The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond

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.

How does one reach gratification? There has to be an element of success and probably a reassurance of one’s innate abilities. I have been vexed by my inability to remove the wheel with the punctured tire from the Scaffie’s trailer. I wrote about this last week. I tried everything, the hammer, the WD40, the driving back and forth with abrupt braking. Nothing worked.

This has major ramifications. I can’t really sell the boat with a busted trailer.  I could trail it up to the gas station and hand off my responsibility to the wonderful guys who work there, but this seems cowardly and bad mannered as the boat and trailer would occupy a large part of their forecourt. Anyway, driving it up there would probably damage the tire as the rubber ground between the rim and road with the full weight of the boat on it.

As I continue the refit, which necessitates endless coats of wood treater stuff followed by yet more sanding, I try to come up with a solution. I have many ideas involving, Tirfor winches, mules,  metal saws, Bangalore torpedoes and such. But frankly I am depressed. Wheels should just come off once you have undone the locking nuts. Why me etc?

The boatyard

Then I have an idea – what if I put one end of the jack against the trailer frame and the other against the wheel rim and then open the jack just maybe I can get enough force to break the rim off the hub.

The set up

So, I turn the jack handle as hard as I can but of course nothing happens. I return to sanding and brushwork. I return half an hour later and give the jack handle another twist. There is a jerk, a twitch, a grunt. It is hardly perceptible but to my high-tuned ears it means a victory that floods my brain with endorphins and a whole lot of dopamine. I am a stage of life when successfully removing a wheel from a trailer is more gratifying that all the usual metrics of glory.

Prizes,medals,honors. Who needs them?

Everything accelerates. I take the wheel to the gas station where the wonderful Yasushi san grabs it and fixes it in 10 minutes. Within 30 mins of freeing the wheel, it is back on the trailer and all my worries are over.

I don’t like sponge cake

Obviously one of the huge hooks of Okinawa is the wonderful variety of seafood, which is dirt cheap. Last night I cooked pasta with lots of sea stuff all over it.

You recognize these things

Oysters, clams, sliced giant Okinawan whelks,Tuna all freshly pulled from the Forth.

I hear Scotland nearly beat the All Blacks

glug, glug for a while

Should you put parmesan on seafood?

It was truly delicious.

I have spoken before of the temperature limited nature of Japanese washing machines. Essentially they only cold wash, which I am sure is a very good thing. That said, I worry about my jeans. I mean they soak up all kinds of filth that simply cannot be dislodged by gentle rinceing in cold water.

Today I boil my jeans.

I wonder if a Le Creuset casserole has ever done this before.

My biggest pot is a Le Creuset casserole that I have had for decades. It is far too small for the job.

I gently boil my jeans until they are al dente.

Color of some of water that drains off.

I feel I have done a good thing. Must go and buy a big pot for properly boiling jeans and stuff.

November is a lovely month in Okinawa. It is cool and yet there are very beautiful days.

A couple of days ago

I set to, to give the Scaffie her yearly sprucing up.  Lots of sanding and laying on wood treater stuff. I wish I had taken a photo of the Scaffie after the recent typhoon. She was full of murky water and all her rigging was in total disarray. But I didn’t, so you will have no idea of how far I have come in her makeover.

Already well advanced. Water gone and first dabs of wood treater.

I work hard and with pleasure as the progress is obvious. What was a mess, is now less so.  I even sew up a small tear in the mainsail.

The seamstresses amongst may mock but I feel quite proud of myself.

Looking much better

One problem is  that one of the tires of the trailer has punctured. I jack the trailer up and loosen the nuts however the wheel refuses to come off. Aluminum, the wheel, and steel, that is the hub, form deep attachment if left unguarded. I bash it, kick it, lever it, karate it, curse it but to no avail. The wheel is solid on the hub such that I cannot take it to the gas station to have it fixed.

Ils ne passeront pas!

Youtube tells me to put back the wheel nuts, but not too tight tight and then zoom the trailer back and forth behind the mighty Xtrail with frequent abrupt stops such that the wheel is snapped off the hub. This seems like and excellent plan. Accordingly, I back the Xtrail up to the trailer so the I can link the trailer to the hook on the back of the truck. By the way, practicing Bokononism is punishable by death on “the hook.”

I need to lift the trailer, bearing the boat, onto the “the hook”. I get myself into very bad postures as I try to guide the trailer onto  “the hook” and feel strong pain in the back. This is it. I am  an old man. I have failed to attach the trailer to  “the hook.” My back cries out,

Am I a cripple, or will it be OK tomorrow?