In Japan it's widely known that umbrella theft is the most common crime. Second to that is bicycle theft, followed by (obviously) less common and more serious crimes. It's a wonderful statement about the relative safety of this country.
However, it brings to one's life a whole new set of problems that may be completely unheard of back home. Parking a bicycle, for example, is an exercise in figuring out which of (at least) two locks to use. Umbrella theft being the crime most committed, it calls for a special set of personal strategies one must adhere to.
Until relatively recently I have been immune to this heinous crime, at least at my school. Since I park my bike in a certain place and every student in the school knows it's mine, in my infinite naivety I figured they would keep their paws off of my stuff. Sadly when it starts suddenly raining and a student is left to walk home without an umbrella, anything not bolted down and close by is fair game. I have lost two umbrellas in the past month to sudden rainstorms.
There are, as I said, things I have to keep in mind when it comes to maintaining ownership of my umbrellas. If it's raining in the morning when myself and all of the students are coming to school, I'm safe. No student leaves the home umbrella-free, so the odds of him being caught without one after school are low. It's those midday storms I have to worry about. It's those that send me scurrying down to my bike to retrieve my umbrella before someone else does. If I don't, naturally I'll end up the loser going home wet. On these days I actually find myself a little tense if I can't get down to the bike before classes have finished.
Regardless of such grueling strategizing, I still have to keep a backup at my desk just in case.
Our final day saw beautiful blue skies and a village from the past. We headed from Iriomote back to Ishigaki, the main point for all ferry trips down in the Yaeyama region. From there we hopped off, bought tickets, and hopped right back on the same ferry for the ten-minute ride to Taketomi. At its widest point Taketomi is only nine kilometers across, and it's also one of the most popular tourist destinations in the area. You can imagine it can get very very crowded, but thankfully we were able to avoid most crowds because of when we visited.
To my dismay Taketomi's swimming/snorkeling isn't stellar, though the place makes up for it with other things to look at. The beauty of the central town is the main attraction on the island, and for good reason. The place we stayed at was no exception to the rule that residences on the island should use the traditional red-tile roofs, and the couple that ran it were fabulous. We checked out the tiny island a bit and did a tiny bit of swimming, then came back for dinner. There we met some other guests, with whom we later watched the sunset and went looking for fireflies. We found none of the latter, but we did get serenaded by the owner while we drank copious amounts of the local liquor.
Our second day took us to the "brooding jungle isle to the west," Iriomote. Even though I couldn't help but mock my guidebook's description, it really does brood. While Ishigaki had been colored grey by the overcast sky, Iriomote was covered with threatening rain clouds. The first sight of it gives the distinct impression of going to Jurassic Park or the island in LOST.
Iriomote has an area roughly the same size as Ishigaki, meaning it's a bit less than 300 square kilometers. Though that means it's fairly big, it has a population of 2200 and has only one main road. I can't tell you how many times I thought to myself "is this really Japan?" while we were there. The jungle is so widespread and the settlements obviously not, it reminded me of the mountain forest preserve I stayed at in Costa Rica. For this I fell in love with Iriomote.
We stayed at the Japanese equivalent of a bed and breakfast, where we met the French Bulldog "Guts." He was adorable in an ugly way, and some problem with his nose caused him to snort like a pig while he breathed. It was like having a furry little pig around all the time. In the morning we took a kayak/hiking trip to the tallest waterfall in Okinawa, Pinaisaira. Unlike my companion and everyone else who was there, I was determined to swim at just about anywhere I could, so naturally I swam at the foot of the fall. Here we had our first encounter with a very weird creature, something that looks straight out of prehistoric times. It's a half-frog, half-fish thing, and skips across the water on little leg/fins. I swear it's a perfect illustration of the halfway point in evolution between water dwellers and land creatures.
Before we left the island on the next day we rented motor scooters, which was perhaps one of the coolest things I've ever done. I can't express to you the giddy idiotic grin that crossed my face the minute I gunned the (miniscule) engine. In the short time we had the scooters we made good use of them, hoofing it all the way to the northern ending point of the main road. Can you believe it? A "main road" that just stops at a dead end, cut off by mountain jungle.
Near there was where we swam out to a tiny deserted island and explored some natural sea-carved caves.
This past week I spent a few days down in the southernmost part of Japan, a few small islands that are part of Okinawa known as the Yaeyama Islands. I'll be separating my accounts of trip by island. So to start we first stopped at Ishigaki, which is the main island of the group merited by the fact that it actually has an airport and a smattering of roads.
As a matter of fact, for the majority of the trip we found ourselves traveling beneath lead sky; the rainy season has just begun in Okinawa, and though we saw very little rain, the dark sky made for some less-than-brilliant photographs.
Ishigaki is seeing a major population influx, mostly in the form of retirees. New construction was everywhere, though for a while we thought it was buildings going to disrepair. Since not only during a slow season but also during the week, the place seemed desterted; it was great! We rented a small car and set about exploring the island. We took pictures for a very enthusiastic couple, found hairy (yes, really hairy!) crabs at low tide, ate Okinawan Taco Rice, and got sunburned. This is unfortunately where an unwanted guest, a hair of some sort inside my camera lens, made its first appearance. You'll see it featured throughout, much to my dismay.
This past week a friend of mine visited from Hong Kong. He's been living there for roughly a year and has become thoroughly accustomed to life there. Though Japan and Hong Kong are obviously quite different there are some fundamental "Asian" similarities that made hosting him a particularly unique (until now at least) challenge.
For the most part it's rather easy to host visitors from back home, as few of them have been anywhere in Asia and are thus impressed by just about anything. Temples? "Can't get enough of 'em." Crazy food? "What is that?" The hustle and bustle of Tokyo? Dumbfounded.
This time, however, he's been all over Asia and has seen a million temples already. He's eaten indescribable things. He lives in Hong Kong, which makes even Shibuya look tame at times. His life experience for at least the past year has resulted in a person who is much more difficult to impress with the wonders of Japan. So I had to reach deeper into my repertoire of amusements to show him what Japan has to offer.
We played kickball.
Yesterday each class at school was carefully herded outside so that pictures could be taken for the yearbook.
What this means for the students is that they're required to dye their hair back to their natural black, and remove all makeup and piercings.
I was oblivious until I noticed the startlingly high number of girls without eyebrows.