2009年7月18日土曜日

Can Snakes be Recycled?

The news says that Florida has a problem with formerly pet snakes released into the wild and growing huge and dangerous. Pythons are called nishiki-hebi in Japanese. Their only known use (well, as far as I know...) is to cover the sounding board on Okinawa sanshins. They look good and sound good when converted into these musical instruments.

Is there a way to introduce the Florida snake hunters to the Okinawa sanshin makers who need nishiki-hebi for their musical instruments?

2009年7月7日火曜日

Here Be Dragons


Here is a view of Shuri Castle in Naha, Okinawa. It dates back to the 14th century and was the royal residence until the Kingdom of the Ryukyus was absorbed by Japan in 1879.

Please notice that, made of wood and highly decorated, it is a castle dedicated to living and diplomacy, not to battles. The Okinawan kings kept their corner of the world happy and peaceful for 500 years.