The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond

My colleagues organize a farewell BBQ on Saturday, which turns out to be the coldest, and most dreich day of the year.

Thanks

Teruya san, Arisa, Natori san tend the BBQs

Tina, Naoko, Justin – wonderful people.

Natori san with Kikuta san, for whom I have total respect. I mean both of them. http://www.oist.jp/news-center/videos/ichiro-kikuta-yambaru-byobu-exhibition-painting-forest-full-life

Chinen san, who is a good person, gives me a very fine Japanese flute. I find it difficult to play.

Nagahama san, left, is the Mayor of Onna and a good friend.

Onna gives me a beautiful Awamori flask. I am very touched.

This you tie around your waist and swig from, unless you are driving of course.

We have to move inside cos it is too cold. Now this may not seem a big deal to most of you folks but in Okinawa it is unheard of.

Chinen san plays my flute

I blubber a bit. There is actually a lot of blubbering all round.

Lots of speeches

A  wonderful video on 7 years at OIST. Thanks Micheal and Natori san.

We all blubber

Kinjo san,  my favorite cleaning lady, gives me amazing orchids. I am humbled by Okinawan generosity.

I play a lament – ‘OIST nae more’

So, I cannot salute the generosity of my colleagues enough for organizing such a wonderful farewell.

He has bought the Scaffie, the trailer, the Tophatsu and the truckette: all the things I love.

Miseria

New owner. He will treat her well.

Thank you Scaffie.

Late last night I heard the screen door slam.

Lots of good times with that boat – more good times to come with next boat, whose name is Kanusha. I asked Naoko what I should call the boat. She, without hesitation said, “Kanusha”.  “What does it mean?” Again without hesitation, Naoko says, “I don’t know.”

Great woman.

The same can be said about my retirement date. There is a flurry of things to do. However I would like to thank folks whom I have worked with in this last week of my life of travail.

These are our Community Relations people. I love them dearly.

We have a big deal meeting over the last couple of days with the Weizmann Institute, https://www.weizmann.ac.il/pages/  and IST Austria, https://ist.ac.at/

All their senior like people are here and I believe this is the last presentation I will have to give in my professional life.

I hide

All said and done, by miles the high point of the day, was a retirement gift from Yamada sensei.

Shinman Yamada with his wonderful daughter Miwako

It has been a great privilege to become friends with Yamada sensei and his family. I am very touched when he gives me two cups to mark my retirement.

This is art

Life is good.

La Truckette spends a lot of time standing and waiting. Of late, she has demonstrated her valor. As I negotiate the change of life, she plays a critical role.

Today I have to pick up the fridge and washing machine as what I have bought for my new apartment. We drive down into deepest Okinawa and load up.

Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o’er land and ocean without rest:

“Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?”

I install them in the new crib.

Only cold water

Exciting photo

I then rush back to the house because a conglomeration of students have bought the little blue boat.

https://quietripple.wordpress.com/2013/06/06/a-boat-of-my-own/

We load her on the Truckette.

His state
Is kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o’er land and ocean without rest:

Bravo La Truckette

As we charge down the road I am sure that the way that the boat is rigged contravenes many laws but in Okinawa, I feel that there is still a feeling of tolerance towards transporting boats.

So, we drop the little blue boat off in Chinen san’s backyard, which is right on the sea. Chinen san, my hero, lets the students keep the boat in his yard, which is directly below the university. Thank you Chinen san.

Little Blue Boat’s new home. I think she will be happy.

Things start to get serious. I have to get rid of lots of junk that has been gathering around the house or  rotting on the deck. Okinawa is not kind to stuff. Everything rots and corrodes at very high speed.

Luckily I have the truckette, which I load up with rotten tables and chairs, old BBQs, and a chest of drawers that I bought in Bedford in 1976. Sorry to say sayonara because I spent hours stripping paint off it, 40 years ago. Stripped pine was very fashionable in those days.

Tsuha san helps

The chest of drawers then went to Switzerland, France, California, back to France and finally Okinawa. Okinawa did for her. The humidity and heat warped the frame and the drawers such that it became very difficult to pull them out. This I found very annoying so she had to go. After 40 years I just chucked her out. Is this a good or a bad thing?

One of Okinawa’s attractions.

So I have doubtless done a very stupid thing but, as I have probably mentioned before, no risk, no fun.  The safe option, the trip carefully planned, the ferry booked in advance,  leads to each adventure being reduced to frantically trying to join up pre-established dots. No fun in that.  Mike Tyson had it right about planning. “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

Actually, I am getting a little off subject here. Yesterday I went to Miyako Jima and bought a wreck. I aim to restore her to something like her former glory but who knows this may be a good daydream but an excruciating reality

The start of a long and doubtless stormy relationship

It is pouring with rain in Miyako. Taguchi san, the owner, and I look at the boat in a disconsolate way, both of us understanding the depth of human folly. The rain and overall dreichness is the perfect setting.  We have to wait for the wonderful Samae san who has agreed to interpret. Eventually the rain is so strong that we go and sit in Taguchi san’s car. I have a very strong Scottish flashback; sitting in drenched wool, in old car on desolate harbor side, waiting for the rain to stop.

