The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond

I saw a strange thing this morning; kids going to school. Okinawa is pretty much back to normal, no state of emergency, no new cases.

I rather miss the lockdown, doing very little with no guilt. One thing I did a lot of, was shaving.

I had a beard for many years but shaved it off in Mexico. I fiddled around with disposable plastic razors but they went blunt very quickly and were environmentally unacceptable. Just before I left San Francisco, I bought a traditional safety razor, made in Sheffield. It is wonderful. It has a real sense of purpose and great heft. The blades come from Japan and are very sharp and long lived.

I remember as a very young boy having to carry my Father’s boiling hot shaving water in the designated shaving mug from the kitchen to the upstairs bathroom. I recall the dread of stumbling on the stairs and scalding water splashing over my legs. I wore shorts until I was 13.

Anyway, I have designated a shaving mug. I have a shaving brush that I bought in Asakusa nine years ago. https://thequietripple.com/2011/12/05/brush-shop/ I have English shaving soap.

Previously I have always shaved in haste, late for work, stuff to do. During lockdown, I spent hours shaving with exquisite sensuality.

I pour the boiling water into the mug and lather up my face with thick shaving soap and repeated dips of the brush into the very hot water. This goes on for at least 5 minutes. The internet told me that the secret to successful shaving is the same as painting a boat, preparation is everything. The more liquid the whiskers absorb, the softer they become and so fall before the slicing Japanese blade with no resistance.

I start on the neck with relatively long strokes, exulting in the slight rasp as whiskers are sectioned. Then the cheeks, this is easy stuff compared to the care that must be taken on the upper lip and the curve of the chin, which take great patience and delicacy. If everything goes well the face is super smooth and clean with no blood.

Anyway, the whole process takes about 30 minutes and I enjoy it immensely. I wonder if I will go back to slapdashery now that lockdown is over.

The dentist has reopened and this morning I go for the first of what will be many visits as the teeth in my lower left jaw have disintegrated. On the way home, I stop at various birding spots.

I get a personal letter from Donald Trump. He also sends me a cheque for $1200.

As you can see from the great excitement generated by the title, I have not been doing much. This I have been enjoying as I find I am naturally lazy and very good at amusing myself.

However the state of emergency has been called off in Okinawa, one case in 20 days I think, and I shake off dull sloth a bit. Readers will remember the many wonderful picnics that have been had on the boat. Future picnics were endangered as the table became unstable and dipped alarmingly.

The problem was a sleeve in the supporting arm had worn out allowing considerable play resulting in the end of the table moving up and down by 20 cms or so. As the Chinese proverb says, “You can’t eat off a moving table.” I am very pleased with myself because I was able to track down the Swedish company that made the table and found replacement sleeves on their website. I order 4. They cost 12 euros. Shipping is 50 euros! I have no choice, I must picnic.

The new sleeve does not fit! I sand and grease. Finally the sleeve slides in, er with the help of a hammer.

I am so pleased that my table is stable again!

I had a colonoscopy at Chubu Hospital. This is always fun and I appear to be cancer free. Hooray!

No state of emergency, we have a dinner celebration, suitably distanced, for two birthdays and the opening of a new pottery studio. A wonderful evening with 5 star food.

My friends tell me this is the high season for Bonito, Katsuo in Japanese. The next day I rush down to Toya fish market, which has re-opened and buy a beauty. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2013/04/26/food/katsuo-japans-ubiquitous-tuna/#.XsZAhhMzYUE

Not sure how i will cook mine yet.

We are now in the rainy season so probably little boating, but I worry not as the boat is safely covered and I have got used to doing nothing at all.

So, about 2 weeks of, sort of, lock down. I find I quite like it. It is the best excuse to do nothing at all without guilt. The Onna Village Office send me a package containing masks and cute separation guidelines.

I find that a 700 Mbs internet connection allows you to watch every rugby match, cowboy movie, sailing video, concert, etc immediately. I have not suffered, as we can go to buy amazing food and drink. There is no shortage of anything.

