Swayed by Spam
Senior Autumn Schoolman was a vegetarian when she left for Okinawa. Now she's a Spam aficionado.
As I got ready for my first interview on my own in Okinawa, I thought about what my day would be like. I thought about asking the perfect questions and having a well-planned interview.
I had an interview with Chieko Matsui, an environmentalist and anti-base protestor in Nago City. I asked her about coral in the area of the construction of the base and what it would mean for the ecosystems in that area. The interview itself was good, and I got a lot of helpful information out of it.
Toward the end of the interview, I asked if there was a certain area where I could view coral reefs or see them from afar. She pointed at a nonspecific area across the street and said, “Go over there. There is a glass-bottom boat tour.”
Of course I had to take her up on it, even though I had no idea where I was going. She gave me another vague description of where it was, and I went on my way. The walk was nice until I realized I was completely lost. And being lost in Japan is a different kind of lost.
As I got deeper and deeper into my aimless wandering, I started asking anyone I could find if they could help me. I got mostly head nods, and no one spoke any English. I was accepting this area as my home now.
I asked every person on a boat I could find, even a construction worker. No one could tell me where this glass boat was, and I was starting to get nervous.
Finally, I asked a man on a boat, “Glass-bottom boat?” He pointed to the middle of his boat and, lo and behold, there was a glass window at the bottom of this fishing boat. I got on the boat, hoping I was OK not having an appointment. He told me via Google Translate that more customers would come and I should wait patiently to see the coral.
We embarked on our coral mission and saw the world’s largest blue coral structure recorded. Some of the structures were so tall they looked like cliffs, and peering through the glass window felt like dangling from the tops of them.
I pride myself in getting in and out of sticky situations like these, always making the best of them.