The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond

As you know, my teeth are dropping out at a truly alarming rate. What to do to retain any self esteem? Dentures are old-making, bridge apparently not mechanically appropriate in my case. This leaves implants.

An implant is a titanium bolt that is screwed into your jaw bone onto which a crown can be anchored. My friend and long time dentist, Mori Sensei, https://thequietripple.com/2021/03/02/another-one-bites-the-dust/ seems reluctant to do implants. I am do not want to get more dentures. What do dentures do for your sex appeal?

Arisa san points me towards Kinjo sensei’s clinic. It is a very swish place and English speaking. After initial consultation we determine on two implants. Today we do it.

This a proper operation with surgical masks and robes. Kinjo sensei first slices through my gum, which he retracts to either side of the jaw bone. He then does all sorts of stuff until finally drilling deep holes into the jaw. I did not know what was going on at the time but he explained it to me later.

The operation took 3 hours on a scalding hot Okinawa afternoon. Not that I could see much as a surgical drape, only exposing my mouth, had been placed over my face throughout.

There is no pain but strange noise, pressure and imagination. I can understand that this intervention could be distressing to some. I keep calm by selecting the Lions team in South Africa.

Hogg

Van de Merve

Daly

Harris

Adams

Russell

Murray

Simmonds

Watson

Lawes

Henderson

Itoge

Furlong

Cowan Dickie

Sinckler

Apologies to non Rugby people.

3 hours later it is done.

Many, many, thanks to Kinjo sensei and his staff. This story will continue. I’ll be back.

In fact the weather has been perfect for sailing. Mild south westerly breezes, blue sea, blue sky, bright sun.

We go out to watch the sun go down, an extraordinary experience.

This morning I am up early to go to clean up the boat, which we had left in a mess last night. No sail cover, sails badly furled, rope all over the place because we were too elated to do mundane stuff and anyway it was dark.

Such a beautiful morning so, I take the boat out. Off we go for a couple of miles then turn around and come back. Only sailing for 90 mins or so but I have forgotten the intensity of the Okinawa sun and my forearms are now beetrootish.

Here is a completely unedited film of this mornings sail. I have forgotten how to use iMovie. Sorry.

Happy days are here again.

Generally bumbling along.

The leather protection on the gaff jaws is now very dry and worn.

I drench the leather with lanolin. I love lanolin. It comes from sheep fleece and is very greasy – very good on boils.

It looks like the rainy season is finally over and we celebrate with a dinner. Just 4 of us so as to be Covid rules compliant. Best fun. We eat charcuterie, sautéed foie gras with delicious pickled cucumber salad, steak with coleslaw and finally fruit. We wash this down with lots of ice cold Nagano cider and a bottle of Californian Zinfandel with the steak.

The weather is beautiful. I sail.

I bump into one tooth Kiyuna san. ” I have bought a new boat! Let’s have coffee.”

I actually think he was given the boat. The engines do not work. To Kiyuna san this is a no worries situation. He makes coffee and we tell jokes.

I will have two implants er implanted into my jaw on Friday. I tell Kiyuna san and also the exorbitant price. ” Neil san, you could buy a boat for that money! You could name her “Implants”!

You will remember my beautiful byobu. Well, when I asked, at the celebration party, https://thequietripple.com/2020/10/04/ivanhoe/ what variety of flower was depicted on the screen, this was the reaction.

Well, the reaction was not quite as strong but the company was surprised that, after more than a decade in Okinawa, I had not heard of these amazing blossoms nor seen them.

Barringtonia racemosa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barringtonia_racemosa is an amazing tree. It only blooms at night and each flowerlet drops off come the morning. The very learned Izumi sensei offers to guide me to trees she knows of on campus.

Difficult to photograph, as it is windy and the trails of flowers are swaying around. It is dark.

Thanks so much Izumi sensei, it was so much fun! The flowers were extraordinary and I have filled in a gaping hole in the tapestry of my Okinawa experience.

When in Nagano last month we drank cider. Ice cold, very dry cider is so delicious and refreshing. I searched and searched on my return but could only find sweet, slightly sickening cider. I turn to the oracle – Hanada san. https://thequietripple.com/2020/07/22/winds/

Can she find me dry Nagano cider? Of course she can and the next time I visit there is a row of the best ciders from Nagano waiting for me!

Hooray! Once this state of emergency is over, July 11 apparently, I will have a big dinner to celebrate. We will eat soba washed down with excellent sake and cider from Nagano!

Can’t wait.

Boating fun has been eliminated over the the last 3 weeks because my starter motor busted again. However great glee as Kiyuna san has fixed it. In fact he has installed a new one.

