yatta!
kikaida get!
ureshi…
change! switch on! 1… 2… 3…

itadakimasu!
thank you kimura-san and renosuke-chan.

it’s pretty amazing how many emails and comments i get about the touchy subject of dolphins. i enjoy reading all of them but when one makes me sit down and think, i have to respond to it….
first of all, nobody is right or wrong. everybody has their own reasons and opinions. i have mine and i’m lucky i can express it in my blog. so if i say or write something that may offend you, please don’t take it the wrong way. second, i’ve been to many amusement parks as a child and never thought anything about it. yeah, dolphins are cool when they jump and stuff. and the famous tv show “Flipper” made people around the world love dolphins. especially when they can save you from the bad people. well, that’s only in the tv show. but yeah, everybody loves dolphins, especially surfers and divers…..

it was a couple of years ago when i seen the dolphin killing video that somebody sent me. i was shocked!! i was terrified!! and i was sad.. i only seen one side of the story so it was my quest to go to the actual place and see the other side. when i first got to taiji last year, i was still angry inside. but then after talking to people and seeing that it’s just part of their culture, it made me realize that we are all wrong to pass judgement on a countries culture. a culture that has been there for hundreds of years can’t and shouldn’t be judged by outsiders. if some european came to hawaii protesting the killing of wild boar, that wouldn’t work. or if some japanese went to the philippines to protest eating dogs, that wouldn’t work either. or china and monkeys.. and so on…..
there was a reason why i wanted our group to see taiji. especially after the movie “The Cove” came out in theaters around the world. i wanted them to see that the people living there aren’t bad people. they are just living in a culture that they were born into. it’s just normal life there. the movie “The Cove” just bashed the japanese and showed only one side of the story. that pissed me off. they should have had the balls to show both sides and let us make judgement….
i can write for hours and hours about this subject but i better cut it short. i understand all the emails you sent me about this subject. the good ones, and the bad ones. i’m not in any way trying to piss anybody off. these are just my opinions…

i took this photo of this dolphin that was just looking at me the whole time i was there at the hotel pool. he was just so still in the small 15′ wide pool overlooking his home, the ocean where he was taken out of. with the ocean in the background where i’m sure he can see, i felt like he was asking me to help him. i felt so sorry for him…
anyway, here is one of the comments i want to respond too. it was sent by somebody that checks my blog:
According to your topic about dolphins.
I really don’t understand why you feel pity on dolphins.
here is the reason i feel pity on dolphins that are used for amusement purposes. i swim with dolphins in the wild pretty often. i see how happy they are, how active they are, and how free they are. they swim for miles and miles everyday and eating when ever they feel like it. when i look at them in the eye in the open ocean, i see a curious happy eye that just beams with life. you can just tell that they are happy. but when i look into the eyes of dolphins that are taken out of the ocean against their will and thrown into little pools, it’s much different. their eyes look like there is no life left in them. that’s what makes me sad. if i look into a sad persons eyes, i can see the sadness. and if look into a happy persons eyes, i can see the happiness. dolphins are the same…..
so the question to the person that sent me that email is: have you ever swam with dolphins in the wild before? and i’m not saying the kind at hotels. or the kind in the ocean that boats pull up to and feed them everyday. i mean the wild, the wild wild. open ocean dolphins that swim and eat freely. have you? if you have, you will probably feel the same way i’m feeling. and if you haven’t, you will never understand why i feel this way.
well, thanks again for checking out my blog and keep those comments coming. mahalo….