Well it’s been a fun weekend overall, and an extended one for those of us lucky enough to live in Okinawa and my employed by the local government. Yesterday marked the end of the Battle of Okinawa, and therefore was Okinawa Memorial Day, with all public offices and schools closed for the day. So, while many families attended their ancestral tombs and shrines for the day to have picnics and pay homage of some sort, I elected to get into the ocean and pay my respects to Poseidon, Neptune and Darryl Hannah from Splash!

It was actually the 2nd attempt at getting into the water after I had tried on Saturday. Was scheduled to meet a diving student and start an Advanced Open Water course with her. So we met up, got to the dive site and geared up. All was well until we got into the water and about 4m/12ft down when my dive buddy indicated there was a problem and that they wanted to surface. So we went up and my buddy said they were having problems breathing from the regulator. I tried breathing through it and it seemed to be tough to inhale; almost as if the diaphragm inside was sticking. I looked at the alternate second stage and tried breathing through that and encountered the exact same problem. Very strange. If you hit the front of the 2nd stage (near the purge button) it seemed to loosen up for about 20-30 seconds before it started sticking again. As we were planning a deep dive there was no way I was going to take any chances with equipment, so we had to call off the diving. Have sent the regulator off to get checked but I only had it serviced 2-3 weeks ago. Hopefully it is just something that has stuck and needs lubrication or similar. I could have taken the regulator apart and given it a visual inspection, but I would rather give it to someone who has easy access to the parts and who will know straight away what the problem is. So instead on Saturday we decided to snorkel around Maeda Misaki instead. The sun was beating down and the water was about 29C at the surface; it really was beautiful there. We snorkelled around to the “cave” but that was just a huge mass of people colliding into each other, elbowing each other in the face to get past etc, so we didn’t stay in there for long. At one point I had someone just push my head down under the water to give them leverage to get past - not nice. The sun was pretty strong and I could feel the backs of my legs had been burnt a little by the time we had finished.

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Something very different here for you, and probably not so relavent to my regular readers. But I spent quite a while writing this so I thought I’d put it here. As some of you know, as well as diving, one of my loves in Japan is now my car. This has been a recent thing, and has only really developed in the past 14 months since I got my 1992 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. Well I have gone and bought myself something called an alcohol injection kit. Contrary to popular belief, this doesn’t mean just throwing a bottle of Bacardi Breezer in the petrol tank every now and then! It is actually a system that injects alcohol (usually ehtanol or methanol, although you can use very strong vodka or gin at a push!) and works to cool the air going into your engine, increasing the octane of the petrol, which makes it safer for the engine and increases performance. Here’s a review on my experiences of getting the kit, installing it (well, helping/hindering my friend while he installed it) and some testing/tuning of it. Sorry if I seem to go on quite a bit, but I want to make this review accessible to people who have no knowledge of alcohol injection beforehand. Althoug if you don’t know so much about cars then a few of the terms may confuse you.

First, a couple of words about my setup. I’m still running the small 16G in my Evo I, along with 264 Comp Cams, Punishment Racing manifold, HKS 1.2mm head gasket, ARP head studs, turbo-back exhaust with decat, ported O2 housing, iridium plugs and Bitz Dual SBC Spec S boost controller. Prior to installing the cams I was hitting about 1.47bar of boost but since the cams went in I’ve been limited to about 1.13 bar as going over that was increasing my knock too much and fuelling wasn’t really cutting it out. So I thought I’d go for methanol injection to see if I could get some timing back into the car and up the boost some.

I ordered the Devils Own Universal Stage 2 kit. I should note that if you have an Evo then you’ll want the 3-bar MAP sensor DSM Stage 2 kit. I mistakenly bought the voltage-controlled universal controller kit thinking that the signal from the MAF would trigger the controller. Didn’t realise until it came that the Evo MAF has a Karmann vortex system of Hz to report the airflow and the controller needs a voltage sensor. So I had to order the 3-bar MAP sensor separately. A 3-bar sensor will allow you to control methanol injection for up to 2-bar of boost, which should be enough for most of us running early Evos. Now you can buy a stage 1 kit, which is a bit cheaper. The difference is the controller. The stage 1 kit basically runs like an on/off switch. Either the meth isn’t running or it’s pumping meth in full blast into your intake. This could be fine for many people but the problem could occur in that, at low boost levels and when it first comes on, it could pump too much meth in there, flooding the cylinders and making the engine bog. With the stage 2 kit you get a progressive controller which allows you to control at what level of boost the meth starts to be sprayed in, and at what level of boost it’s at its maximum spraying level. I would say if you have the money then the progressive kit is the better one to have, mainly as it is a bit more configurable.

