The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond

Cosiness is not a state that I experience much in Okinawa. Essentially it is too hot here to be cosy. However my happiest of all memories are as a child in Scotland when the weather was too awful to go outside and so the family would sit in the kitchen in comfy chairs and I believe there was even a sofa. We would snuggle under hand-made tartan blankets with dogs, cats, lion cubs, lambs and such whilst our Mother read us Midshipman Easy, Masterman Ready, Swallows and Amazons and What Katie Did in various places. The storm howled outside and the windows shook under the battering rain. There was no guilt , no feeling of wasting time,  justified idleness – the weather was just too bad.

Saturday was a bit like that here. I polished silver.

Silvoed

I love polishing silver

I watched All Blacks against Argentina.

The Argentinians are really good.

I prepared and ate elaborate meals.

Exotic red fish with squid and kimchi salad

Sometimes I wish I had a bottle of white wine. I bought the Bar Keepers Friend in SF. Could not resist a name like that.

The weather was awful – rain, rain, wind, wind, happy, happy, joy, joy.  I learned tunes on the flute.  02 The Glens Of Aherlow _ Trip To Hervé’s

Could not go outside. Bliss. I wonder what happened to the hand woven tartan blankets we used to have?  Never tire of the road.

“Bottom line: Super Typhoon Sanba, arguably the strongest storm to develop across the globe in 2012 is packing winds around 160 mph, and peaked with sustain winds of around 175 mph on Thursday, September 13, 2012. Sanba will push north into Okinawa, Japan and eventually push into South Korea as a Category 2 storm next Monday. The good news about Sanba is that the storm will likely weaken as it pushes over cooler waters. Of course, intensity forecasts are unpredictable, so residents that are possibly in Sanba’s path should be prepared.”

Not your usual Saturday morning

Normal Saturday morning

“Arguably the strongest storm to develop across the globe in 2012” is going to pass oer  my place on Sunday morning about 24 hours from now. I feel so privileged. Let’s see how it develops. Cue samba music.

World’s biggest assed storm coming right to my front door. Hooray!

Lunchtime Saturday – very heavy rain but not much wind.

Can you see my house?

Unfortunately the real fury of the typhoon came in the early hours. I got up at 6:00 to check the barograph and generally see how things were progressing. Barograph still going down with much howling and wailing from Sanba.

The situation at 6:00. No electricity or gas.

By the time it got light the barograph was on the way up again and there was a general feeling that the worst was over. No power until 11:30. This when an Ipad comes in really handy. You can read on it in the dark and listen to whatever you want when everything else is dead.  I should talk to Apple about building typhoons into their marketing.

Lunch time Sunday

Okinawa is the best place for barographs!

At lunchtime I go for a wander. It is still extremely windy. So much so that it is impossible to see through the viewfinder of the camera as can be seen by the focus of following movie. It hope it conveys the huge volume of sea heaving and groaning against the land.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67mSs2iNg5c&feature=youtu.be

Sand blown all over the road.

A good thing about typhoons is that rarer birds show up in the more sheltered valleys.

Black-winged stilt

No idea what this is.

Oh well the storm is over and I feel a sense of flatness. I like the really strong stuff.

And now the storm is over,
And we are safe and well
We will go down to a public house,
And sit and drink like hell
We will drink strong ale and porter,
And we’ll make the rafters roar
And when our money is all spent,
We will go to sea once more
FINE GIRL YOU ARE
You’re the girl that I adore,
But still I live in hope to see
The holy Ground once more, FINE GIRL YOU ARE

I am organizing an exhibition by Inamine sensei, famous Okinawan glass artist.

http://www.ryukyucollection-kana.com/inamine-seikichi.html

To make a poster, he gives me a piece.  I need photos and I will use a proper photographer but in the mean time I take the glass-bowl-thing down to a beach to watch the sunset and to see what I can do. September in Okinawa is the best month. Huge clouds, amazing sunsets, sea hot, a little cooler in the evenings. Ok there is a typhoon on its way but we subtropical folks take this in our stride by battening down the hatches and waiting until the storm is o’er.

Bring it on

Zero weather hysteria which now seems to make up a significant volume of international news.

I place the object and set up the camera on a tripod and sit there as the sun goes down. Very silent apart from the sea and scrabbling of hermit crabs. Sometimes I press the button and the crash of the shutter is jolting.

Over the yard arm

Shangri La

Crash

Bang

Wallop

Okinawa.

Cell phone stuff necessitates a visit to Softbank my er service provider. I am accompanied so that I  can understand something – not that I understand much cell phone stuff in any language. After long discussions the phone man  surprises me by bringing out a big bag of rice, which he offers to me. I am taken aback.

Hi tech

Apparently I have accumulated 60 points that I can redeem for 6 kilos, er 2 bags, of rice or an electric fan.

Do you get  sacks of potatoes from your cell phone company in Britain, or a year’s baguettes in France, or 6 gallons of Cheese Whizz in the US? Why not?

03 Should I Stay or Should I Go

So I live in an incredible apartment, loads of space, great kitchen, incredible views, great neighbors but is it a little too American? The style of apartment caters expressly for the US population of Okinawa. I am in Japan and I occasionally hunger for something more er Japanese.

Wind back a year or so. On my drive to work along the sea, I notice a house being built on the edge of the beach and I thought, “Hmmmm, that would be an incredible place to live.” Lo, this house is now rentable and I went to visit it today.

The style is blockhouse

Living bit. The furniture would go.

The place has never been lived in. The owner’s son refuses to move school and so the family is stuck in Naha for a few years.

Tatami dining place

Bathroom

View from the bath

The deck

View from deck

Huge roof terrace. Plenty of room to strip the willow.

