rolling, they were swirling and breaking and chopping and nearly shredding. My tippy kayak was dipping and diving and I got really nervous, especially because I was without my life jacket (it disappeared while I was in America). Fortunately I was able to turn around and ride the waves back into protected waters. But it spooked [and soaked] me so I went back into port and took a nap. Then I decided to go up north and check out my shore-fishing spot. The rocks that the water is crashing over is where I would stand were I to fish from here:
(it's all in the first 20 seconds)
Dejected, I went home at 1pm. The lone bright spot of the day was finding a small glass fishing float on a beach - oh, and I found another life jacket!
[The fish I fish for eats these fish for breakfast]
Bummed at having spent ~$30 to enter a fishing tournament yet get no fishing in, I moped around in the afternoon. But my spirits were flipped at the party when I was refunded $10 because I couldn't fish from a boat (I was charged the 'boat' fee since I was going out in my kayak). Then we had a pretty great dinner and all sorts of expensive prizes (flat screen tv, bikes, coolers, fishing poles) were given out. I won a space heater for being the first person to show up in the morning!
This is my friend, Naoko, whom I met on Zamami. When I told her I was coming to Tokyo for nine days so we should meet, she said I should stay with her. I don't mind staying with friends for a few days, but I am not comfortable putting them out for an extended period. She insisted, though, and it turned out to be awesome. Check this picture to see the size of her apartment. $500/month, which is the going rate for the far outskirts of the city. The bathroom/kitchen (which has zero counters and only enough space for a single burner) is about half the size of this room. There was also a tiny loft where I took this picture from.
Kerama deer are a 'historical treasure' on Aka and Geruma. They also live on a couple smaller islands but have never gained a foothold on Zamami. It's a respectable swim but not too far, so I've often wondered if the deer aren't adventurous or - more likely - any deer that ever lived on Zamami were quietly killed off by the villagers.
Well recently I've been hearing rumors of deer sightings in Ama and Asa, the two smaller villages on each side of the cove that Zamami occupies. On Sunday I was walking back to my apartment at 2pm and suddenly saw a deer in the village of Zamami! Eating! In the middle of the afternoon! Surrounded by 10 picture-takers!
This might be a once-in-ten-years event, so the deer couldn't move anywhere without a dozen people around him (how he got to this place to begin with is also a mystery, since it doesn't border on any logical forest he would be living in). Pretty soon some guys who wanted to catch, kill, and eat him showed up. I was being heavily recruited, since I have animal wrangling/killing experience. But as much as I like eating wild meat, I wasn't supportive of killing the only (or one of two) deer on the island. I'd rather let them live a couple years and get a sustainable population going first. Also, I am told they are a recognized national treasure on Aka and Geruma, but not Zamami. I'm not sure how that works, but I am not keen to lose my job by killing an endangered animal in the middle of the afternoon in the village on a weekend. With 25 people watching. Here is a video I took of the attempted capture by my marlin fishing friends:
I left the scene before the deer was captured, which I heard he was. However, the policeman was in on it, too, so I was also told the deer was driven over to Ama and released. Hope he finds a girlfriend!
