The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond

I have 5 Mac keyboards. 4 wireless ones and one a with a snake-ish usb connection.  None of them work. I interpret this breakdown as a result of the heat and humility of the Okinawan climate. Aghast, as I cannot use my computer and so am dead, I consult the Oracle as to how I can get a wireless mac keyboard. I dread an endless excursion, trying to find a highly lighted, very loud, frenetic, store where nobody understands my mime for wireless mac keyboard. The  Japanese Oracle says “Yo, dude hit up Amazon .jp.”

Humility

So, here I have to wonder. I have lived in Japan for 5.5 years. The idea of going to a web site to order stuff, I mean any stuff, in English was impossible when I first debarked. It took me 4 years to get a Japanese credit card. I assumed this was normal. Maybe not? Maybe  this was here from the beginning but I was too happy to fall into the quaint belief of everything has to be paid for with cash in Japan  that I had created for myself.

Amazon .jp english allows you to buy anything, I mean anything, on line.

Is this a recent thing or has it been here all the time but my stupid misinterpretation of life in Japan has disguised it from me?

Two days after I hit the web site

I mean what I am trying to say is that living in a foreign country opens a vast vista of opportunity for misinterpretation.  You,or at least I, never really completely understand what is going on. This is why I get angry when people talk about countries they have never lived in. They really have not got a clue.  I think it is linked to the era of imperialistic, colonialist self belief that I grew up in. Friends, only talk about your own country. Otherwise you are making fools of yourselves.

Yay!  New keyboard, lens cap, futon cover and camera bag.

Aregato Gozaimasu Amazon.jp

So this is for me. Just a series of photos that record how I spent 8 May 2016. I will look at it in the future in some cold, dank room and the treasure I have anchored to my soul will cure me, if you know what I mean.

Up she rises er early in the morning

I love my new thwart

Tide goes out. So blue

The tide is very low, which makes for good snorkeling. This is what the lagoon looks under the water.

I am in 3 feet of water

warm

silver

yep

What is going on here?

Family of clown fish in 50 cms of water

Too soon it is time to watch the sunset.

Turner

A Pacific Rim Egret watches with me

Work tomorrow

Thank you Okinawa

So it is Saturday, I buy new bedding.

New futon

Flowers are everywhere.

Lilies by the road

New hibiscus

The tide is far out!

Check the Scaffie

When the tide rises, I go sailing out over the reef as the  sun goes down.

Raise that sail

I sail out to the Reef and snorkle

I then sail around the lagoon and back and forth over the reef. It is warm.

I love my boat

Setting sun is nearly past the cape. 

I anchor and cook fish for my evening meal

Yay! I love fish.

I have noticed as of late that the very few people as what visit my beaches pile up flotsam above high tide mark in a laudable effort.

She’s so high  above me

It is a drag to er drag all this sea junk back  to the  road. So I move to a new level of beach commitment by purchasing a wheel barrow.

Loaded

Anyway I am on vacation.The weather turns real  bad. Plans for major sailing adventures turn awry.

Alas poor Scaffie

I had dreamt of realms of gold but am marooned in the house  by wind and rain.

Scaffie frets at anchor

This is not a confession of alcohol abuse but rather a narrative of boating misadventure. It is windy but more importantly it is very gusty.  The Scaffie is a bit of a handful, healing dramatically when a gust hits. I really should have put in a reef but you know.

Running with strong wind behind, moments before things change rapidly

I am not really paying attention and the wind gets behind the sail which whips over to the other side of the boat. The side I am sitting on. This is called gybing. The combination of my huge mass, the the huge sail,  the huge wind make like that the Scaffie heals far, far over and the sea pours in. Because of the extreme angle I slowly but inevitably flop backwards into the raging ocean. It is actually calm but as I have said extremely windy.

What grace. Notice sea in boat.

I get back in, take down the sail and start bailing for lo the boat is full of water. Once I have got most of the water back where it belongs, I raise the sail again. This is a comedy of errors mainly due to incompetence but compounded by the gusty conditions.

It is amazing how everything gets tangled when you least need it.

Beginning to make sense

I finally get the boat back into working order and we career off.  The Scaffie loves wind and the sailing is  wonderful. The wind is of course coming directly off the land and I beat back and forth making  steady progress back to the mooring. Good adventure.

