I first met Kikuta Ichiro san in 2013 when I helped organize an exhibition of his work at the university. Watch the video.
Since then I have burned with a terrible yearning to own one of his byobu. I finally got round to buying two byobus that make up the piece “Giant Mottled Eels.”
Amazing art, which will last hundreds of years. Buy his work: http://kikutaichiro.com/?page_id=125
Sea snake soup is an ancient and much revered Okinawan dish. Arisa kindly books a table at the most prestigious sea snake restaurant in Okinawa. Very few places, I am told 5, serve sea snake. Prestigious by reputation rather than aspect. It is a tiny place lurking down a back alley, underneath a motorway flyover.
It only serves meals on Friday and Saturday evenings. It normally takes months to get a reservation. The place is run by a very old lady who has the knowledge, her daughter who is gaining the knowledge and her husband who is a very muscular American guy. Strange brew.
On Wednesday it becomes clear that Arisa will not be able to attend the Friday night meal. She phones to rebook. The old lady very courteously explains that it will not be possible as she has already started to cook our meal!
Suzuki san and I go and have the best evening.
The sea snake is chewy and gamey and unusual. The soup is delicious as are the other dishes. The snakes are snatched untimely from the sea by nuns on Kudaka Jima. They are smoked and then deboned laboriously. The old lady then cooks them for 3 days in different soup broths, er dashi. Yum.
We have the best time and the family are adorable.
I also get a new car. I now rent a K car for 3000 yen a month. I do not want to buy a car. No worries about maintenance, insurance, shaken etc. The rental company phones, through Naoko, to announce that my car needs to be serviced and they will bring me a new one.
Not much going on in these drowsy Covid days. We are still in a state of semi emergency, meaning don’t go out unless necessary, masks , distancing etc. I have been for a couple of lunches and one very fine dinner but life is quiet. A series of small technical hitches have discouraged boating. All these months of reduced activity have ingrained an overall lethargy.
There have been some high spots.
I buy a new actually old, but new to me, lens, it is a Nikkor 180mm f2.8. These are famous lenses.
https://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/180f28.htm
I love it because it is manual focus and you set speed and aperture yourself. I find modern cameras and lenses rather dull as they do everything for you. I go to the stinking Triangle Pond to learn how to use it.
I have not yet mastered it. It is a strange focal length 180mm not really a long distance lens for birds and stuff.
When I finally remove the cockpit cover after all the typhoon excitement I find all the innards of the motor ignition switch scattered around the cockpit seat.
I have no idea how this could have happened. Maybe I kicked it when installing the cockpit cover but I doubt it as the switch is well recessed. Maybe while I slept, my enemy came and sowed tares among the ignition system. Anyway it is a drag as I need the motor! Kiyuna san of course reassures me.
I will have to find a more permanent solution but at least I can now take the boat out.
A friend gives me a beautiful bunch of grapes from her hometown in Kyushu. They were exquisitely wrapped and all round wonderful. The Japanese really appreciate fruit! The variety of grape is “My Heart”, although it would be wrong to interpret the name as a motive for the gift!
I am afraid that this post is once again principally about my boat cover. I know you are sick of photos of reddish canvas but it is what it is.
Anyway, something else to start with. Japan has not allowed non nationals to enter into the country. However the ruling was changed as of September 1st, permanent residents can come back into Japan. Hooray!
I plan an adventure in the mountains of Montana during which I can take on my alter ego of bear. A few weeks of something else and then back to Okinawa. I am very excited about shaking off dull sloth.
I go to the Immigration Office in Kadena to try to understand the necessary paperwork. After some iterations, my plans are dashed. Returning to Japan, I would have to spend 2 weeks of self-isolation in a hotel at Narita airport. Can’t think of anything worse so I hang up my Grizzly costume and settle back to life in Okinawa.
Great excitement about the next typhoon, Haishen. It is a big one and I anticipate that the boat cover will again be blown off despite my best efforts.
Not so, the typhoon goes North of us and we have high winds and lots of rain but it is not the screaming madness of a big boy typhoon.
I wake up and rush down to see if the boat is OK.
I am gathering data on what the cover can withstand and how I can strengthen the set up. I wonder what happens in Norfolk, where she comes from? Well, I suppose they do not have many typhoons there.
I have noticed the title expression cropping up frequently lately. I wonder where it came from.
Still licking our wounds post Typhoon Maysak, Typhoon Haishen is on its way to further test our resolve.
I rig the cover differently. First I put a line around the mast to the end of the boom such that the boom cannot droop. Same thing as a boom crutch really but I hope more resilient.
To stop the boom moving from side to side and putting strain on the system, I put a line around the boom to the aft cleats.
The wind will be coming from the Northwest, that is to say directly over the bows. I dread it will creep under the space between the cover and the cabin roof, blowing off the whole caboodle.
I am convinced that there is a set up that will permit the cover to resist the worst. It may take some time to find it.
Wonderful full moon.
Typhoon Maysak was pretty bad, well actually is pretty bad, as she is still blowing away as I write. However the worst is over.
The storm started with a lot of rain on Monday afternoon but the real ferocity came during the night. I was asleep.
