sunset surf

i love surfing.

kuta beach

damp bali

my favorite moment...

its hot and our clothes are damp as we peel ourselves from the leather seats of the car and make the trek to the beach. it took us three solid times of getting lost before we found this spot. we walk on the small path through the brush, it feels like a mini-jungle with the wildly colored bugs and butterflies and slithery things that receed too quickly for our eyes but not for our ears. my friend says she spots some blue beyond the trees and we quicken our pace. the sand unfolds before our eyes and the sun shines down on that familiar but always awe-some cobolt infinity. the heat is melting and i absorb the moment of evernow with such depth and entireness. for me, this is the moment of Yes.

typical situation here, an octogenarian cruising along on his bike. he clearly has no idea that we've been patiently crawling behind him for 10 minutes on this narrow road that he takes the liberty to swerve back and forth on. we finally come to a wider part in the road and slowly pass him and make sure to get a good look. this man had the sweetest expression on his face, smile gleeming in the sun, strawhat flapping in the wind. we all rolled down our windows and shouted a big "konichiwa!!!!!!" i think it made his day.

miyako island

I personally think that Miyako has the most beautiful water and beaches ive seen in this country. i have been all over these islands, combing them for the most beautiful beach, of course. and whenever i arrive to one that i think is quite possibly the Most beautiful beach in japan, someone points out a hazy green speck in the distant sea and tells me that That island has a More beautiful beach. haha, well i have the rest of my life to keep looking, and ill let you know when i find it....or maybe i won't...

miyako island

i am here

in the 3rd one down you can see tokunoshima up on the left there, the largest island is okinawa, and i am on ishigaki. i have been to iriomote and the little speck north of it called Hatoma-jima. ill be making my rounds on the rest of the little islands inthe next couple of weeks.

umbrella love

what the hell is the use of an umbrella when im bombing down a hill at the speed of rain on a killer blazing orange bicycle that is too small for me and all the while my umbrella is desperately trying to cast its life away into the wind. but nonetheless im clinging for dear life on this lightening-loving-nylon-nuisance. the heavens are surely dumping buckets and the looming calm between thunder and its lover lightening is growing shorter with each ridiculous pedal of my bike. any moment now i should regain sanity and ditch the umbrella and pedal for my life, but no, id much rather hydroplane myself straight into a soaking wet giggling mess.

how did i get myself into this? it all started this morning when i arrived to Ishigaki island on a 9 hour ferry from Okinawa. i met a woman named Satoko on the ferry ride and it seemed as though we were moving on the same schedule (which is no schedule, no plans whatsoever)so we decided to wander together. we ended up choosing to go to a nearby island called Iriomote that has the population of my high school graduating class. its famed for its mangrove forests, rivers and wild Iriomote cats. we called the first guesthouse that we saw a sign for, dropped off our stuff, and packed our bathing suits for a sunny day at the beach. on our way out the door is started to rain, but we were so antsy to get out into the wilderness, that we hastily left in a brief interval between pours. so sure enough it drizzled the whole way to our destination - Yubu Island. Yubu Island is a small hiccup of sand and mangrove trees about 550m from the shore of Iriomote. there is a water buffalo taxi service that brings you across the shallow sea to the island, but we chose the cheaper route - walking across. Rolling up our pants we slowly made our way across in the mid-calf deep brown and green piss warm water. there we were, two broke backpackers walking in between buffalo taxis to an island in the distance. once on the island we realized it was a botanical garden and mini zoo! have you ever seen an emu? waht a strange looking creature. anyway, once we made our way to the other side of the island that faces the China Sea we peeled our sweat soaked clothes off and jumped in...well not really. we walked in, and walked and walked...until we were 500m away from shore in the ocean that never rose above our thighs. The sun cam out and we must have spent an hour submerged in the water regretting the moment we had to get out. the sun started its slow dive into the western mountains and so we started to leave. half way across the island, the belly of heaven, in one swift and mocking motion, ripped open on us again. we waiting under at awning but eventually the impressive symphony of rain sounding all around us was rudely interrupted by an anouncement that the park was closed and that we (surely they were speaking directly to us because i hadnt seen anyone in hours) had to leave. we grabbed two available umbrellas and made our way to cross the waterway again. With such an action packed day we failed to remember that the ocean has tides and that the tide might come in, and of course it did. The remainging park workers were preparing to cross in their knee high rubber boots and rain suits. when they saw us they gave us a nice hearty laugh. we were quite the sight-two careless and naive girls sporting our worthless umbrellas like they would protect us from anything. Rolling up our pants again, this time much higher, we marched back into the murky sea to find that is had risen a little over a foot. the first couple of meters i took each step with such deliberation as to not get my pants wet. who was a kidding?! somewhere around step number 113 i became mesmarized by the patterns in the surface of the water. not a single space was left undecorated by the concentric waves of the drops. it was a beautiful kind of private squaredance of rain, except it was a circle dance, and a very public one at that. at around step 537 we reached the shore where we asked the gate attendant if we could borrow the umbrellas. he responded by laughing at us, but when he noticed we were dead serious, he said OK. mounting my japanese-sized bike, it took me a good five minutes of wobbly riding before i found a barely comfortable position for the pointless umbrella. i was struggling with the damn thing the whole time we sluggishly battled our way through the relentless storm. which brings me back to that moment of pure dripping wet delirium. finally laughter took hold of us, the umbrella became an absurd accessory and we steered our bikes straight for the biggest puddles. this is the end of my rainy day story.

