Churami Aquarium and Nago Castle Ruins Park

I made it up to the aquarium on Saturday. The major highlight was definitely the worlds largest acrylic fish tank. Most of the displays were pretty boring: a shrimp in one tank, a frog in another, etc. The giant tank, however, was a different story. There were probably about a dozen types of sea creatures in there. Everything from the giant whale sharks to manta rays to schools of small fish. They even had the same tuna I caught on the Molokai sailing trip last Labor Day. I sat and stared for about an hour and a half without knowing I was there so long.


One thing I couldn't help thinking about was how the schools of fish knew to hang out with the fish that looked like them. I don't imagine that they are smart enough to know what they look like and decide to swim with the fish that they recognize as similar. Yet I didn't see one instance of fish forming multi-species schools. The tank was fairly large, but as you can see from the photos, there were a lot of fish in there. Not only that, but the fish could move an entire school, minus one or two stragglers, on a moments notice. They would all turn at the same time and move the same speed and directions. I read somewhere (I possibly read it somewhere. I rarely know where I learned the things that I say) that there was an electrical current in schools of fish. That they, in essence, could share a collective brain by all becoming receivers and transmitters of the electrical impulses. I'm not sure if that is factual or not, but one thing for sure was that they somehow always knew what the other fish would do. There was no single leader. There was no domino effect. Just a perfectly timed movement of 100 fish. It was very interesting to watch, to say the least.


My day ended with me taking the wrong Hwy 71 three times on the way home. I have no idea why, but there are three different Hwy 71s on the north part of the island. Even if one is a city road, one a county, and one a state highway, it still doesn't seem very logical. Not to me, at least. On the bright side, I got to see a lot of the countryside that I wouldn't have seen otherwise.

My Sunday was also spent in the north part of the island. Last week a guy from work that has been helping me out a ton invited me to spend a day at the castle ruins (I didn't actually see any ruins). He cautioned me, with a raised eyebrow, "I'm gonna have the kids."

The park itself was pretty amazing. It had to have easily been over 100 acres, with dozens of trails and multiple parks with playground equipment "for the kids." Yeah, right. One of the parks had the craziest equipment I have ever seen: climbing nets, zip lines, a 50m slide with built in rollers (insanely fast), log walls, and more S.W.A.T. style training obstacles. It was like a baby ninja training camp.

While at the park, I spent about 30 minutes doing the adult thing of talking with the kids' dad (about work things, no less) and eating Pocky Sticks. After that I made up an excuse about how one of the kids might have been stuck half way a giant tube made of steel and net (that actually made a loop-de-loop) and that I should go help. Forty-five minutes, two games of monster, and one pair of stained and ripped shorts later, I had been on every ride at least twice and had made three small but energetic friends.



The rest of the day entailed walking some of the hiking trails and drinking lots of lemon iced tea. Later that evening, after having dinner at their house, I was completely drained. My hats off to all parents out there. Kids, especially at the ages of 3, 5 (and a half, don't forget), and almost 8, don't ever stop moving. I don't think I could have used more energy had I ran a marathon that day. I had a blast.

In other exciting news, a China Airlines plane burst into a ball of flame on the runway at Naha International Airport, about 30 miles from here. Interestingly enough, I am supposed to take that same flight in exactly two weeks from today. I really hope they have an extra plane in reserve for us. It's times like those that I really feel guilty that I often get the exit row, but rarely read the instructions on how to use the door. Everyone made it out alive, so it seems not everyone is unable to tear themselves away from the 36" baseball bat flashlight or inflatable travel Jacuzzis in Skymall during the safety demonstration like I am.