The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond

I think I forgot to mention in the write ups of my European excursion that throughout I had an explosive chest cough. The cough was activated if someone stood in front of me and tried to engage me in conversation. I coughed explosively into their faces. Very European.

Once in San Francisco, I swallowed handfuls of Ibuprofen and Amazon cough syrup and the cough abated somewhat.

However this progress was counterbalanced by extreme, deep chest pain. Fearing heart attack, I contact my Provider, which means doctor in Californian, and set up an appointment for the next day.

I have loads of doctor-like checks after which the Provider says, ” You must go to hospital.”

“When?”

“Now!

“How?”

“The ambulance is already here.”

A huge San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD) truck and beautiful ambulance are disgorging paramedics into the parking lot.

I am strapped to a gurney and loaded into the ambulance. I express surprise at the rapidity and vigour of the response. “73 year old guy with chest pains; we don’t fuck about.”

Is there anything cooler than blasting through the sunny streets of San Francisco in a siren-howling, bright-red, SFFD ambulance? Well, maybe the same without being sick I suppose.

I spend 3 days in San Francisco General Hospital.

All kinds of checks and scans.

Anyway, it turns out I have advanced pneumonia, but no immediate risk of heart attack. Hooray!

I prefer Japanese hospital food.

Thanks to SFFD guys and all the staff at Mark Zuckerberg General Hospital, the facilities and treatment are outstanding. Everything is free – thanks MediCal; apparently 71 million folks have Medicare in the U.S.

I bump into one of my SFFD buddies as I leave. “What should I do when I get home?”

“Go to bed and fucking stay there!”

That is the sort of muscular medical treatment I like.

Zandra and Guy pick me up at the end of the Symposium and we go to listen to John Intrator play blue grass in a bar in Carouge. On the way there, we wander through the nighttime streets of the vielle ville de Geneva. So medieval, so far from Okinawa or San Francisco.

I wake up in the Chateau de Sothonod.

The weather is very bad. We are forced to snuggle by wood burning stoves, eating and drinking.

Stay at the Chateau de Sothonod! https://chateaudesothonod.com

We go to buy masses of wine and stumble over this.

We have an amazing lunch.

Magnificent lunch! We take our time.

One of the compensations of old age is old friends. I have met loads on this short euro adventure.

I love them all.

Thank you, Zandra and Guy for great kindness at the chateau.

I am asked to talk at the 4th International Symposium on the History of Particle Physics at CERN. What fun! Anyone who is anyone in global particle physics in the 1980s and 1990s, the period covered by the Symposium, is there. 4 days of nostalgia.

Chris, who is chairing the symposium, and I arrange to have dinner on the night before the kick off. The restaurant is pretty much closed by the time we get there and we dine on tiny sandwiches, a plum and yoghourt!

What a fantastic event – many thanks to the organizers. How lucky am I to be part of such things?!

I go up to Clement to get an octopus and some dim sum.

I leave my iPhone in the Waymo on my Waymo back home – Senile Neil. On the ‘find my Mac’ app I see the phone is on Tolland St. I contact Waymo. They are wonderful, ” Tolland is our depot. Lemme look over the car Sir. I found your phone brother. Just come down and pick it up.” I am so lucky!

To celebrate phone ‘I once was lost but now I’m found’ scenario, Bebo and I have lunch.

James and I head off into the Mountain Greenery where God paints the scenery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vnkPU2Af9E&list=RD0vnkPU2Af9E&start_radio=1

We drive around the Stanislaus National Forest, which is up by Yosemite for 3 days. Rough forest roads, beautiful Fall scenery, we see no one. We don’t know where we are most of the time. California is an incredible state. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Stanislaus+National+Forest/@38.2499716,-120.0829699,22301m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x809748cbbce65c61:0xc38bd0a09c84cb81!8m2!3d38.2501932!4d-120.0012955!16s%2Fg%2F1tfg7xzc?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MTAyOS4yIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

Thanks James for being a top companion and for doing all the driving!

I set off, with my new eyes, for the mountains of Canada to take photos of Grizzly Bears.

I get in my hire car to take it back to the shop. It will not start! I manage to contact the owner of the rental business, another Kiyuna san. He comes over to get the car and we get a taxi to take me to the airport. Very stressful as I now have about 30 seconds to catch the flight. I make it but only just. My heart is going pitter patter pitter pat.

I get to Narita and try to check in for my flight to Vancouver.”No-one called Calder on this flight sir – So sorry!” We look at the ticket again; my flight was on the previous day. I have screwed up. JAL are fantastic and organise to exchange the ticket so I can fly tonight. There is $100 something fee, I press pay. I then get a message from Wells Fargo, my US bank, that in the interest of security I will have to fill in the code that they will send to my US phone number. I only have my Japanese phone and cannot access my US number. I can not pay the $100, I can not get the exchange ticket. There is only 15 minutes to boarding. I buy a new horrendously expensive new ticket. Costly trip.

Charter flight from Vancouver to some lost airstrip in the hills. Truck to the lodge.

Grizzly Bear Photography Trip Chilko BC

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Tsylos+Park+Lodge+%26+Adventures/@51.6332458,-124.1376929,526m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m9!3m8!1s0x547eafe7075ad443:0xee318cad243d3220!5m2!4m1!1i2!8m2!3d51.6332425!4d-124.135118!16zL20vMDlxc3J2?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MTAxNC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

Everyone at the lodge is friendly but I sense a certain reticence when I ask questions about bears. Anyway we go straight out onto the river to search for grizzlies. There aren’t any. It slowly comes out that this is the worst year in living memory for seeing them. It is also very, very cold. I have not brought suitable clothing as it is difficult to imagine how cold really cold is in the 35 degree heat of Okinawa. I freeze on the first trip. My legs, encased in thin nylon trousers, stop working completely and I have to be craned out of the boat.