beautiful local butterflies and their golden nugget cocoons on Yubu island, walking distance from Iriomote island, check the map above

a chinese garden in okinawa

infinity

le ninjette des carrots

every once in a while i would come across lover carrots, thats what we called them, "lovers." i was comforted in knowing that even carrots seek out the companionship of one another. occasionally i pulled a couple of "lover" carrots that were doing obscene things not suitable for my webpage, but im sure you can imagine....

my going away party. Mr. Koichi on the left, Sebastian, Mr. Fuku, Mr. Azuma, Mrs.Noriko Yoneda, Mrs. Azuma, and me! lots of laughs. Mr. Azuma played his shamisen and Noriko taught me a folk dance. One funny moment in particular- everyone spoke a little english, so they would help fill in the gaps for those that had trouble understanding. At one point we were on the topic of hermit crabs when someone asks me "how do you call them in english?" to which i replied "hermit crabs." a brief moment of confusion was passed when i saw a light pop in one of their heads and they made the motion of putting a helmut on and said "ohhhh, HELMUT crab." and everyone followed by motioning that they were putting on a helmut and driving a motorcycle. now that i think of it, it makes much more sense that the crab is wearing its shell like a helmut, rather than living in it like a hermit.

Tea Time with the Azumas in their barn

this was by far my favorite place on the whole island. i spent many days in this nook in the rock formations overlooking the pacific writing, singing, reading, dancing, sleeping... one day when it was very clear out, i thought i could make out california in the distance, but then realized its probably just hawaii.

KuroSato

I went to a sugar cane festival where they made raw black sugar the traditional way -with a bull. the man squatting at the machine is feeding sugar cane into the gears, and the juice is squished out. then they cook it in big vats. there was a line around the park of people waiting with cups for a taste of fresh hot black sugar. i didnt have to stand in line because so many people came up to me and offered their cups. delicious!

Noriko!

such a sweet lady. this was my host for the month on tokunoshima. she was so generous and happy, and had the most impressive tupperware collection ive ever seen. im going to miss her (and her cooking!)

ah, one of my favorite people ive met so far. Mr. Azuma, the farmer i worked with on the carrot farm. here he's playing his shamisen and trying to teach me the words (in the island dialect) to the folk song "Nada-so-so." he, his wife and i shared many laughs on the field. good times. you may notice that his right thumb looks a little weird....32 years ago he provoked a local poisonous viper snake, and the snake didnt like it very much, so it took off with half of his thumb. oops! i like to think that he caught the snake in the end and used the skin for his shamisen.

