Yesterday, we made a short drive with the little car we got to the other side of the flat part of Hachijoshima between its two volcanoes.

But before we took off we stopped at the other side of the harbor basin at the fishermen association to buy a ‘kinmedai’, a type of snapper with gold colored eyes. Our dinner.

It is my second visit to this island. The first one was in 1991 with a friend from Germany. Now it is like the visit to Chichi-Jima a kind of “first” visit again. Driving or walking through the streets is a kind strange feeling. It’s in one side the first visit again and on the other side I’m feeling at home.

In the smaller fishing port on the western side of the island we stopped to look around and got in touch with 3 young people – 2 Japanese and a “gaijin” from the USA, teaching English – trying to catch horse makarel.

We had interesting conversations because one of them is a professional fisherman who works on his father’s boat. He lives on the E side of the island and saw MaRe from his home close to the harbor.

As they were curious about MaRe, I invited them to come over to MaRe.

They came yesterday evening when we just finished dinner.

We talked for an hour over a cup of coffee about boats, MaRe on one and the fishing boat on the side. They were curious about MaRe and I was curious about the fishing boat.

Among other things we learned, we heard of the first time observation of baby whale in the passing the waters of Hachijoshima.