I am rescued by Josh, head guide, who lends me a pair of very butch overalls and by Andy who lends me long johns and gloves.

No bears yet but there is lots of other stuff to see.

The lodge is fantastic. We get 3 big cowboy meals each day with free drink!

Each day we leave at 7:30 and look for bears. Back for lunch at 12:00 followed by nap until we re -embark at 3:30.

On the Tuesday we get to see a bear very close to.

On the penultimate day we go for an excursion on Lake Chilko. Beautiful scenery! We visit ancient cabin in the forest and a First Nations’ camp. Lunch on a beautiful beach covered in bear tracks.

We set off home, 30 kms away. Suddenly both engines stop! Josh the head guide is not happy. We are out of gas. How can that be?! We drift onto a lee shore and Josh, la longue carabine like, lopes off into the forest to a First Nations camp 8 kms away. Time passes, it gets dark, we light a fire. Stranded on a lost lake in lost British Columbia. We hear shouting, it is Josh stumbling along the beach with a big jerry can of gas. He is a very tough guy. We make it home in the dark. A good adventure. Home for big steaks, Canadian whisky and red wine.

A week with no phone, no internet, lashings of fresh air, incredible food and drink. Very good. Stupidly I tripped getting out of the boat on the second day. I bashed my face and ribs. The face healed up quickly but I was cursed with painful ribs for the rest of the trip

I feel very sorry for the staff at the lodge. There are very few bears; we see two. I believe them when they say there are usually bears all over the place. They are ashamed that the week did not turn out like the brochure. I blame the bad moon that rose over Okinawa before I left.

I do not mind the paucity of grizzlies as there is so much else to see. I had a great time.

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.

After failed attempts at cataract surgery I finally succeed. This is really a panegyric to the  Hayakawa Eye Clinic.

After the the actual surgery, I go back the next day and the day after that for checks and vision acuity examinations. Everyone is so nice! The nurses are hilarious and giggle all the time as we flirt over Google translate. The Sensei is also very funny but not really flirtatious. However he clearly knows what he is doing, which is the main thing.

Yesterday I go back for a final time and get my new eyesight prescription. Seven consultations, not including the actual surgeries, in 2 weeks. No waiting, just fun. If you ever come to Okinawa, pop into the Hayakawa Eye Clinic to say hi.

With my new prescription held in a cleft stick, I head off to Owndays, a big all things glasses chain in Japan. “We can make up your new clear glasses now but the dark lenses will take a week. We are so sorry for the inconvenience.”

I once was blind but now I see – thanks everybody.

It is still beastly hot which restricts boat activity to rat-like scuttles down to the Marina before I am scared off by the heat and humility. The merciless sun simply blasts off paint and varnish from the boat. I manage a bit of tender care.

Who are you going to call? Sikkens Ceto Deck of course.

I wish it was n’t so hot.

Saturday was the start of Obon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obon

Everywhere I have lived in Okinawa, the village has its own Eisa dancers and drummers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisa_(dance)

It is taken very seriously with weeks of practice before Obon.

I hear the drums throbbing and go out on the street,

The Isa Eisa boys and girls are ready to go. What a performance ! Singing, dance, drumming.

Well done Isa Eisa group! A truly wonderful performance out on the street on a hot Okinawan night.

I took my super Nikon DSLR with super pro lens. I wish I had taken my iPhone. I am sure it would have dealt better with fast moving subjects in low light. I could also have taken video. Times change.

I have the second cataract surgery, this time on my left eye. Much the same as the surgery on my right eye. As usual the nurses are the best fun.

Kind Kiyuna san and Jacko pass by to see if I am OK.

Yesterday, I finally had cataract surgery on my right eye. I chose the Shinto option with priest and musicians. It involved a lot of chanting, incantations with the accompaniment of strident sanshin and shakahachi music. This option is a little more expensive and is not covered by the health service. However traditional medicine is always the best, especially in Japan. Kind Tomomi san took me to the clinic and generally held my hand; explaining what was going on and scolding me for being a wimp.

In fact the operating theatre is super modern. The surgery itself is not much fun but thankfully pain free. There is a a microscope and ultra sound device pointed directly at your eye. The eyelids are held back, as in Clockwork Orange, to stop you blinking against the very bright light. The surgeon does stuff but I am not sure what. Then it is over.

I pass a restless night and go back to the clinic this morning. The dressings are removed and I am a little disappointed that my eyesight seems much the same, I was expecting a revelation. Maybe it will improve. I am given lots of drops and told to come back tomorrow.

Same again next week for the left eye. I might dispense with the Shinto option.

Not much in Japan I believe. However over the last couple of years things have been changing. There are frequently young Nepalis working in the fantastic Lawson konbini just next to my apartment building. They are smiling, efficient and speak excellent Japanese. They also speak English. I believe they have to study Japanese at special courses, which gives them the right to a visa. There was a chap from Sri Lanka serving there yesterday. I know of at least one British immigrant – me.

Anyway a direct result of this wave of immigrants is the opening of a Nepali restaurant just a stone’s throw from my apartment.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Naan+House/@26.2911475,127.7529822,796m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x34e513ba8602957b:0xa0b3e538dca82d43!8m2!3d26.2911475!4d127.7555518!16s%2Fg%2F11x6f7d8y5?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDgyNS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

We go there to eat and drink Nepali stuff.

On another tack, I try to start the motor in the boat. It does not turn over but only emits a sad little click. This has happened several times before and is usually because of a jammed up starter motor. I am downhearted as it is a reasonably big job to fix. However I charge the battery and hooray she starts straight away! I am very pleased with myself – such mechanical skill.