O-HISASHIBURI

I've been pretty lame at updating lately.  Here's what's news (new's):

We've been going at diving pretty hard recently, which is great.  So have the sea snakes.  two Sundays ago my buddy and I counted 12 snakes over the course of a short 30 minute dive.  As I read when I was researching them, these Colubrine sea kraits are indeed quite docile.  New Caledonian children play with them and they are unaggressive toward divers.  They are a curious sort that are fun to observe swimming around and surfacing for air.

And their venom is 15 times more potent than that of the king cobra.  Cheers.

The previous Friday I spotted a reef shark of some sort.  Couldn't tell what it was exactly.   Not too large, however-- perhaps only 1.5 m or so.  Didn't hang around.

I've taken up spearfishing as well.  Like most things new to me here on Miyako, I experience painful disappointment with this activity because of my inability to do things well.  But on this past outing I managed to jump a nice-sized parrotfish that was preoccupied with eating something on the reef.  I landed what appeared to be an ideal hit-- straight into the gill area-- and pinned the fish to the rocks.  It was a tough catch with a pole spear because of the depth of the water, and I was very pleased with myself.  As images of tempura danced through my head, the parrotfish thrashed about and managed to tear its own body apart off of the spear and dash into a hole.  I was pissed.  I think fishing is great, but, like most people, I don't particularly enjoy killing or causing animals grief unless I am going to eat them; I'm not there just to ruin some fish's day.  Damn.

On that same dive I reached a depth of 11.9 m.  That's a new high score. 

Miyako in NYTimes

The article is a year old, but it is cool to see it anyway.

Diluvian Tales: Snakes in Miyako

There aren't any. While other Ryukyu islands (Ishigaki, Iriomote, Okinawa, etc.) do have snakes, Miyako doesn't. Sources say that relative sea levels were higher in previous eras and much area of the islands was previously underwater. Miyako, being the geographical oddity that it is (it is extremely flat), was likely entirely submerged while the higher elevations of other islands remained above the water. Snakes (and presumably other animals) found refuge from the sea there, but no such purchase was to be found in Miyako.

However, we still have sea snakes. And they sure are curious about humans in the water.

EDIT: Apparently there are land snakes on the island. And a few sea snakes pursued us in the water today (13 MAR).

A Post for Posting's Sake

Hey, it's your boy on this island of the southern East China Sea.  I'm not doing much right now-- it's been a slow day at school-- but I am getting a fair bit of studying done.  My goal is to pass the second level Japanese language proficiency test this year (this summer at the earliest), so I've got plenty of preparation to do.  I found a few good study books (here’s one) and am having a go at it.  About this particular book, though: I am startled at how well it fits my current Japanese ability.  While the entire book is written in Japanese, each of the 173 individual grammar points is followed by an explanation that is concise and straightforward.  That is, I'm not having to learn new grammar to simply read the provided explanations of new grammar.  There is plenty of kanji, but it is accompanied by plenty of furigana.  As I study the grammar I record any new words I encounter, so it is a pretty decent way to study, I figure.

People I've talked to recently have probably heard me gloat about how warm it is here.  It is warm here.  However, today is a bit cloudy and cool.  Being an island, it's got some rapidly changing weather patterns.  That smells oxymoronic.  Anyway, you never know what's going to happen over the course of the meterological day, especially in the off months (i.e., not the 8 months of summer and not the 1 month of winter).  I should have taken the motorcycle to school today, but I didn't, fooled as I was by the gray skies.

Fun fact: I buy most of my study supplies at the convenience store.  Here is where I launch into an account of how convenience stores in Japan are different from those in the States.  First, the ones in Japan are usually well-kept.  They are not usually paired with gas stations.  You can pay your bills at them.  They also feature an assortment of foods that I hesistate to call fresh, but may actually be so (if you've ever been to Wal Mart or Kroger and seen those prepared and date-stamped deli items you have a good idea of what is found at these convienience stores).  You'll still get fat and die if you eat conbini (Japanese term for the stores) food all the time, but it is probably still better than Joyfull.  Anyway, the conbini also have tons of other quality convenience merchandise, including, namely, one of my favorite brands, 無印良品 (mujirushiryouhin -- 'no mark/label/brand quality goods').

Say it.  mujirushiryouhin.  moo-jee-roo-shee-rr-yoh-heen.  Again.  

mujirushiryouhin

I like how my made-up transliteration is more difficult to digest than the proper romaaji spelling (italics).  It helped not at all.

One more time: mujirushiryouhin.  It's fun.  It's also a line of clean, elegant, and reasonably priced products for your body, home, and office.  I like their writing elements and use them exclusively.  With the matching aluminum pen case.  Exquisite.  My notes explode with vibrant color.

You know, there are many words I still can't pronounce correctly.  For example, I still can't properly say 論理学 (ronrigaku - 'logic as a study').  Yeah, esoteric, I know.  But in my line of work, it's plum(b) necessary.  As a philosophy major, you never know when you'll have to justify your chosen line of study to some assailant in a foreign language-- when you do, you need every possible asset.

I break out ronrigaku whenever I have to get into it with someone.  It's a gamble, though: I typically end up saying something on a spectrum between 'lonely-gah-koo' (very sad) and 'rr-ohn-ree-gah-koo' (mentally impeded), preferably tending toward either extreme.  This leads the assailant to dismiss me as a blathering idiot and the issue, from his perspective, is settled.  Blathering idiots cannot hope to justify themselves, after all.  Afterwards I usually continue attempting to say the word (to myself).  This exacerbates others' perceptions of me.

I'm about to call it a day, but first I must say that I really like what I'm doing here.  The workdays afford me enough time to do some language study (which makes me a better teacher and co-worker), and the teaching itself is enjoyable far more often than not.  It's a great learning opportunity for both myself and the students, and I continue to have a lot of enthusiasm for it even through these grayer months.  The third year students are going to graduate in a few days, so I've got several ceremonies to attend.  I'll be back at ya shortly.  Peace.