Happy Halloween!

The Marine World hermit crabs get festive:


In vertebrate news, I co-won the "Best Teacher Costume" prize by going as Justin.

I'm the one on the left. Yes, I know, that sounds like a joke, but I had one student who saw me at a distance before seeing me closer up later on. The realization that the guy by the water cooler was actually his female history teacher totally shattered his mind.

Edited to add: bonus picture of my win. On the right is coworker Wendy, who went as gum stuck to the bottom of a shoe.

I was rather proud of my man-posing on the catwalk, until I heard that secondary head Katherine remarked, "I've never seen Justin walk like that." Give me a break! It's awfully hard to walk like Justin when your knees are intact!

Photos from Marine World

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Nana and I ventured out to Marine World (Fukuoka's aquarium) a couple weeks ago. Here are some miscellaneous shots from the trip.

 They had a big tank of sand eels, which are apparently a thing around here.

Back on our old Scotland blog, The Educated Burgher, our post about Noss and Bressay made brief mention of sand eels--that's what most of those birds we saw ate. Here, we got to see them up close!

 This dude was big and ugly.

He reminds me a bit of the one fish from The Little Mermaid, when the crab sings the line about the fluke being the duke of soul.

They had some really clever displays at Marine World. This one let you look up from underneath at a bunch of bottom dwellers, like starfish and hermit crabs.

Nana and her people (the squids).

An octopus, almost certainly up to no good.

This diver is actually bowing to the audience. Under water. No joke.

Nana goofing of at the touch tank. 

And yes, that is a display on the blue-ringed octopus in the background.

The blue-ringed octopus is one of the deadliest venomous creatures out there. Thankfully, they're also extremely shy, so bites are rare--but they can be found in tide pools throughout the western part of the Pacific Ocean. I'm assuming the sign says something like, "If you see one of these, don't touch it, you idiot!"

On a much lighter note, there's a place to buy slimy little fish to feed the seals and sea lions, who also happen to be in this cool multi-level tank that lets you view the animals from above and below.

Last but not least: the otter enclosure, which we visited at least three times. (Not only do we love otters, but they were also right next to the bathrooms.)

Just a few months ago, Nana and I saw an otter in the wild in Shetland. We think that was a sea otter like the one below, but it sure looked a lot smaller!

Back to Korea (!)

Nana and I are traveling to Seoul next week for a Model UN conference. We lived in Seoul for two years, but this will be our first time back since 2009. Nana has been working like mad to plan the trip, but I've had the luxury of being a little excited about it. We may even get to see some old friends and students from APIS!

As a side effect, though, Nana and I are buried in work as we get ready to go on the trip. So if the blog posts are a bit thin the next couple weeks, don't worry--we're still here and still well, just working like mad!

The Ol' Dolphin & Sea Lion Show

A couple weeks ago, Nana and I took a boat out to Marine World, an aquarium in Uminonakamichi, the narrow spit of land that forms the far side of Hakata Bay. Nana wants to say more about the aquarium in an upcoming post, but I thought I'd take a few minutes to share some shots from the dolphin & sea lion stunt show, which serves as further proof that "animals doing cool, adorable things" is a universal language.

The show, which was included in the price of admission, was fairly standard fare, which didn't make it any less cool. I did like how they shook up the usual "sea-lions-balance-balls-on-their-noses" routine.

Yes, that last one was a naked Kewpie doll standing on one foot.

I also liked how, unlike most such shows in the US, which seem to use mainly bottlenosed dolphins, four species were represented at Marine World: a Pacific common dolphin, a bottlenosed dolphin, a pilot whale, and another pilot-whale-ish thing whose name I can't remember.

The Pacific dolphin was especially cool: a quick, tiny little thing, it seemed to hang in the air forever at the top of its jumps.

They also had a fun "volleyball" segment, where the dolphin launched a big, soft ball into the stands.

After the show, we wandered around to some of the training tanks in the back of the aquarium, where they were teaching a pair of Pacific dolphins some new tricks. Great opportunity for some up-close videos!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame . . . in Japan!

The local pro baseball team, the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks, just lost in the final game of the Pacific League Series (the equivalent to Major League Baseball's ALCS or NLCS). A couple months ago, I was invited to a game with several other teachers. (Our gregarious landlord had some extra tickets.)

Now, the stuff on the field looked like baseball, with some minor changes: the Japanese strike zone is a trapezoid, for instance, with the inside wider than the outside. (For more on Japanese pro baseball, see Wikipedia's article on the NPB.)

But the stuff off the field was something else altogether! The stadium, Fukuoka Yahoo Dome, was filled throughout the game with the racket of competing pep bands, organized cheers, and flashy high-def Jumbotron animation. Even though the home team lost, it was still a blast--the most fun I've had at a ballpark in a long time.

Here are some shots from the game.

 Biking to the Dome:

The concession stand:

 They had American favorites like hot dogs and beer, plus Japanese fare, like takoyaki (fried octopus) and edamame (soybeans, the green stuff in the photo above, and quite possibly the greatest snack food in the history of the world).

The view from our seats, right along the first baseline.

We didn't get any foul balls, but a few came awfully close. Whenever a foul ball would enter the stands, stadium employees would blow a whistle if they thought it was coming in their direction. It was a cool effect--the sound of the whistles would track the ball and intensify in the spot where it eventually landed.

Our friendly beer man, who spoke a little English:

The beer guys walked around all game with little kegs strapped to their backs. When they got to the bottom of a row, they would turn around, announce their presence to the crowd, and bow, Japanese-style.

The seventh inning stretch was . . . interesting. At the end of the team fight song, all the fans released these vaguely rude yellow balloons into the air.

 

We were the only ones around who seemed to, um, get it.

(Photo credit for the post goes to Matt Buck, who bailed me out when my battery died.)