The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond

I rather like being an invalid. It is a justification for sloth. However, pleasingly for my self esteem, on Sunday morning I want to get up and go for a walk. It is a glorious day. June is busting out all over.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVqZOlt8AMA

There is a wonderful walk around Zakimi castle which features a wooden staircase that winds through butterfly loud glades. Flowers and butterflies are everywhere.

Coo!

Golly!

Gosh!

Morning Glory everywhere

So I sit in the glades and watch butterflies lead their lives. I do not understand what they are doing but it looks like fun. There are very large white butterflies floating around that I try to photograph in flight. I fail.

Sun through butterfly wings

Having a rest. This thing has a 5 inch wingspan

Looking up

This is a tree

The path leads to a pagoda on top of the hill that has a view over the sea.

I sit and look at the sea listening to In Our Time, a BBC podcast. Very interesting discussion of Ulysses.

This is a spider

This is a butterfly

So this post comes with a warning:

” The following blog contains images that might offend the squeamish, the delicate, the sensitive, the hypochondriac. If this might be you, please switch to the next channel.”

I go to Chubu Hospital to have large polyps removed from my colon so that they become not cancerous thus causing me to shuffle off the mortal coil. That sentence does not make sense really but I hope you get what I er mean.

Check previous history here:

https://quietripple.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/in-the-court-of-the-crimson-king/

and here:

https://quietripple.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/getting-to-know-you/

The people at Chubu are fun. I ask if it is Ok to take some photos for this blog. “Sure, why don’t you take  your IPhone with you and record the operation.” I cannot do justice in text to the joy this gave me. Nearly everywhere I have lived I could predict, “NO! – health and safety, regulations, my boss, where do you think you are, more than my job’s worth, snivel, slide, squirm.”

Okinawa!

Let’s frag them polyps

unusual cinema seat

Essentially Kubota sensei inserts something into your private club which has a tool kit including a camera, nail clippers, electrical wire, a swiss army knife, spare tire etc attached to it. You have a wonderful business class seat with individual screen that allows you to watch the whole procedure.

Has an IPhone ever take this photo?

Better than airline movies

A polyp, a veritable polyp. Let’s frag it.

” Do you want anaesthetic?”

Oh dear – by asking the question there is an implication that anaesthetic is not really needed. My education forces me to say “No, I don’t think that will be necessary.” Any other answer would be a defeat. Anyway it turned out to be the right decision.

Travel log along my colon. Getting ready to snip minor offenders. 48 shows electrical snare being wound around big boy polyp.

Kubota-sensei progresses up my colon occasionally halting to snip off some junior polyps until he comes to the big boy polyp. The technique is to inject what he calls ‘blue water’ in the tissue under the polyp and by so doing elevate  and expose the  the object of desire. An electrical snare is then wound around it and the offending growth is burnt off. The wound is then closed with clip things that are part of the tool kit.

Big Boy goes down. Click on photos for hi-res

I was enthralled. Most of the time I was on my back chatting with Kubota-sensei  about the next step. Very rewarding way to spend an afternoon.

You get a souvenir kit

I now have to rest up for a couple of days which as usual is both good and bad. Good, I have no guilt about slobbing around reading books all weekend. Bad because I cannot paddle in the Haari races tomorrow.

https://quietripple.wordpress.com/2011/06/05/hare-krishna-hare-krishna-krishna-krishna-hare-hare-hare-rama-hare-rama-rama-rama-hare-hare/

Jeremy left yesterday and so today is the first day for a month that I have not had people staying. This means I can return to the garden. Visitors are not entranced by afternoons spent grubbing around in the garden and rubbing red Okinawan clay into their scalps. I however love to do this.

It is Summer now and very hot.

Nice colors from my terrace

Ie Jima this morning

At last I am having some success in the garden. I planted goya, the well known Spanish artist, and he has flourished.

The Nude Maja

Charles IV of Spain and His Family,

I am so pleased that I have actually succeeded in growing something in Japan that I rush to the plant place and buy more goya plants. The people are delighted that a gaijin wants to plant goya and give me lots of advice, which of course is totally lost on me.