View from the roof terrace

There is an upstairs bedroom with terrace  and this thing.

Sleeping space with port hole in the roof kinda of the second bedroom

Kitchen – no oven.

Amazing indoor courtyard that I could fill with flowers and vines.

View from main room. Swim every morning.

So, I feel I should go for this place. It is cheaper than where I live now. Mind you, I imagine there are others interested. There is also the associated hassle of moving and the fact that Japanese houses have little wall space for furniture. I would have to shed some furniture weight. Probably no bad thing.

What do you think?

I am normally very unsympathetic towards people who moan about jet lag. I think this is because I have spent a lot of time with particle physicists who are always on planes. I remember Carlo Rubbia calculating that he had a mean average velocity of 80kph.

However on return from San Francisco this time, I have suffered badly. It has taken a long time to readjust. Basically I fall fast asleep at 6pm, usually when someone is speaking to me, and then wake up at 2 am.

The advantage is that I have witnessed a lot of dawns.

One morning early I walked forth
By the margin of Lough Leane
The sunshine dressed the trees in green
And summer bloomed again
I left the town and wandered on
Through fields all green and gay
And whom should I meet but a colleen sweet
At the dawning of the day.
No cap or cloak this maiden wore
Her neck and feet were bare
Down to the grass in ringlets fell
Her glossy golden hair
A milking pail was in her hand
She was lovely, young and gay
She wore the palm from Venus bright
By the dawning of the day.

On a mossy bank I sat me down
With the maiden by my side
With gentle words I courted her
And asked her to be my bride
She said, “Young man don’t bring me blame”
And swiftly turned away
And the morning light was shining bright
At the dawning of the day.

A morning dove

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtAXRTGX3ss

Off-scale is a modern adjective of which I was not sure if I approved.  I have just got back to my apartment in Okinawa after an epic trip back from SF. It is 1:30 am.

There has been a mega typhoon through whilst I was away. Rats – I love typhoons. I run to the barograph to see how low the pressure got. Whoa! Gold medal to Bolaven!

I have never, never seen anything like this. Nunc Dimitis!

Off-scale!

It is Sunday. James and I take Lazlo the dog for a walk around the Panhandle. Lazlo is a good doggy but comes from the wrong neighborhood, or hood. He comes from Pit Bull city. He is exuberant, muscular and very aware of what is going on around him. My first take was, “Get rid of that dog before something bad happens.” but that would have been wrong.

Love your neighbor as yourself

James and Martha have committed to training him correctly, more than I ever managed with the many dogs in my life. He walks to heel on the leash, sits, lies down and is very obedient.  He is also affectionate and fun. Good Lazlo.

We then go to the Alemany St market to eat street food and look at the stalls selling everything.

Fillipino chicken – $0

$1 – I could eat this for the rest of my life.

I then drive down through the golden hills that border 280 and through the redwood forest around 17.  Big blue skies, Range Rover unhurried V8, deer grazing by the road, Red Tailed Hawks and Turkey Vultures glide around as gangs of Harley executive bandits thunder past me,  aaaaaaaaah California.

We play in an Irish bar in the center of Santa Cruz. Some of my favorite people are there.

The Humours of Santa Cruz

Old, good friends, Bob and Mary, take me to dinner in a restaurant that overlooks Monterey Bay. We drink champagne and talk hard as the sun goes down. I eat fish ceviche and then scallops, it is better than anything I ate in my last sojourn in France. Thanks Bob and Mary.

Quality

Then I swoop back,V8 propelled, to SF, er feeling groovy.

I have to get up early to move my car because Monday is street cleaning on Fell. I go to Whole Foods to look at the food displays and marvel at the variety of produce.

Wheeee!

Americans love Kale

And roots

I then stroll down Haight. A movie is being made. There are 100 people hanging around waiting. Movie making must qualify as the most boring job in the world.  My destination is the Pork Store Cafe, founded 1901, a cafe that serves only-in-America breakfast.

Stuff to put on food

I get two pork chops, garlic grilled with two eggs over easy,hash browns and English muffin. I know ,I know this goes against everything, but I love it. The servers are smiling and witty, the coffee replenished effortlessly, the food delicious and probably best of all is the rhythm. You sit down; a glass of water and menu is delivered. As soon as you have made up your mind, Oceanbreeze, my server is there and shouts “Pork chop!” to the cook.  The food is suitably, time wise,  there, sizzling from the grill.

Yay!

Oceanbreeze appears with the check just as you are contemplating moving on.”No hurry, take your time.” But the timing is perfect – I am ready to go. It is a masterpiece of stage management.

A peasant becomes fond of his pig and is glad to salt away its pork. What is significant, and is so difficult for the urban stranger to understand, is that the two statements are connected by an and not by a but.

One of my goals in life is to eat in every restaurant on Irvine St in San Francisco. I worked hard at this when I spent  a few months there in 2010. Being in the city, I added a new restaurant to my life list.

ipse loret

San Tung is  famous, not only because it’s name sounds like the name of physics Nobel laureate Sam Ting, and is already packed with Chinese Americans when I get there at 12:00. These people make a lot of noise. The table next to me is populated by Chinese American SFPD, all having a great time.

A Jewish woman had two chickens. One got sick, so the woman made chicken soup out of the other one to help the sick one get well.

I order Happy Family, $9.95. First I get a big pot of tea. Next I get a plate of kimchi. Then I get a bowl of soup and finally rice and a Happy Family which is a huge stir fried plate of, squid, chicken, shrimp, assorted vegetables. I think this is San Franciscan Chinese food that was never eaten in Xanadu. Who cares, it is delicious and for $9.95 has to be one of the great deals in town.

Not a very good photo