The weather has been dreadful anyway so there was no great mischief in not being able to go out because of the starter motor. Mold and mildew form all over the boat during the rainy season. Next job is a thorough clean.

The gracious Karen Wallace sends me some extra copies of Marine Quarterly. I give one to Kiyuna san. He is pleased but asks, “Did you mention my teeth?” I read him the part where I say that he is very distinguished despite only having 2 teeth. He groans and I am afraid I have offended him.

“This is a bad magazine.”

“Why?”

“It says I have two teeth but I only have one!”

He has lost half his teeth since I wrote the article.

I hope the rainy season will finally blow away and I can get on with boating adventures.

Lunch in Itoman fish market is always the best. Eel rice bowl with scallop, shrimp, snapper, parrot fish sashimi, with a couple of oysters. This is not a fancy restaurant; look at the asphalt and crummy table. That is what I like. Best seafood in the world without pretension. It is also ludicrously cheap, which always appeals.

During my self isolation in Tokyo in January, I scribbled, well on a computer, a brief history of the restoration of my Norfolk Gypsy. You can follow the whole story in detail on this blog starting around here.https://thequietripple.com/2018/01/09/then-the-tuckets-then-the-trumpets-then-the-cannon-and-she-comes/

The Marine Quarterly is a very prestigious nautical journal emanating from the UK. It is by subscription only. There is a website but they do not post the articles. https://www.themarinequarterly.com/

I sent my scribble, on a computer, to them and to my surprise the editor, very learned Sam Llewellyn, said he would publish it.

It is a marvelous publication. It eschews glossy photographs, flash headlines, advertising. It relies on knowledgeable contributors, good writing and excellent line drawings. Anyone with any interest in things nautical should subscribe.

Subscribe now. It is the only way you will get to read my article!

Time to thank all the many people who helped me during the resurrection of my Norfolk Gypsy. There are too many to mention individually but a special shout out to Natori Kaoru san. Natori san spent a lot of time researching the early life of the boat after she arrived in Japan in 1992. Thanks Natori san!

Such fun!

It is the rainy season and suitably it has been raining all day. Nothing dramatic but steady rain. I set off to renew the contract for my little rental car.

Everything goes bananas!

Huge thunderstorm and unimaginably hard rain. The trip to the rental place was terrifying. Despite the best efforts of the windscreen wipers, visibility was very bad. The drains could not cope with the volume of rain and lakes formed in the road. As you crash into these lakes, spray shoots out everywhere and the tiny car squiggles and shakes. I am very frightened.

I think am I am still a bit traumatized by the smash I had last year in similar conditions.https://thequietripple.com/2020/06/01/double-whammy/

I get to the rental place and park on the side of the road. Big mistake. The rainwater flows from the apex of the road towards the curbs, forming deep pools. Each time a car goes by it hits the pool and shoots out hundreds of liters of water over my car. The worst are trucks. They completely overwhelm my little car with water as they smash through the pool. It rocks and lurches.The noise is shocking. My nerves are shot. I tremble.

I finally manage to reverse off the road into the tiny parking space of the rental place where I pant. I wonder how I would have dealt with this situation when I was 20. Probably would have been in no way concerned.

This video was taken when the worst was over.

Anyway, yesterday was nice with remarkable clouds.

I also saw lots of birds on a trip up to the Kin paddy fields. Whiskered Terns that I was unable to photograph but here is a nice Heron.

Spot Cattle Egrets in Summer plumage. Not a very good photo.

I got my second shot this afternoon and am now fully vaccinated.

Thank you Japan.

The procedure was identical to my first jab. https://thequietripple.com/2021/05/22/ouch-3/

I will not go through it again. Click on the link above.

Very calm, very efficient. I am particularly impressed by the instant interpretation service using an iPad with an English speaker inside. I noticed during the set up that the same service is offered in about a dozen other languages.

After the jab, I was asked to sit around for 15 minutes to see if I keeled over.

I could leave at exactly 15:38.

I was advised that I may get a head ache and should, in that case, use one of these.

So that is it. I am very pleased and now in possession of an official vaccination certificate.

Not sure how this will be received at international immigration checks should air travel start up again. Cross that bridge when I come to it.

Again, sincere thanks to everyone who made this possible. Special thanks to the staff in the sports hall who could not have been sweeter.

Probably the worst thing that happened during my ongoing idyll in Okinawa, was the fire that destroyed Shuri Jo. https://thequietripple.com/2019/11/01/shuri-jo/

The palace is now being rebuilt and one fund raising project is placing containers outside supermarkets into which you can drop unwanted clothes. These clothes are magically transformed into money.

WordPress will not let me add captions at the moment, which is a shame as I enjoyed it.