Suddenly, it rains like crazy. Showers were predicted and I had not covered the boat but not so, it was full hose drenching. I rush down to the Marina. The boat is already pretty full of water but it is raining so hard that I, not having waterproofs, shelter in the cabin hoping that the rain will cool it,

I fall asleep, it is so cosy ,but am awoken by Kiyuna san, who has come down to see if the boat is OK. He is a good friend.

I am shamed into action and bail, pump out the boat and rig the cover in sensational rain. I am so soaked.

I take out the phone to take some pictures but the screen is psychedelic. I sense that something is wrong! The phone then heats up such that it is almost impossible to hold. It utters a moan and passes away.

A Japanese friend comes to my rescue and we go to a second hand electronics shop. She is the best shopper, comparing all phones and prices, whereas I would have bought the first one. We get an I Phone 7 for 29,000 yen. She switches out the sim card and sets up the phone. I am in awe and also back in business. Aregato.

Anyway a lot of rain is predicted so I re-rig the cover. She is very snug.

Stay well everyone. Okinawa has had no cases for 10 days. Fingers crossed.

I give esoteric names to my posts, which is stupid, as it is very difficult to find former posts. I am sure that I wrote about water gathering under the cabin floor and a nifty scheme to pump it out but I can not find it.

Mysteriously, water gets into the bilge under the cabin. I do not know how. It is not a leak because when the beautiful cover is on this does not occur. Nonetheless I have be unable to track down how the water gets in there. The problem is that the water eventually overflows into the cabin. This detracts from the luxury yacht feel.

It is very difficult to get this water out as, the only access to the bilge is very small and awkwardly placed. I set up, last year, a nifty system with an electric bilge pump that I can drop into the bilge.

After recent rain, the cabin bilge is overflowing, the cabin sloshes.. The wonderful system I had devised does not work. The pump seems dead.

Are you still with me?

Amazon is amazing! I buy a manual and an electric pump to drain my cabin bilge.

The pumps arrive yesterday. I am very excited.

We are allowed to go shopping and I decide that the supermarket next to the marina would be best. I take the opportunity to test my pumps and great joy, they both work very well and the boat is dry again.

The marina folks say that there is no restriction on sailing but crew should stay 2 meters apart. Hooray, but unfortunately miserable weather is coming in and I think I will have to to cover her up and wait. This week is Golden Week in Japan, a string of public holidays that effectively gives everyone a week off. Not so Golden this year with lockdown and dreadful weather forecast.

Stay well everyone.

Well, that should really be I used to be sailing, as Okinawa locked down last week and the drive down to the boat and larking around on the boat seem morally weak.

However, a couple of days before the lockdown, Simon-san and I went for a great sail. Great wind, great weather, we howled out to sea strangely overhauling a 35 yacht belonging to Captain Toru, a perfectly genial neighbor at the marina. He sent me great photos.

It was a wonderful sail. We rushed out into deep water and then turned North to sail up the coast of Okinawa. Before I know it, we are near Cape Zanpa. Local knowledge is needed here. I chicken, as I know we will have to sail against the wind going back to Ginowan and I anticipate lots of tacks. Not so, we rush, close hauled, back down the coast. One tack and we sail gloriously into the marina. She is a good boat.

On a different tack, I eat a lot of fresh octopus.

Stay well.

I am tremendously bored. In lockdown in a tiny apartment with, granted, a 700mbs internet connection, is still pretty dull. To make it worse I break my much beloved knife. I have talked about this knife before. https://thequietripple.com/2018/03/31/knife-fighting/

The tang is horribly rotted and, at first, I believe that the end has come for my beautiful knife,

However exhortation from mary.collins2018 and @nut_butters_shop to get a new handle makes me think. If I remove the black collar and adapt a new handle so that the maximum length of tang is driven in up to the blade, supplemented by lots of epoxy, then the knife might slash and slice another day. Good little project.

I have now been in lockdown for 5 days, paltry, say most of my faithful readers. I only go out to buy food. I buy a new 5kilo bag of rice.

Strangely enough, there is a team of guys digging up the parking lot. Must be essential. Maybe buried treasure.

Stay well.

So, The Governor of Okinawa has asked all residents to refrain from going out unless it is necessary to maintain life. It had to come.

Not having much food I went to the supermarket. Food is necessary to maintain life I suppose.