Home again.

There is a family of clown fish just under where I moor the boat.

Hello

It is Sunday. This is no ordinary Sunday as Golden Week has set its galleon sails and reached into Okinawa once again. I have taken Monday off, which means I now have Sunday, Monday, Tuesday , Wednesday, Thursday for self indulgence. Yay Japan!  I intend to exploit this opportunity to the maximum of sensuality.

What can be more sensual than clambering into the Scaffie with a fresh wind blowing offshore. Guys, you have to remember that Okinawa is a delightfully warm place. The sea is warm, the wind is warm, my heart is warm. This means Tshirt and shorts sailing.

At anchor , I bail

I raise sail

The wind fills the sail and off we go across the turquoise  lagoon. Sailing boats need lots of adjustments, whether or not said adjustments make much difference to the performance of the boat is moot. However I am unhappy with the overall way the rigging is like at and so, a couple of kilometers out, I tighten the downhaul.

Downhaul me Baby

Never has life been so good – good wind, no work, warmth.

I love this boat

Oriental Turtle Dove. Nothing to do with the main narrative.

Reach out

So, every time I mention to an Okinawan that I have a boat they say “Whoa cosmic! You can fish.” Fishing is deep rooted in the Ryukyuan psyche. I feel pressure to fish. I mean I really want to fit in, you know, be one of the lads. So, out past the reef I cast my sea anchor, as what I bought in the best shop in the world in California, over the side and start off on a slow drift.

Thank you for your sea anchor, California.

I hate fishing. It is the antithesis of sailing. All the fiddling about,  my eyes are weak I cannot see the knots, all the tangles, all the boredom, all the sitting around on the sea rather than the swoop and glide. Hey, I actually do not want to kill any pretty fish. I mean I can pay someone to do that and buy amazing fish at the store.

Anyway I manage a few minutes.

Who am I trying to fool? After 15 minutes or so of role play,  I reel in and I pull in the very effective drogue.

Never again

The whole time I was fishing, I was smelling the breeze and thinking what fun it would be to career around the lagoon, to shoot over the reef, to finagle the rig to get maximum performance.

I raise sail and get back to what I really like.

Back on land, I admire  my Hibisci, of which I am inordinately proud.

I hate fishing.

Petunia

Nasturtia

Golden Week!

I cannot let a day go by without checking into the Daily Mail to measure the temperature of UK life. It is a bit like  reading Klu Klux Klan Daily but with more smut and wormwood. Anyway, today I read this:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3559520/Now-April-SNOW-showers-Flakes-fall-London-severe-weather-warning-issued-Scotland.html

Wow, it is snowing in London. This only struck me as worth commenting upon because today I finally capitulated and switched on the AC. It is 30C here.

Nasturtiums beginning to wilt but Plumeria coming on strong

Hibiscus are busting out all over

James and I go on an adventure to the Russian River. We are scoping out real estate. On the way up there in the car whose name shall not be told, we stop, par hasard, we were looking for coffee, at the best store in the world. I do not know its name but it is a huge warehouse full of everything you would ever want to buy. I mean; tents, stoves, dutch ovens, sleeping bags, fishing rods, rope, shackles, guns, rifles, clothes, boots, water shoes, knives, bows and arrows etc, etc.

This is about 20% of the store. I am spending my next vacation here.

“Have you got any pistol cases?” I ask. Why will become clearer later. “Why, we surely do. Just look over there in the Hunting section.” There is a vast choice of pistol cases and after much deliberation I decide on this one.

What a beauty! Shockproof, waterproof!

Rural California is the best place to buy vegetables

We eat steak. Ben is an excellent steak chef.

Fresh Californian artichokes. Delicious.

I am in California for 2 short but wonderful days and then Osaka, Naha. I get home at 7:00 pm on who knows what day. I am trembling with anticipation.

My flute case, as what I have had since 1979, is falling apart. I have no idea where I can get a case for an 1824 Willis and Goodlad.

Sir Roger Casement

There is an Irish music fetish site here: https://thesession.org/  I asked where I could get a case and got many replies. The considered opinion was to buy a pistol case; remove bits of foam to create niches for flute sections and Bob’s your father’s brother.

