Monthly Archives: February 2022

Feb26

Capital Fish: whale watching

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Capital Fish: whale watching

originally published January 17, 2023

“Sometimes you can see whales from the school windows,” my teachers told me. No such fortune has graced me — I had to resort to the more prosaic means of boarding a whale-watching ship.

The other JETs and I agreed: We hadn’t expected it would be so small.

Armed with life jackets and anti-nausea tablets, we clung to the rails. Our cheerful, sun-bronzed captain gave a shout whenever the radar blipped. Then we would speed across the waves, hunting our massive quarry.

with Samantha and Nicholas
Tokunoshima in the rear view

The first time a curving gray spine broke the air, the magnitude of our chase overwhelmed me. We were so tiny in their midst, perched on our fragile craft. Over and over again, giants split the water around us, surfacing in twos and threes, monumentally indifferent to our presence. If our accompanying band of divers slipped off-deck to join them, though, the whales evaded them — vanishing effortlessly back into the deep.

with an Amagi teacher, Daniel, Louie, Samantha, and Nicholas
Feb23

Emperor’s birthday: island holiday

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Emperor’s birthday: island holiday
Emperor’s birthday: island holiday

originally published January 15, 2023

Japan, it surprised me to learn, gifts its citizens with more national holidays than any other country. Perhaps these enforced rest days present a remedy to the workaholicism? Unlike USA holidays, they do not confine themselves to long weekends but pop up unashamedly on Tuesdays and Wednesdays with nothing but paid leave to make up the difference.

Facing one such holiday in the middle of the week (in honor of the Emperor’s birthday), I decided to test the island bus system on a day trip to the opposite shore. Living minutes from Tokunoshima’s major port, I drink in first-class views of the surf on my daily commute, but trundling north soaked me in our magnificent mountains.

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Feb15

Ten cups: island cuisine

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Ten cups: island cuisine
Ten cups: island cuisine

originally published September 21, 2022

Returning to the mini-series covering January to March 2022…

After our Valentine’s Day photo session in Boma, we drove to a bed-and-restaurant overlooking the coast. Dining delights awaited.

A student amused me once by reporting that most people visited Japan for the food. Though I suspect the survey results may have misled by allowing respondents to select multiple answers, I would have to admit that my name would have added to their number. Friends persuaded me to risk another overseas move in part by singing the praises of Japanese food.

This restaurant did not disappoint. “That’s a lot of raw,” one of the other JETs remarked as I gleefully welcomed plates of local sashimi and wild boar carpaccio. Japan’s stringent hygiene standards have indulged my weakness for undercooked things (as my brother calls it): not only sushi, but raw eggs and red meat abound. In Amami I tasted horse sashimi, and at the local grocery store I picked up a prospect that had fascinated me ever since I first heard of it from a friend — chicken sashimi.

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Feb14

Lady tree: Boma Heart

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Lady tree: Boma Heart

originally published September 8, 2022

On Valentine’s Day, the other JET teachers and I gathered for a local tradition: the lighting of the Boma heart. Boma sits along the coast, just north of the ferry port. In a grove of sakura (cherry blossom) trees, the locals rig up decorations where friends can gather and snap pictures. I broke out my DSLR camera for the occasion.

cherry blossoms: dark pink on the islands
ornamental shrubs – almost as enchanting as the sakura
Daniel brought chocolates for everyone!

On the path back down the hillside, lanterns lit our way home.

Feb11

Mother island: Amami Oshima

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Mother island: Amami Oshima
Mother island: Amami Oshima

originally published July 1, 2022

In February I visited Amami Island, Tokunoshima’s nearest neighbor to the north. Imagine the country mouse arriving at his city cousin’s estate: compared with my stomping ground, the sprawl of this island verges on metropolis.

An archipelago in microcosm, Amami did not lend itself to pedestrian traffic. I secured a room at a highly rated bed and breakfast near the ferry port, where the beaming owners suffered nothing so trivial as a language barrier to impede their welcome.

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Feb5

Sacred staff: special needs school

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Sacred staff: special needs school

Originally published September 6, 2022

In December I had admired an art reception hosted by the special needs school. Though it shares a building with Tokunoshima High School (easily done with the declining population vacating a shocking percentage of the classroom space here), the school belongs to an independent organization located on the neighboring Amami island.

Now they welcomed me again, this time for a painstakingly prepared show-and-tell English lesson. With the staff diligently interpreting my more obscure statements, I proffered my self-introduction slides. Then I settled in for the main event: charades, with the students challenging me to guess.

my self-introduction at the special needs school
the students quizzed me at charades

I treasured my time with them, touched by the staff’s devotion to their charges and the students’ enthusiasm for crossing the language barrier. “I like English!” one boy announced, beaming. His friend, who relies on sign language, nonetheless starred with his superb miming — which only goes to show that communication amounts to more than words.