The place was virtually empty.

On the bright side, Arisa-san tells me that the Japanese government is giving each household 100,000 yen. Even to me! https://nhk.io/details-on-japans-covid-19-%c2%a5100000-payment-to-every-resident-how-to-apply/?fbclid=IwAR0fCb4syzak26lVB9b9ZA-10B5rb9WUASDMVXXlpVRbBTQa1wPRs42ei_0

She explains, “The government is asking  everyone to receive the money and if you don’t need the money,  donate it to the nearest organization that need the money. This way, the money will flow to proper people quickly and smoothly instead of the government keeping the money. “

I think I will pass mine onto the Champagne merchants of northern France who must be going through a very hard time.

Yay Japan!

The weather is bad so I would not have done much sailing. Just have to stay at home and work on my boom crutch

Every year I visit the Iris fields at Kijoka. https://thequietripple.com/2013/03/31/flags/

There are acres of irises growing in paddy fields. The fields are surrounded by wooded hills and all in all it is super beautiful. This year I decide to take good photos. I set off with macro and wide-angle lenses, flash, tripod. I am very excited. But the camera is dead. I have not checked the battery, which is totally flat. How stupid I feel.

Mind you, as we all know, the IPhone is more or less as good.

Having strolled around, I buy big bunch of coconuts, no irises. No one is there to sell them. There is an honesty box and lots of pre-prepared bunches. The idea of people just walking off with them without paying is absurd.

The back of my truck is full of yacht paint, varnish, teak oil, rope, clamps and stuff. It is now upgraded with a big bunch of about to flower, irises.

Anyway, about a year ago I took an Ikebana course taught by the very learned Okubo sensei. https://thequietripple.com/2019/07/07/ikebana/

I look forward to making dazzling displays. I have amazing Yachimun vases.

I wander through the fields near my house and collect leaves, grasses and flowers.

Unfortunately, every attempt I make to build the clever internal structures fails. These structures allow you to hold the flowers in interesting positions. In the end I am obliged to, more or less, dump the flowers into the vases, as I have done most of my life. Very disappointing. I am a bad student.

So my apartment is full of flowers. This can never be a bad thing.

On a darker note, I hear that there has been a coronavirus death on Okinawa.

Only the beginning?

Not much to say really during these dark days. I am very conscious that most of the world is going through unprecedented rigors, whilst we in Okinawa lead an essentially unchanged life.

This is just a diary entry. I have understood the joy of keeping a diary. It is always interesting and usually surprising to look back on what you were doing, 2, 4, 6, 8, years ago.

Wonderful week of sailing with good healthy winds. The Norfolk Gypsy likes wind.

On Saturday, the boat took Atsuko, Arisa and I on a wonderful sail followed by lots of eating. The mainsail is very badly set in the video, which we fixed later as we put up the jib. Lots of wind, lots of fresh air, leading to huge appetite.

The weather takes a turn for the worse. Strong winds and high seas. This drives the Pacific Golden Plover to shelter. I track them down.

The sea is wild.

I am at Cape Zanpa, usually replete with tourists. Today, there is only one man wandering in the wind. Yay, it is an old friend.

No sailing today!

Stay well all!

Mary makes very superior masks. I understand them to be made from layers of silk and cotton. She takes it seriously. The masks are tested at OIST.

These masks are tested as P36, excluding 36% of 300nM particles. Combini, local shops, masks are p20, Izumi Fukunaga https://groups.oist.jp/sbn has attained P40.

Prime Minister Abe has declared a State of Emergency in some Prefectures, not Okinawa. My generous Japanese friends say that little has changed for Okinawa. Well I have Kiyuna san’s magic sucking stone and Mary’s mask, so I feel wonderfully protected.

Life is wonderful! Exotic flowers bloom wild by the road.

I go sailing. At first the wind is gentle and we flap around without much purpose. It then rises and the Norfolk Gypsy shudders, trembles and then sets off at a gallop.

The wind gets stronger and we thunder back to land. She is such a good boat. She loves the rough stuff. I take great delight in sailing straight into the Marina, only using the engine for final mooring manoeuvres. So much sun, so much fresh air.

Stay safe.