Snorkeling and Burgers

 Well the rain came in. Nothing serious, but a steady fall most of the morning. We checked with the excursion place and they said the rain/wind/thunder/Godzilla wouldn't be bad in the afternoon, so snorkeling was still a go. So we bummed around the pension house, me doing work, Sumi doing planning for later in the trip, but basically being a little lazy. 

We did a little inadvertent souvenir shopping by stopping by both stores in town looking for towels for the beach. On Aka, the prison cell hotel was basically a place for divers, so they had everything there. The pension house is larger and less prison-like, but has grilled fish for every meal (that is not an exaggeration. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner). The supermarket had many things, but big towels they did not. The other market, which was basically a souvenir shop attached to the ferry port, did have towels, but they were artistic and special. Fifty dollars worth of special. So we ended up buy about $100 worth of shirts instead...I don't get the math either, but they are very nice outdoor shirts.

He really is everywhere. Kumamon is from Kyuushuu but has become a bit of a national mascot

At 1PM we headed to the visitor center to meet up with Mika-san, who took us out to a few new spots. As we were boarding the boat, a very unafraid sea turtle stopped by for quite a while to watch us. Apparently, one of the fishermen that moors in the same place will often toss some scraps to him, so he was hopeful, but ultimately disappointed.

I can haz cheezburger?

The reefs were once again amazing. The coral is so alive here, and so many new types of fish! And a bunch of turtles. We saw like seven or eight of them floating about, along with a bunch of very poisonous (and thankfully very chill) sea snakes. Seeing a snake just swimming along underwater with the fish is a little unnerving the firs time you see it, but they are not remotely aggressive, so it's fun to watch them from up above.

Two drowned rats

After snorkeling, the rain was coming down harder. We sloshed the few blocks back to the pension house and showered, then set out to find our second meal of the trip. We were at the wrong time (4PM). All the lunch placed had closed and the dinner places didn't open until 6, and we weren't waiting that long after 2 hours of snorkeling. So we took a chance on the aptly names Zamami Burger and Pizza. It's actually a full on diving hostel with a bar/restaurant as its lobby.

The atmosphere was ultra-toned down Margaritaville. The music was like they found a midwest classic rock station from 1985, which was kind of fun and much better than some of the bad Japanese crooning covers we had to listen to earlier (Sumi could swear a guy was singing "Killing Me Softly" with a smooth jazz background). I heard "Stairway To Heaven" for the first time in at least 10 years, maybe 15. Oh, yeah, the food

With "Zamami sauce". Still don't know what it was.

The burgers were good. Like enjoyable good. This is not a guarantee in Japan. I keep saying this, but you almost have to be here to understand just how fatty they like their meat. I'm not a huge meat eater to begin with, and when I do eat it, I prefer it lean and well done. If the Japanese could get away with cooking it but still have the texture of bleeding, raw meat, they would. Soggy defines 80% of Japanese cuisine. But these were good, and heavier than we're used to.

We weren't going to get a dessert but Chocolate Brownie with Okinawa Honey isn't something I have the willpower to pass up. And, yeah, it was worth it, Okinawa Honey, based on what we had, isn't as thick or sweet as other types of honey, but it's very tasty and complimented the chocolate well. They apparently also will put it on all of their pizzas...(sigh)