The new goya installation

It is very hot and I get sun burnt despite my new hat.

New hat

I go home to eat.

Goat, fish, little onion things,goya, spam, quail eggs

I have been playing same old wooden flute for over 30 years.

Made in 1825

I cannot read music or anything like that but I seem to understand the traditional music of Ireland and Scotland and can pick up tunes pretty easily by ear. I know hundreds.

I learnt the subtleties of the style during periods spent on the west coast of Ireland in the late 70s and early 80s. Ireland was not prosperous in those days and the music was not well-known. The only way to learn was to sit down and listen very carefully to what the man who had just got off his tractor was playing and try to do the same thing. These were wonderful players but not gifted in pedagogy.

I slowly picked up technique but it was a struggle. Traditional  Irish music is not simple. To play well you must master the “roll”, the “cran”, the “tap”, the “cut” and so forth. Listen to this:

R Pidgeon on the Gate, Kreggs Pipes

This is incredible playing. The man playing the flute  has made millions from prancing around in spangled g-strings and chaps wearing make-up. It is true.

Anyway recently I stumbled across a site called http://www.oaim.ie/

Here wonderful players teach you how to play. They explain and demonstrate the technique. They play the tunes very slowly. They take each part and carefully work through it explaining the things you should be looking out for. They are nice. It is addictive. I have just spent 30 minutes on “The Connaught Heifers” on a beautifully sunny Sunday afternoon.

Very patient teacher

I wish this site had been around 30 years ago. Although I know nearly all the stuff demonstrated in the lessons, it is very beneficial to start from scratch again and practice the basic technique. Thank you people at OAIM.

I go to Tokyo. I go to the British Embassy for a do.

English Country House in the middle of Tokyo

I go back to the hotel. As I enter  a shortish but determined man brushes past me followed by a howl of media. It is Prime Minister Noda.

Do you like sponge cake?

I try to explain that I met his wife a couple of weeks ago but he did not seem very interested.

Who is your favorite Beatle?

My Japanese friends tell me that this is not Noda, which explains why he did not want to talk about his wife.

I get up at 4:30 and fly back to Okinawa.

6:30 on the monorail

Jeremy and I go to Ie Jima an island a few miles off the coast of Okinawa.

We take our bikes and cycle happily around the island.

Big Red stretches her legs

Fields and fields of tobacco and peanuts and hedgerows of hibiscus.

Hedges of this

However it is the rainy season in the sub tropics and suddenly a colossal rain storm sweeps in. We flee for shelter and luckily there is a particularly attractive public convenience at the end of the island in the lily fields. It is so reminiscent of family holidays in Scotland – Jeremy and I staring out at the grey sea as the rain lashes down. The difference of course is that the temperature is 28 degrees and the rain is warm.

http://youtube/Sgx9IV79h8g

We have fun making disaster movies:

http://youtu.be/RaboplFznc0

Ie Jima suffered terribly in the war. Read this:

http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/okinawa/chapter7.htm

It really is heartbreaking that such terrible slaughter took place on islands inhabited by the kindest , most courteous people I have ever come across.

Caves where thousands sheltered as the US and British fleets pumped an average of 5.87 shells on each inhabitant of Okinawa

I thought this was agricultural machinery until Jeremy enlightened me.

Harvesting tobacco

We climb Mt Gusuku, a big hill in the middle of the island.

On top of ol’ Mt Gusuku
Compare with wartime photos.

At the top the wind is quite strong and huge black butterflies are playing a game of flying to the top of the mountain to be caught by the wind and blasted over  giggling wildly. They then went back to the start and did it all over again. Jeremy and I standing on top of a mountain on an island in the East China Sea with gleeful butterflies flashing over our heads.

I want this boat.

Lovely Stornaway

I dive into the underwater tunnel to finally grasp the magic chip that will prevent Dr Kitatanakagusuku from destroying the visible universe. As my fingers tighten I am blinded by a lashing jet of high pressure oxygen bubbles. ” Bother, my air tube has been slashed by a killer ninja working for Kitatanakagusuku Inc.”. Is this the end of the world as we know it?

