Wednesday Weirdness: Killer Hornets of Nara

Spotted in the rest house at Nigatsu-do in the Todai-ji complex. Luckily, not spotted in the wild.

As Nana noted, the chances of "slow & quiet action" with one of these behemoths around is pretty darn close to zero.

Snorkeling in the Kerama Islands, Okinawa

This spring, Nana and I spent a wonderful weekend in Okinawa. On the first day of our trip, we took advantage of some spectacular weather for a jaunt to the Kerama Islands, off of Naha.

Simply put, this was a completely awesome day. It started with a boat ride to islands - two of my favorite things. The islands, being Japanese islands, also had mountains - another favorite thing.

We whiled the whole day away on a beach - another favorite thing - snorkeling - yet another favorite thing (which is basically like swimming in an aquarium, making it a combination of two other favorite things).

As an added bonus, the day ended with another boat ride!

The only downside: I also ended up with a wicked sundburn, of the itching, twitching, mind-melting variety. (This despite generous lashings of 50+ sunblock.) Sunburn aside, this may have been the perfect day.

On the plus side, the burn inspired me to invest (finally) in a good UV shirt. Fair-skinned folk like me simply aren't cut out for unadulterated sun.