Stuff you can buy in supermarkets here is still very seasonal. Vegetables come and go depending on the time of year. One of the great seasonal treats is a fish called Saury. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_saury

These fish only show up at the beginning of fall and their arrival causes great excitement. This year is a great year for saury with bumper catches. I get the impression that the morale of the whole country has been boosted. They are only in the shops for a few weeks and then you wait another year.

I rarely ate them in the past; in fact only in restaurants on the urging of friends. I have an inbuilt suspicion of long thin fish assuming that they will be very boney. Also we don’t really have long thin fish in Europe or the States.

They are super easy to prepare. They don’t really have guts and most people don’t bother to clean them out. You just chuck them in a frying pan for a few minute, some lemon juice and then scarf them. The flesh separates from the bones with no struggle and I now eat them 2 or 3 times a week. They are delicious!

Yep, I take the boat out for the first time in over 2 years! Typhoon damage, absence and sickness have kept me on dry land.

Julian, student from OIST, helps crew. Thank you Julian.

Unfortunately there is no wind and we flap around aimlessly most of the time. However we are out on the ocean and the weather is glorious.

I leave Okinawa at the end of the week! I wonder how long it will be before I take the boat out again.