I get down to the marina at about 07:00. What has happened to the boat? Watch the movie.
Everything is closed except for the praiseworthy Lawsons, which is right in front of my apartment. Lawsons is a chain of 24 hour got everything you need shops so typical of Japan. They are usually known as Konbini. Nice to know I can stock up on stuff if I run out. Like beer.
Some background information.
Here is an update on the state of the boat at 4:30.
I am surprised to see the cover is still on and not even full of water, even though it was hastily and loosely attached this morning. It has been blowing hard all day and non stop rain.
There is a guest appearance from Pat at the end of the first video. He is a Swiss professional sailor who lives on his boat in the marina. He makes his living by delivering yachts from Japan to USA single handed! He is usually pretty blasé about tough weather. Even he admitted that there had been some really bad gusts last night. This makes me feel better for my poor cover. She clearly struggled against terrible odds before finally giving way.
What fun!
Serious typhoon coming over the island tomorrow and Tuesday.
What better time to have fun.
Kikuta san has added new pieces to his exhibition. Off we go to examine.
I am very tempted to buy this. When young in Scotland we fished for eels and my elder brothers would tell me ghastly tales of eels never letting go once they had bitten you. Certainly once caught, they refused to die and decapitated heads would still try to bite you. Double click on the photo and you will see that these eels have a truly malicious view on life. The eels he used to paint the piece were 2.5 meters long!
We then all go back to the boat for a fun lunch. Dockyard friends join us and we have a wonderful time.
At times there are 6 of us and a dog. I am the only non Japanese. This does not matter, I understand little but bathe in companionship. In fact I love it. I had always felt an obligation to contribute, to promote, to catalyse conversation. Now, I can sit quietly and grin. So relaxing.
The marina is buzzing with people putting on extra mooring lines, taking down sails. and generally lashing down anything that can move.
We eat and converse.
A wonderful afternoon but around 3:00, the heat finally wears us down. We go our separate ways. Such enjoyment with no alcohol. Strange.
I lie down until 6:00 and then return to rig the cover in preparation for the typhoon.
Before getting to the cover, I double all the mooring lines.
This is going to be the real test. Will the cover be able to withstand the rigors or will she buckle and fill with water? I spend a lot of time making the cover as taught as possible and install the camera tripod as a boom crutch.
So, this is the great reckoning for my cover. Can she withstand the evil typhoon? Do not miss the next thrilling episode.
Ho, ho a typhoon! It was only a small one but it showed up a design weakness in my cockpit cover.
The cover is attached to the boom. However the boom is only held up by the topping lift. If you click on the photo you can probably see two thin lines going from the boom to the top of the mast.
Anyway, the wind, strong, was coming from the South such that it hit the side of of the cockpit cover creating a degree of concavity.
It rained like crazy!
So concavity caused by wind allows rain to collect in cockpit cover. The weight of the rain pulls the boom down, which deepens the trough in the cover. I get there to find a bad scene. No water gets into the boat but it it is not an elegant scenario.
I clearly need a boom crutch that will keep the boom high, no matter what, and consequently keep the cover taught.
I rig my camera tripod to hold the boom high.
So, a nice new project to build a boom crutch. There is another typhoon coming in on Monday. Fingers crossed that my hacked together system will withstand Nature’s awfulness.
It has been a dour last few days. General fed upness with Covid restrictions resulting in little contact with other people, but mainly because I could not get my flute to work.
As I have mentioned, the flute was overhauled by Takaesu san. He was clearly excited by the project and it was obvious that he took great pride in the work he had done.
As I have also mentioned, the flute played beautifully except for the 2 lowest notes, E and D. The flute can play about 3 octaves. The highest essentially I never use for Irish tunes, concentrating on the lower two. The repaired flute played the highest and middle octave like never before. It was easy to get the notes and amazingly they were all in tune with each other. However I could not get bottom D. I told myself that this would come with practice but it did not. It was very disheartening.
I realized that I was playing a completely different flute. I have owned her since 1979 and she has never behaved like this before. I dreaded going back to Takaesu san to complain. I think he would have been hurt.
Last night I spotted something different about the flute.
There is an ingenious system for moving the cork up and down the head joint. The cork had been pushed down the barrel such that the top of the indicator was flush with the cap. I simply raised the cork out to the position shown in the photo and magically she reverted to her normal personality. Her honk is back.
I am so pleased.
I think Takaesu san, with all the best will in the world, must have set the flute up to perform optimally for classical pieces. But I need a super strong bottom D for the rhythmic structure of Irish flute playing. Now I have it again. I can no longer blame my tool.
Several of my American friends have referred to the period we are living through as the Pause. I think it is an apt description.
Here in Okinawa we are still asked to stay at home and refrain from traveling around the island. Social interaction is very limited. I have only seen one friend all week and that was a bemasked boat trip to watch the sunset.
I still get mail. Most is from the local government about health insurance. I am still, after nearly 10 years, entranced by the Japanese approach to official communications. So playful.
My great friend Hanada san now only opens her wine store on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. She keeps me bottles that she thinks I will like.
Here is a video about my kitchen.
There is a small typhoon on its way. That should brighten things up. The boat is beautifully covered and well attached to the pontoon.
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