Although numbed by trans-Pacific travel, I immediately fix up the case on arrival. I have rarely bought anything that has made me so happy.

Snuggy flute

Imagine walking into a bar carrying this! I look forward to interesting times.

The USA is such a great place for buying stuff.

Whistling through the streets of San Francisco on Ben’s bike early in the morning is truly envigorating. It is a very beautiful morning and of course it is the 20th of April – 4/20. 420 is hippy code for weed as that is the time they got out of school to start an afternoon of doobies.  Today thus is international pot day. However that is not why I am back in SF. I have to have my biometrics done to get a document that officially allows me to be out of the U.S. for a 2 year period and yet retain my Green Card. The office for this kind of thing is on Broadway down close to the Bayshore. So, down the Panhandle, down Oak, take a left onto Page. Then downhill all the way to Market. It is super exhilarating. On Market, I join a pack of hard core bikers and we swoop and dodge our way down to the Embarcadero. Now I cruise past  the Ferry Building, the Exploratorium, as the sea gets bluer and the sky follows suit. I am early so I spend some time watching old Chinese guys catching Mackerel off the pier at the end of Broadway.

Not Okinawa

I walk into the immigration building half an hour early.

“No problem, buddy, we ‘ll take you straight away. Just fill in this form.” Before I have finished, my number is called. ” I am so sorry, I have not finished my form.” “Just give it here, sir. I ‘ll do it for you.”  4 mins later after fingerprinting and photography and lots of “Have a good one!” from all the staff, I am back on the street.

This is a great place. Visit if you can.

Ben’s bike

I spend the morning wandering around Little Italy and Chinatown and end up having a great lunch in Fisherman’s Wharf.

View from my table.

Feeling good; I bike back up Embarcadero, back up Market in a mini pack with 2 very fit Chinese women and so onto the legendary Wiggle. I wrote about this great bike route in  a previous blog: https://spikekalashnikov.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/the-wiggle/

I am pleasantly surprised by my lack of, lack of breath if you see what I mean.

Anyway by the time I get home the streets are thronged with people going to the Golden Gate Park to celebrate 4/20. I make my way to Hippy Hill the epicentre of global dope culture. Come here any time and there are dipsy hippies dancing to the inconsistent rythms of stoners bashing on tablas. It is cute. Today is not like that.

Not much fun. Spot the smoke

The thousands of people are principally young Latino gangsta kinda. Then a lot lot of haughty, elegant but distant Afro Americans. Not a tie dye in sight. No bad feeling but no longer Peace and Laugh.

Everyone is smoking dope. At exactly 4:20 pm  a few people shout out,” Hey Guys  it is 4/20 like we should do something!” Everyone is too stoned to notice.  I pedal home a sadder but a wiser man.

Well,maybe.

I have been much obsessed by Plumeria of late. This plant, bush, tree, has the best flowers.

What more do you want?

I have bought some plants but my miserable Scottish soul is nagged by the two huge Plumeria trees that bloom magnificently outside the Sunset Beach House just a skip and a hop from my house.  Hey, stay here, it is a dream.  http://www.sunset-bh.com/english/index.html

I know that if I can get some cuttings from their huge trees then I can raise huge Plumerias of my own WITHOUT SPENDING LOTS OF MONEY.  Sad isn’t it? I have lots of money but I still search for the cheapest deal.

So, I go to weaselly speak to Rumi san, the elegant proprietress of the Sunset Beach House. Of course, she says, ” Sure take as many cuttings as you wish. Do you have a saw? Use mine,etc.”

Dead Butterfly- not on the main narrative.

I slash her tree and plant out the cuttings after covering them with rooting hormone. Try miming rooting hormone next time you go to a garden center.

Lots of Plumeria

Plumeria and Nasturtiums

Snails are an awful pest at this time of year in Okinawa. I had  a hundred or so healthy marigolds that were scoffed by snails overnight. I fear they will get my Nasturtiums also.

Let’s hope she likes me.

Watch this space.

So, let’s hope that all the Plumeria thrive.

Meanwhile, I have beautiful Orchids in the kitchen.

ITER,  quel cauchemar!

I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it

Go Plumeria !