Anyway, here is the box and you can see my bag of very high quality items. I throw away my two remaining suits and several dress shirts.I have not worn a suit for 3 years. I also donate a very high quality Donegal Tweed jacket, which I have not worn for 10 years.

Can you spot the Donegal Tweed? It pleases me that my jacket is contributing to the restoration of Shuri Jo.

I break my Raybans. In fact I broke them during the Nagano adventure but glued them together. It was never going to be a long lasting solution.

I go to a glasses shop thing that lives in the corridor of one of the local supermarkets.

Naturally there is totally, smiling, let’s have fun, assistant. We have no common language other than Google translate. I choose my glasses and explain that I am shortsighted and will need prescription lenses. She tests my eyes but does not think her machine is precise enough.

This is the machine.

She points out that due to my age, my eyesight, like everything else, is changing. She recommends a proper examination by an ophthalmologist. I am not against this as I had problems with my eyes a couple of years ago in Mexico. https://thequietripple.com/2019/01/20/the-curse/

Using Google Maps, she shows me the whereabouts of the nearest ophthalmologist. Thank you Google, none of this would have been possible without you.

I make a few points to Larry Page back in the day.

The Eye Doctor people take me immediately. I go through a rigorous sequence of tests, again bolstered by Google. I then have a chat with a doctor who says my eyes are old but have no problems. I get a new prescription. Japan’s health service pays.

I scoot back to the supermarket corridor and meet my new friend. I give her the prescription and ask if I can also get a new pair of clear lens glasses for driving on the rare occasion that the sun is not hammering down.

They are ready in 20 minutes. She says she will contact me when the sunglasses are ready.

She does not ask for my phone number. Instead we rub our phones together to establish a LINE connection. LINE is the way to communicate in Japan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_(software)

I love it! It does phone calls, video chats; you can send photos, videos and a whole lot of other stuff. What I really like is that you can add all sorts of playful animations and images. It is free.

Rainy season hypothesis was proved as fact yesterday when it rained like crazy.

Incredible rain!

Kiyuna san and I go down to the boat this morning. We have no worries as my cover is unassailable. We talk starter motor stuff and vaccinations. He will never be vaccinated. In fact most of the people I, er, hang out with refuse vaccination. So strange. I think it is deeply linked to the ongoing respect for non chemical medicine in Japan.

I have a Zoom meeting with my family in the UK. I tell my new glasses story and they oint out that that would be impossible in the UK as opticians have been closed for a year. You can only go to the dentist for emergencies. I realize that many people have had it much tougher than we Okinawans.

The boat post dreadful rain.

I cook my Octopus.

Something out of an alien movie.

Curly wurly.

Cook, cook, cook, that octopus.

I intend to tempura some and serve it on cold, cold soba, to which I have become addicted since the trip to Nagano. The rest, I will turn into Coctel.

I love Octopus.

Okinawa is in a state of emergency until 21 June. There are more cases now than ever before. Stay at home, restricted social gatherings, no visits to other islands, restaurants close at 8:00 etc. Life is very slow.

I woke up this morning feeling hot and sweaty. I look towards the AC device; it is silent. I fiddle with the controller but there is no reaction. I go to the toilet. The lights do not work. There is no electricity! Interestingly, my immediate assumption is that I have not paid the electricity bill and I have been cut off. Where does this come from? What a drag, how do I get my electricity turned on again. A major problem when you do not know the system nor speak the language.

I have, of course, jumped to the wrong conclusion. I remember the electricity panel by the front door. Inside there is a big switch marked, in English, ON and OFF. It is in the OFF position. I flick the switch and the apartment jumps into life. The fridge hums, the AC blows, the computer dings. Phew! I wonder about my immediate assumption that it was somehow my fault. Probably too much church at a young age.

I go to the Triangle Pond to see birds. This place is legendary, usually filled to bursting with birds. https://thequietripple.com/2020/10/09/spoonful/

Today nothing.

Does Covid impact waders, herons and spoonbills?

Much disappointed, I head to the Tomari Fish Market. I want to buy a fat octopus. They are not easy to come by. I lurch out of the car and realize that I do not have my wallet. I thought I had left it on the passenger seat.

I have no money! I must have left home without my wallet. This is very consistent with my old age life.

I wander around the fish market anyway.

Oh no! There are wonderful fresh Octupi to buy. I have no money.

Deeply saddened, I slouch back to the car.

I am uneasy, as I thought I had brought my wallet. Such is later life. I ferret around the car seats and, sure enough, find my wallet on the floor.

I sprint back to the Fish Market and buy this.

Boating has been blocked by busted starter motor. Kiyuna san is onto it. Not really a problem as, as previously mentioned, it is the rainy season. Very wet, cover on the boat, strong winds.