the best seat in the house

i found this little perch of grass that overlooked the crashing ocean some 30m below. it was a perfect spot to sit- the earth craddled my half-lotus. i felt like i was sitting in the Seat of Enlightenment. but i chickened out, sitting on the edge like that with the strong winds was too scary for me. no enlightenment this time. darnit.

hermit haiku

dancing in the sun
faint pattering of feet
the flight of the hermit crab

picutre of the famous and late Shigechiyo Izumi-the oldest man in the world. 120 years old, and so happy!

other wwoofers Johanna from Sweden, and Daniel from England.

a welcome home dinner for the new wwoofers, daniel and johanna.

typical dinner at Norkio's. on the left we have some fishy stuff, in the middle theres burdock root, pork, carrots, and potatoes, upper right hand corner theres bitter cucumber with tunafish and ponzu, top middle is my favorite-home made pickled eggplant and green papaya with young black soy beans, and finally rice and miso. oishi! (yummy)

One morning Noriko, my host, told me we were going to a traditional "rasberry event." she instructed me to wear pants that i could roll up. i was so confused, were we going to smash the rasberries with our feet? soon, all questions were answered when we arrived at the annual tokunoshima "rice paddy event." her thick accent got me all excited to stuff my face with fresh rasberries, but this was not the case. the event is for the celebration of the first rice planting. many people from town, young and old, roll up their pants, jump in and help plant the first rice seedlings of the season. there was a group of elders, who were all clearly octogenarians, singing island folk songs in the native dialect. they were all singing in different keys and beating their tyco drums at different speeds. i didnt blame them because i noticed their leader was staggering around, shochu in hand, flailing his arms about.

my buddy Mr. Horns the Fighting Bull.

these native lillies generously spotted the hills and roadsides. on a good day, the wind would mask the smell of manure with its sweet fragrance.

where's cory?

Kaminomine Beach

Yay, im finally on Tokunoshima island after a few days in transit and on the sea. This was the beach i visited after work if it wasnt rainy. It was a pleasant bike ride from the house i stayed at, and was rarely occupied. sometimes id see a farmer walking his fighting bull on the sand to give it some exercise. plenty of tide pools and coral reef to keep my eyes busy for days. i walked and walked looking for that perfect piece of sun-bleached coral, but sure enough, there were too many perfect pieces for me to choose. after a while, i would just find the longest piece and go a-poking at the seablobs in the reef. seablobs are fascinating!

Sakurajima

To continue my journey further south on the islands, i had to ferry it back north to the main port in Kagoshima City. I stayed in the cheapest place in town, which happened to be on a volcano. coincidence? nah. this is a view from my room of the majestic and active lava factory, Sakurajima

crooked sea

this was my last day on Yakushima. I hitched a ride on the one road from an elder couple. they had about 5 teeth between the two of them, and didnt speak any english. we listened to the scratchy AM radio play classical music for the 40 minute drive and they drove me right to the beach front, even though im sure it was out of their way. I hung out on this deserted Nagata Beach for hours waiting for a sea turtle to come ashore and lay their eggs. no such luck

This was K's son, i forgot his name! but he and his twin brother were so well-nautred. this one in particular had such a serene-air about him, and a fierce and wise look in his eye.

After exploring around, we stopped at a sea-side onsen (hot spring). Jourgen on the left, K in the middle, and Riko on the right, with K's baby Tefeno. K drummed along with the sweetly familiar tunes of Bob Marley as we had an afternoon dip.

In english its pronounced "yaksugi-land" but the Japanese pronounce is "yaksugi-Land-O" so thats how its written on all of the signs. funny stuff. This national heritage forest contained ceder trees that were 2000 years old. we spent our time wandering around it, admiring how the earth can age with such tenacity and grace.

over the weekend on yakushima, a family visited my host and invited me to come along with them while they explored the island. Ellen on the left, Natalie and Fabian. Gems. we went hiking in YaksugiLando and i could barely keep up with them.