We both come from Scotland

Well, no actually but it was quite impressive. Going through a tunnel thing my secondary air supply must have snagged and the end thing was pulled off allowing all the air to gush out of my tank. The endless tube, er, the tube with the end pulled off, lashed around filling the tunnel with a blur of bubbles. Anyway I went out of the tunnel, thence to the surface and home for a nice cup of tea.

Tube in one hand, thing to breathe through in the other

Lesson: attach your secondary mouth piece thing to your BCD rather than letting it trail behind you.

http://www.musictory.com/music/Charlie+Drake/Splish+Splash

So now all three boys are scuba qualified. Bravo Jeremy.  I looked forward to major family diving adventures. We go out for two dives on Saturday with the trusty neighbors Jordan and Connie. The first dive we just swim out and out into unknown waters from the coast. Suddenly the water deepens dramatically and down we go into a space-scape of pinnacles and gullies floored with perfect white sand. Fantastic.

Full Fathoms Five

Jeremy spots a turtle. She watches us for a while and then glides off.

Tina the turtle

It is very hot and tropical as we go back to the apartment and sure enough there is a storm of hot rain. This clears the air for the second dive late in the afternoon. The water is a clear as clear. The fish are abundant.

Connie feeds fish

Splish splash

A far cry from Loch Awe

Hunting the great white whale.

There is no one around. We dive into a deep blue underwater cave that comes up into a cavern inside the mountain. We find pirate gold. We stuff our pockets. We turn around and forty thousand headmen hit the dirt.

The sun is setting as we surface and the water is metallic.

How were we to know there was a party going on?

Supporting Scotland at sporting events is a particular experience. It is a plasma of an inflated idea of our worth whereby we expect to win things through birthright and the numbing reality of regular defeat. However from time to time we do something legendary which re -ignites belief and off we go again. One of these events happened when I was in Tokyo this week. The Scottish rugby team consisting of strange-looking, gnarled, unintelligible creatures defeated the bronzed Adonai of Australia. Admittedly the weather conditions were atrocious with driving rain and howling gale. “Worst conditions I have ever played in.” Kylie Golden (Australia). “Aye haughmagandie groomach.”  Piers St John Pitts Tucker ( Scotland). Two Scots knocked each other out during the celebrations but did not notice until later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuH4G7dW-SI

Meetings with government in Tokyo.

Shurely some mishtake?

The Cabinet Office looks much the same inside and out.

Imperial Palace where the imperial lives

The Diet – low carbs

Ministry of Lost Property

Ministry of Paths in Woods

Ministry of Nails

Great views from on top of the Ministry of Mid Life.

There is a strong tradition in Japan of celebratory parties post major events. I think these are called Uichage.   We had a big one last night. A group of us organized two concerts last week and so in celebration  my apartment hosted a major bust.

Thanks Gakiya san

The event focused around Roaring Pyramids and non traditional Okinawan cocktails.

Roaring pyramids are self explanatory and always a lot of fun.

Giza

Yay!  Natori san says”It’s great to be on top of men!”

Not much roaring

Ladies team

Discussion

Amazing hand made er gift thing.

There is a black sticky thing inside that looks a bit like a jobbie

We make tropical drinks. Left over from the concert was a bouquet of orchids, individual flowers from which became the crowning glory of each cocktail.

It’s the banana stupid

And the orchid

Jeremy holding a Okinawan Colon Cleanser

When was the last time you had a drink with an orchid and a banana in it?

Violetta!

Here is the recipe. In big glass put pineapple, kiwi fruit, a whole banana,some lime, lots of ice, a serious slug of awamori, top it up with grapefruit or orange juice and then garnish with rose petals  and orchid. You drink it then eat the banana. Not sure how this would go down on Islay but you know, different drinks for different geography.

I have to ask people to leave at 2:00 because I am 60.

Time to go home

Great group of people!

http://youtu.be/Z66V9a_9Eh4