Today was another awesome day…First we headed toward Naminoe Beach.  After yesterday’s events we were looking for just a day to relax and do nothing.  I thought the beach was a great idea…which is was, I just forgot how far it was from where our apartment is.  After a short 30 min walk and a couple dozen photos, we arrived at the beach.  The water was clear and so nice and warm.  Our apartment doesn’t have a bathtub, only a shower, so it was nice to just soak our tired bodies.  We stayed for about a half hour and decided to take off…the sun was already hot and it was only 10:00 am. 

After we changed from our swim suits, we decided to take off and grab some lunch. Before we could make it any farther than the exit, we noticed a some beautiful butterflies and stopped to take some pictures.  As were were taking some photos a wonderful gentleman by the name of Taki showed us a butterlfy garden that was just around the corner.  He took the time to tell us the names of each butterfly and the names of some of the local foliage.  He spent about an hour showing us around an old cemetry and telling us the history of the area.  He took us to a cemetary where there was a monument in honour of the victims of the Tsushima Maru.  He also lead us to the top of the cemetary where we could look out to the East China Sea and pointed us in the direction of the Pacific ocean.  Taki was just a fountain of knowledge, he showed us how to roll the leaves of one of the trees into a whistle of sort, showed us different birds and just shared some general info.  He was great.  He lead us down the steps and showed us the Museum in honour of the Tshuhima Maru.  He left us there as his friends were waiting for him.  Jay and I went in and explored the place.  The had english pamphlets that explained the story, and I would suggest that anyone who might be interested, look it up…it’s very sad, and very interesting. 

After that, we headed back to the apartment.  We were starving. We were up and had breakfast by 7 am and it was now just past noon…I don’t think I’ve ever been that long without any food.  We dined like kings and queens on Peanut butter sandwiches and Ritz crackers.  After doing some dishes we sat down for a bit…we intended on watching a movie, but fell asleep right away. Around 3:00 we got up and I decided it was time to get some more groceries.  We headed down the street to find the grocery store.   For once, we didn’t get lost…we found the store very easily thanks to a map drawn by Takeshi and some directions from Mary.  We found everything we were looking for.  I spotted the chip aisle and took a guess that the blue bag of chips was plain…I am soo awesome…I was correct.  Finding Chicken though, was another story.  Eventually we found a sales person who spoke some english and we were so excited to find precooked spagetti and chicken.  We hurried home and ate probably the best meal ever.

At 7:00 we met Simada-san at the Dojo and he took us to his apartment were he taught us Shodo.  His place is amazing.  Every square inch of wall space is covered in Shodo.  It’s beautiful.  Jay and I tried out best, but couldn’t really duplicate his steps.  He taught us River and Mountain and then moved onto more advanced things like Michi and Go-jyu Ryu Karate Do.  We spent a couple of hours just trying to copy his steps, he was very encouraging even though we were so terrible.  After a while we spent some time just chatting about everything.  Simada-san is a fountain of knowlege.  He explained to us how Shodo is soft and Karate is hard, and with meditation it is a complete entity.  He showed us that there are fast strokes that a very fluid and slow strokes that are very controlled, just like Go-jyu.  He explained to us that his grandfather was a shodo master and taught him.  It was a great night.  We’re heading back Wednesday afternoon for some more lessons.