Takahama Village, Sea of Japan

"Uh dude, I think you need to get that checked out, you got some funk growing out of your hand..."

Okay so here's a new experience, right? I just got back from Kyoto, which is about a 2 hour train ride north/east-ish from Tatsuno. I met up with Aaron Jones, my old boss from the radio station in SF, who is married to Hiromi Aoki, of the crazy Aoki clan of Kyoto. Man these are some badass motherf'ers!

Hiromi and Aaron are visiting Japan and so I decided to join them and trek up to Kyoto. Aaron had told me "cool dude, we're going to go deep sea fishing with Hiromi's brother." Talk about lost in translation. I'm picturing a boat, some fishing rods, some lawn chairs, and a big cooler of beer. A nice day of relaxation. What he should have said was "Dude, we're going to go diving into some killer waves and razor rocks with a band of underwater Ninjas!" That would have been waaaay more accurate. Add the fact that the main diving in-law dude, Yusuke, speaks ZERO Engrish and you've got serious shit going down.

Now I'm no newbie when it comes to scuba diving and snorkelling but man let me tell you this was some hairy shit. We got into the water and the four other Japanese people (YuSUKE, his wife, and Hiromi's other 2 brothers - YuHEY and Tadahiro) just take off swimming and don't say a thing to us. They start swimming toward this stone arch (over on the right):

This picture was taken as the tide was going out, after all was said and done. When AJ and I went through there you'd think Godzilla was emerging to take down Tokyo, the waves were crashing so hard against the rocks. Under the water there are these wicked sharp rocks, so as the tide is crashing in, the water level rises and falls, giving you the feeling that you're playing a sinister version of Super Mario Brothers where you have to dodge the sharp rock and tidal wave traps (I can see where the Japanese get their inspiration for Nintendo now)!

After braving the opening, we were pretty much in the open ocean and the huge swells, which ironically was actually a big improvement! After adjusting to the hairy conditions, AJ and I basically swam around, diving occasionally to pick up rocks that we thought resembled oysters, while Yusuke filled the catch bag with all sorts of sea creatures, including an Octopus (!!!) that he wrangled out of its cave. Pretty badass, right?


(Jones-San! I've never seen you so happy to be on land!!)

So after two hours of diving and braving the Sea of Japan, we returned to the beach to get treated to a barbeque, Japanese style. Check it out:

Yusuku busts out this hibachi gril from his mini-van and cooks everything (except for the Octo, we ate that raw) that he's just caught and it seriously was one of the best meals of my life.


A boy and his Octopus (L-R Dr. Octopus, Yusuke, and his wife)

It was an awesome experience and we totally earned our lunch that day. Afterwards, we went to an onsen to get our relax on(it's a natural hot springs spa. Funny thing is, it's separated dudes and chicks, and everybody just goes commando style... but that's another story altogether).