Author Archives: spikekalashnikov

The Okinawa drink is Awamori. It is distilled from long grain Thai rice that has contracted the unique local black koji mold. You drink it cold with ice or to disguise the taste you can mix it with fruit juice … Continue reading →

Discuss. It is very true that too much bird watching is a dangerous thing. Obsessive attention to detail of beak shape – wing tip color – flight behavior – song – tends to obviate the surrounding loveliness. Not so yesterday … Continue reading →

We go to a  small local restaurant. I order “Butter scorched fish.” The lady comes out with a tray on which are two fish – one respectably sized the other an OTT barracuda thing. For me there is no choice … Continue reading →

A day’s fishing. This planet is covered with sordid men er or women who demand that he er or she  who spends time fishing shall show returns in fish. We as a group rent a boat and head out onto … Continue reading →

Golden Week is a big Japanese pause for breath in May. By taking a couple of intervening days vacation you can get 10 days straight no work. Not the case for your correspondent but very much the case for majority … Continue reading →

So – as with many things here in Japan – I have to reassess the concept of a bread shop. Bread here is as much a gastronomic item as fish or  a pig’s ears. It is made presented and eventually … Continue reading →

I am sorry to keep writing about bags. I don’t really know why this should be but it is. Check out: http://spikekalashnikov.wordpress.com/2010/11/10/my-bag/ https://quietripple.wordpress.com/2011/04/23/one-of-the-lads/ Here is another bag. It was given to me by my learned friend Barbara Warmbein which means … Continue reading →

I get up with the sun and cycle over to Zakimi Castle. This 15th Century site is only 5 minutes from where I live and is surrounded by a park where everything is covered with Morning Glory and butterflies. The … Continue reading →

Strolling down a street in Oran, Algeria in 1975, I screech to a stop in front of a shop that sells sports stuff. In the window there is a yellow ‘Spirotechnique’ diving bag. It looks incredibly cool and somehow I … Continue reading →

Saturday – it is all planned, we go by boat to the Kerama Islands, about an hour sail from Okinawa, to do 3 dives. The  reef around the isles churn with turtle and other monsters of the deep, silver beaches, … Continue reading →