A Rainy day in Kailua

   The weather in Kailua has been stormy.  Sadly, the fish watching hasn't been much better.  There will be no earth shaking fish stories in this blog,  but sometimes that's the way it goes.

    Last Sunday Sandra and Peter communicated and made arrangements for us to hook up at Kawaihae.  Monday morning was full of dark clouds and as we passed Honokohau Harbor it started to pour.  The forecast had been for partly cloudy up in Kawaihae, so we pushed on and by the time we were driving past the Mauna Lani the sun had come out. 

 

    At the Surf park we met up with our friends.  Hai and Lottie were there with Nai'a, who at 13 months is now walking around on her flippers, which is appropriate for a toddler named "Dolphin".  Soon enough Peter and Marla showed up.  They returned to Hawaii last week, just in time for their second shots.  While in California they put their new home in order and will be returning to San Luis Obispo in a month to begin a new mainland episode.  

   Although there was plenty of catching up to do, we soon found ourselves in the water, swimming around the first platform.  As was the case on our last swim here at Kawaihae Harbor, there was less
fouling growth on the pillars and fewer fish.  On this day we saw no juvenile Hawaiian Dascylus,which had been ever present until a month ago, and no Milletseed Butterflies.  Around the second platform we saw a trembling nudibranch that was sufficiently shallow for me to attempt a couple movies, and on the makai side, the wire coral gobies were still clinging onto their pipe.  That and a nearby cushion starfish were the highlights, if you can call it that, of this snorkel.

    The following day I was hoping to swim at Kahalu;u.  We loaded up our gear, but as we made the turn down Sunset, we could see huge surf pounding in at Lymans.  From a mile away, the surfers looked like ants, but there was no doubt that the current at K Bay would be too strong for us to have much success.  Instead we detoured to the KTA store and picked up a nice chunk of ahi.  

   On the way home, with the tuna safely on ice, we stopped at Kahalu'u just for the fun of it.  My favorite trio of Vince, Yasuko and Kathleen Turner were holding down the Reef Teacher fort and, as it was still a bit early for tourists, they had a moment for a chat. After I reported on the dismal findings at Kawaihae the topic somehow turned to whale sharks.  Kathleen had actually seen one in Kona, but was too slow getting on her fins to get in the water before it swam away.  Of a sudden, Yasuko got excited,

A Whale Shark greets the kids at the Osaka Aquarium.

trying to tell us something.  I caught the word Osaka, but it was up to Kathleen to decipher the word aquarium.  What the diminutive Japanese dynamo was trying to tell us was that at the Osaka aquarium, swimming slowly in a large tank,  there is a whale shark.   The aquarium, largest in the world, is scheduled to reopen on June 1st with limited visitors.

   If you needed a reason to visit Japan, that might be it.   Of course, that island nation is still locked up tighter than the proverbial oyster.  Like the island Kingdom of Hawaii, Japan is in the position of regulating who gets in and who gets out during the pandemic.  Up to now, that has been nobody.  Hence, we have no Japanese tourists here in Hawaii.  They could come, but then they couldn't go home.  No konichiwa for them.  Hopefully the Osaka aquarium will be hosting some American visitors in the near future. And my hopefulness includes  extending a warm "Aloha" to our Japanese tourists.  They really are part of our scene.  Having said all that, Japan has no plans to reopen its border.

   Our week was punctuated by some intensive yard work but by yesterday I was able to get down to the pier for a swim.  While I was donning my winter snorkeling outfit, a young couple appeared on the opposite side of the cubby.  As they were conversing in an inscrutable tongue, and I have no boundaries whatsoever, I asked, "Where are you guys from?"  It turns out they were from Austria and have been traveling around the world for the last six months.  Although, apparently, they have not been to Japan.

Japanese girls imitate flying fish at the Schonbrunn Palace

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    I noted that we have a lot of Austrians competing in the Ironman (although it is anyone's guess when the next race will be) and then it occurred to me that about two years ago I was in Austria.  This seemed to make them happy and we spoke for a moment about Vienna and my Air BnB in the Mariahilferstrasse neighborhood.  

    That was a cool place.  Fancy stores on the eponymous shopping street backing on to a funky neighborhood with lots of young families, restaurants and a chance to shop for a picnic in a foreign language.  Won't it be swell when we can have another experience like that?  I, for one, can't wait.

jeff