Niraffe Monkeys.

Niraffe came to the island.

He came for about 3 days and it was wonderful. The time was short but it was a much needed break from the forest/Japanese/station/monkeys for me.

We stayed in a nice ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) and had wonderful meals. The ryokan lady was so enamored with Niraffe that she even gave us free booze and island gifts. I felt like a fool at times because I could not completely follow their conversations (all in Japanese), but it was nice to not have to worry about my communication skills for a few days. Also, because of the recent typhoon, almost everyone had canceled their reservations at the inn, which meant lots more hospitality and attention for both of us.

The day he arrived, we drove almost the entire south side of the island. I showed him my monkeys (they happened to be near the road at the time) and he agreed that they were cute. I told him each of their names and he agreed that living here had made me crazy. We clambered over mossy rocks in our bare feet and stood in the mist of a waterfall until we were drenched. Then we made our way to the ryokan where I backed his rental car into a rock and he didn't even get mad...

Beautiful.

Some examples of ryokan awesome:

1. In the station, I share a room with two other girls who snore and wake up at 4am and step on my futon. In the ryokan, I could finally sleep through a bug-less night and awake with my alarm instead of 2 hours before.

2. In the station, ever body pitches in and makes one dish each for a communal dinner, some of them delicious, some of them questionable. In the ryokan, 10 different dishes were served in small portions and I was able to eat things like deep-fried flying fish, sesame tofu in the shape of a sea turtle, and fresh passion fruit with free shochu (Japanese rice alcohol). Also, I learned that for all his Japanese-ness and culture skills, Niraffe can't pour tea worth shit. (JK Niraffe! *airkisses!*)

3. In the station, the water is heated by solar panels on the roof, which means that there is about 5 minutes of tepid water to share between the 8 of us. In the ryokan, I was able to take a proper shower and bath AND wear a yukata AND feel like a sumo wrestler.

After a night of boozing and a proper night's rest in the ryokan, we hiked in the patch of forest that inspired the film Princess Mononoke, shopped in the local cedar-speciality shops, visited various pottery kilns to examine their wares, and drove the entire circumference of the island. We found an awesome swimming hole (about 5 mins from the station) and even managed to see some sea turtles.

Ashitaka!!!!!

Yakul!!!

I can't tell you how much I needed this vacation time. I was rested, relaxed, and had spent about 3 days away from the lesser primates. (I mean the station people and the monkeys)

Unfortunately, all things must come to an end eventually and again I returned to the station and another grueling day in the forest.

Since I have finished taking samples from my focal troop, I decided to start collecting from another well-characterized troop in order to expand my sample size. I asked another researcher (who does not live in the station) if I could accompany him to his focal troop. He agreed. He did warn me though... the terrain of the troop he studies is tough and there is a lot of steep ground to cover just to find the monkeys. I, speaking as a person who has spent the last month and a half hiking some treacharous nearly vertical terrain, heedlessly waved off his warning and told him that I would be fine.

But sometimes I am just wrong. The climbing was difficult times 10, and I was dead tired after about 4 hours of uphill/downhill/sideways climbing while holding onto trees/rocks/soil for support. (It was more like painful crawling really). Also, I got my period when I was approximately an hour's uphill hike from my scooter. And I was hot, tired, PMSing, and out of water. The last bit of the day was excruciating, but I managed to make it home with a scowl on my face, take a cold shower, and nap.

Needless to say I will not be collecting from this new troop. Which means that I must return to the area where I previously battled the male monkeys with pointy stick. Another friend who has been visiting them lately assures me that it's fine, but experience tells me otherwise. If they even look at me funny, I am picking up a large tree branch and getting the hell out of there.

In other news...

1. Due to the abundance of ground leeches, I now tuck my pants into my socks, which makes me the best dressed hiker on the island.

2. When people tell me that maybe I would benefit from doing something a different way, or that maybe I shouldn't have done this or that, my favorite thing to say lately is, "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought this was America." And if they still look at me like I'm some twat who can't take a helpful suggestion, I follow that with, "You know... land of the free." Unfortunately, I cannot really say this here because it doesn't translate or apply. So I just use it on the phone when talking to Americans because it kinda completely maybe sometimes applies somewhat.

2. Ohmygod my legs look fabulous. All this hiking has given them a tone they have never had before and I even have this awesome new muscle that lies flat on top of my shin. And the frequent swimming excursions have toasted them to a beautiful honey brown.

But! My legs are so covered in bug bites that I look like walking herpes. And nobody wants to talk to herpes. Especially when herpes hasn't shaven (shaved?) her legs in weeks.

3. Sometimes Japanese people know things, and it impresses me. There is a girl here who is a pastry chef and she showed me this ingenious way to whiten old and stained teacups. First, obtain some eggshells and wash out any residual egg. Put eggshells in stained teacup and fill with water. Let this sit overnight then wash with a rough sponge in the morning. The stain comes out as if it was slime, and the teacup is restored to its original whiteness. Apparently, this also works when whitening rags and cleaning years of layered oil off a well-used pan.

4. The typhoon was fine. I ventured out during the typhoon (because I was curious/stupid) and had to sit down at one point because the wind was so incredibly strong that it almost knocked me out of my flip flops. Despite this I still managed to make it to the beach where the ocean had this beautiful dark broody feeling going on. It was choppy as far out as I could see and the waves came all the way to the sea wall. I wish I could've taken a picture. I also wish I could've taken a picture of the look on my friend's face when her glasses flew off her face and smashed into her car.

The road in the forest was fucked the next day though. I had to lift up my scooter twice to go over fallen trees and the monkeys were everywhere.

Can you spot the monkeys? They are grooming in a row.

5. Zadie Smith.

And now for your moment of zen:

I tried the macro button. Did it work?

So now I'm off to visit the monkeys of death. Wish me luck!