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A couple of people have sent me emails recently, telling me that they are having problems commenting on my blog. The problem seems to be with the authentication code that you are supposed to type in not appearing on the screen when you try to leave a message. This problem only seems to be happening the 2nd time a user leaves a message (presumably something to do with the computer remembering your details or a glitch in the space/time continuum or something like that!). Well the news is that I am working on a solution and have tried a couple of things to maybe sort it out. “Jan” left me 2 messages on the site last night which gives me hope that maybe the problem has been resolved, but if you have a minute or 2, please try posting a couple of comments on my stories. If you have any issues, use the contact me link at the top of the page to let me know.

Thanks.

Another slight personal update today (as you might be able to tell, I have quite a bit of free time on Mondays!). June is the time of year when student teachers come to various schools throughout Japan for a few weeks of teaching experience, both watching and then later taking part in lessons. The student teachers are university teachers and will be 21 years old, give or take a year. They always come looking exactly the same: same hairstyle (differing ever so slightly between males and females), black suits, white shirts/blouses and darkish coloured tie for men. This seems to be the case for anyone newly entering a workplace in Japan. But this year was a little different as I walked into the school staffroom and suddenly realised that I knew 3 of the students! Now comes the more scary thing from my point of view: I know them because I have taught them! In my first year here in Okinawa, these three were 3 of my favourite English students. And now I’m going to be teaching a class with at least one of them and maybe two of them. It will feel a little strange and makes me feel very old; I shouldn’t be teaching WITH my students! But it should be a good few weeks as we learn from each other and I get the chance to catch up with a few people from my past.

Thought that title might get your attention! Today’s entry actually has a link with the title, and I’m sure you’re all quite intrigued now so I will continue.

Yesterday I had a 3rd year class, entitled Current English. In this term of the class, we cover a world problem and then at the end of the term have a Model United Nations conference about it. For those of you who might not have heard of the term, the Model United Nations is a mock-up of the real UN, where students take on the roles as delegates from certain countries and research about a given topic. A few of our conferences look more like we are making a mockery of the real UN, but that’s beside the point. Anyway, the students were giving presentations on natural resources found in countries and the problems/conflicts caused by them. Resources included diamonds in Angola, oil in Nigeria, timber in various parts of Asia, and coca in Colombia.

So we get to the coca presentation and the group stands up and goes to the front of the class. Had reasonably high expectations of the class as they had a long time to prepare and the presentations before this specific one had been good. So they introduce Colombia, the coca industry and how coca leaves (see right) are used. A little is talked about how the government is trying to eradicate the crops with the help of US forces and the problems they encountered. It was all going too well. So then the spanner in the works comes. One of the male students in the presenting group gets out a sealed clear plastic bag from his shirt pocket and states “this is cocaine” while tapping it with his finger. At this point there is a loud thud in the classroom as my jaw slams into the floor. I was just waiting for the police to burst into the classroom, arrest me and deport me by the time I’ve said “I’m not military!!!”. If that wasn’t enough, he gets this powder into his hand from the bag and snorts it, before simulating the feeling of taking a hit (or whatever the lingo is for snorting) cocaine. I think one of the other presenters must have seen my face and reaction while this was going on and she quickly shouted out, “Don’t worry! It’s not real cocaine!”. A couple of sighs of relief went through the classroom from students and I slowly started to reel my jaw back in. Was still pretty shocked by it though.

And then we got to the Q&A section after the presentation, and the first question was: “If I wanted to buy cocaine in Japan, how much would it cost?”. Bang went the jaw against the floor again! and then came the answer. “From our research” a girl states, “the initial cost is low but then if you buy it again it costs more”. Logical given it’s an addictive drug but I dare not ask how they did their research.

As much as I enjoy every day at my workplace, yesterday and that class in particular will go into the memorable category and won’t be forgotten for a long time to come. You know you’ve got a good class going when a student says to the class, “This is real cocaine”…

You just can’t keep me down. After a forced absence for over a week, I am happy to report I am back and typing again. I would like to come up with some exciting reasoning for my site being taken down… something like a wrangle with some ultra right-wing nationalists. Unfortunately, the reality is much more boring. The whole deepstop.com site was hacked by someone who obviously had nothing better to do, and the webmaster had a hell of a time recovering it all. But he managed it, so a big thanks going to Andy at www.yorkshire-divers.co.uk for sorting it all out.

First of all, just had an event at work which really takes the proverbial biscuit. Japanese teacher came over and told me the school was making a sign and wanted to know the best way in English to say “No Trespassing!”. Thought this a little strange and asked why they wanted the sign in English (unless, as a school, we want to educate people even through warnings). The reasoning is because of this horrifying event. Apparently a military jeep had the audacity to get lost on Okinawa’s wonderfully signposted roads (if you have been to Okinawa you can imagine the sarcastic tone that was said in). In an attempt to go back in the right direction, the jeep turned into a school parking area and turned around. I can hear you all saying “And…” but that is the end of the story. Jeep turned around and went on its way. It should also be noted that there were no students at the school at the time (although I don’t really think that’s too relevant to the story anyway). So now, apparently all schools are quaking in fear that one of the smog-belching carriages that transport those foreign armed savages around will decide to turn around in their car parks, and are trying to make signs to deter them. Now I don’t know about you, but even if I see a “no trespassing” sign, if I need to turn around and that seems the best place, then I will spend a couple of seconds turning around there. Have seen plenty of Japanese tourists doing that at Japanese and American bases after making a wrong turn. So I told them the translation and they went away very happy. Nice to know the school budget is being spent on things that make a difference!

