i’m on this amazing island off okinawa and this is the first time i came to a place in japan where spear fishing is legal. legal? well, more like welcomed. the fishermen here are great spear fishermen and welcome all spear fishermen. the language here is hard to understand because they have their own. the people live off the land and the sea so it’s like old japan, and old hawaii. friendly faces, great personalities, and lots of fun. we went diving off the boat yesterday, caught a lot of fish, ate it at night, and had a very interesting culture experience…
the sunrise this morning was so amazing!!! a great way to start off the day!!!
in fiji, you sit in front of the chief and have a kawa ceremony where everybody has to take a drink from the chief. and you have to drink it or it’s not respectful. well, on this island, there is a different ceremony. the head spear fisherman makes you a drink of awamori “shochu” and you have to drink it. not just once, but over and over and over. it just keeps going around until people start either passing out of disappearing. when it was my turn, i ran for the toilet. haha…
it’s amazing how much japanese islanders are into free diving. they love the sport and love the hawaii skin diver magazine and tv. every time i come to okinawa, i bring my old hawaii skin diver magazines and they look at it carefully page by page and are so into it. i think i’ll have to have a meeting with the guys back in hawaii to get this magazine translated into japanese. skin diving is on the rise in japan and if i can spread the word, i will all i can because free diving is like surfing, once you do it, your life will never be the same.
beautiful photos coming soon…