Saemi san. The rain has eased.

Anyway we all go to have Soba.

Soba makes everything OK

There are many difficulties ahead. I have to arrange transportation to Okinawa, install the boat at a marina, find people who can fix the motor, the electrics, get new sails, all in Japanese.  This should keep me busy.

Taguchi san drives a hard bargain.

After the business part, Saemi san takes me for a short drive around Miyako in the driving rain.

Miyako Jima is big on bridges

I like bridges

This is what I plan but fully expect a punch in the mouth

One disadvantage of retirement is that your employer no longer pays you. Strange but true. As I move towards that state I realize that I will have to downsize residentially. My wonderful, beautiful house that has delighted me for the last 5 years and more, will have to go. Too expensive.

Today, I get the keys for my new crib. One thing, of the many, I have learned in Japan is that you do not need a lot of space. Once you abandon the concept of a bedroom filled with huge bed and welcome the tatami mat and futon, which are cupboarded during the day, you liberate significant amounts of space.

Cupboard is where you stash sleeping equipment during the day.

The entrance. Toilet and shower on left. Extra bedroom on right.

Lots of light.

La cuisine

Extra bedroom.

Atomic toilet

Wash away my sins

I like this place. This will be my Okinawa base for the next few years. The rent is absurdly cheap.

They very nicely named the building after me. My place is the 3rd floor corner apartment.

I go for a tramp around the hood.

Modern Okinawan architecture.

I like this better

Stand and deliver

What fun.

I tell you , this is when Okinawa scores bonus points. It is the very end of November but I wake up to a glorious day. The first thing I do is to put on some coffee and then I wade out to recover my anchors, which will never more drag in front of my house. I then breakfast on  asparagus, poached eggs, toast and coffee. I love poached eggs.

Tim has lent me his high pressure cleaner, normally called Karchers. I wonder why?

Long time, long time gone.

Before and after Karchering

Did you wash the back of your neck?

I then attack the space under the deck. I so regret that I did not take a before-shot, because it was sordid, Augean stable-ish.

After, yay Karcher!

All well and good, but what I really want to do is to praise my Tokina AT-X 300 lens. It is my greatest source of joy. Well, not really but you know what I mean.

Heron, light years away. Click on these photos.

I can see for miles and miles and miles. Oh yeah. Evening light in Okinawa.

Ie Jima 40 kms away. Hand held photo.

She is an amazing lens. What I like most about her is that she is manually focusing. It is a totally sensual experience to sensitively and calmly, rotate the focus thing until you feel it is just right and only then, blast off. What a difference from the hum, buzz, clatter, strange rectangles indicating that the camera is focusing on something other than what you wish, which comes with autofocus.

So, we move rapidly towards December. I suppose you could say it is Winter. I have put on very thin woolies on the last two mornings only to have to strip them off by 10:00 because a storm drain of sweat is streaming down my back.

Great excitement as tonight the Kitagama fires its kiln. This is the biggest kiln on the island with I cannot remember how many chambers.

Everyone is very relaxed. Notice that none if the kilns are bricked up.

On the way there, I stop off at Cape Zampa to admire a winter sunset

Amazing! You can see the Keramas in the distance.

Sky, Keramas, Sea.

Firing up the mighty Kitagama is a big deal as it only happens 4 times each year. There is ritual and fun with fire and smoke. I got to know the potters very well and I tell you they are definitely among the chosen.

https://www.oist.jp/news-center/news/2015/5/18/unlocking-secrets-okinawan-pottery

Inside a kiln

Still loading – long way to go.

I realize that I am way too early for the spectacle. I go to chat with Matsuda Sensei and he says he thinks they might fire it up at 9:00. It is 7:00. I am totally useless at hanging around waiting for things to happen. I want it, and I want it now!

So I go home , but what a lovely evening.

The floodgates of heaven broke open today for about an hour. I love heavy rain, it is fun.

That is 2 and one half inches in one hour.

The result was dramatic.

There is a storm drain just down from the house.

Water pours out from all over the place

This is bad news as the mud settles on the coral and seaweed and makes them unhappy.

Then the rain stops and the sun comes out.

Amazing colors

Spot the Reef Egret

Poor coral

Anyway, I then go to the dentist, which is always the best fun.

I wait for the party to start

Party time with Mori sensei!

When the party is over you go to the waiting room to calm down and eventually pay some risible sum. There, I find old friend Reuven wearing a shirt I gave him.

Party on.