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Seeing as the US military have been told to undergo a “Period of Reflection” as General Zilmer put it, I have decided to do the same with a few things happening around here. First of all, over the past 2 weeks my blog has been visited by at least 800 visitors a day, and 3 days ago I had my most successful day since this site started, with just under 1,700 visitors. I would like to offer thanks to you all once again for taking the time to visit my site, and especially to those who have left comments of their experiences or words of encouragement for my writings. But I don’t want your visit to be just a once-off; I want you all to return and continue to enjoy my writings. With that in mind, I need some input from you. What would you like to read about on this site? Do you want Okinawan news stories, stories coming out of Japan that wouldn’t make it onto international news feeds, personal views on the country and this prefecture? Give me some ideas so that I can entertain and maybe educate you a little in the future.

This blog was initially started to talk about SCUBA diving, but the amount I have done in the past 6 months is depressing, and I really don’t want to count the number of dives. A combination of my main diving buddy having a couple of problems meaning it was tough for him to dive, then pretty changeable weather since the end of last summer, and this lockdown over the past few weeks has meant that diving opportunities are limited. Classes have come to a halt temporarily as my students have a tendency to develop hypothermia if they spend more than 20 minutes in the pool at one time! Hopefully once the water starts to warm up a little then classes will pick up again. There have been some issues with organizing some of my classes: people not responding to emails after I’ve sent them course materials and am out of pocket; students organizing to meet me, having me pay to rent the pool & equipment, and allocate my whole day to the class, only for them to call me 20 minutes before hand, tell me they went out drinking the previous night and are too hungover to get into the water etc. But, that comes with the territory of teaching members of the community my students primarily come from.

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With all that’s been happening recently, I have barely talked a word about myself. I know most of you are probably saying “I know, and it’s great!” but settle down! I try to keep this site professional and it’s taken a few turns in its content in recent months as I realise what is important to you folks, the readers.

Before anything else, I must thank you all once again for visiting my site. Sunday was the busiest day for visitors on my page, with over 1270 visits from different people. Every single visitor is appreciated and I hope you will return. Let me know what kind of things you want to hear about from Okinawa and Japan. If it’s possible, I’ll write about it.

Well, a couple of bits of good news and a bit of bad news. First my car, and it’s both good and bad news here. The good news came in the middle of last week when my mechanic was fitting some new camshafts to my car. He’d found the balancer belt on my car (which spins a shaft to do something with the vibrations of the engine) was completely split, so that you could lay it down flat. While not a problem in itself, if that falls apart it can cause the timing belt in your car to jump or break. If that happens, the valves stop moving and the pistons smash… basically your engine is dead. I was very lucky here and am so glad he picked up on it. I’ve no idea how long it had been going round like that, seemingly clinging onto the gears by sheer luck.

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Just thought I’d try and spread the word from my buddy a little bit. He’s lead singer in a group called Bauer which comes from the north of England and has been playing gigs for a few years. Their radio play in the region and country has slowly been increasing and on January 28th they are going to release their first single, “Starting Again” which will hopefully break into the charts and increase their exposure.

The music video for their new single can be seen here:

And music video for their previous E.P., entitled “Connected”, here:

The videos are also downloadable at www.redbridgestudios.com/videos/bauer. If you like their stuff & want to support them you can go to www.wippit.com/bauer and download their tracks.

Let me know what you think and thanks for your support.

Reading this article in the Mail on Sunday, it’s not actually his words, but is definitely something he would come up with. Didn’t know that 28,000 have signed a petition for him to be the UK’s next PM. Can’t do much worse than Brown or Blair, to be fair!

1 ENCOURAGE GLOBAL WARMING
Britons will be encouraged, through discounts and tax relief, to drive 4×4s, Jaguars and BMWs. Not only will this give a valuable boost to our oil industry, but it will encourage climate change. And what’s not to like about global warming? Holland gets flooded and we get California’s weather. That’s what I call a win/win situation.

2 ABOLISH CRICKET
How can we take seriously a sport that stops for afternoon tea and whose followers wear striped blazers and bray like horses? Let’s face it, we have been rubbish at cricket for years, so we should put an end to the endless cycle of misery in summer. My Government will bring back proper sports, such as jousting and bear-baiting.

3 END THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP
The only thing special about our link with the U.S. is the amount of grovelling we do. My Government will stop acting as if Britain is the 51st state of the union. The last time I went across the Atlantic, I found people so stupid I’m convinced their nearest living relative must be a gherkin. They’re the sort of people who can’t read a road sign without moving their lips. Plus their cars are about as sexy as Ann Widdecombe’s armpit.

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