Under the sea....

We very nearly canceled our planned outing of snorkeling and frivolity, since the sea conditions royally sucked. I mean, I'm a strong swimmer, but three foot swells and whitecaps aren't exactly ideal snorkeling conditions.

After two hours of trying to find a place to swim, we gave up and went to lunch. Lunch happened to be at the Kadena Marina, and the deck where we ate overlooks a nice, sheltered lagoon. One with an island out in the middle and a bunch of reefs. One with...why yes...calm, clear waters.

So, with full stomachs and without bothering to wait the customary hour between eating and swimming, we put on our gear and took to the water. (And in spite of the long, semi-strenuous swim out to the island and some heavy currents, neither of us got a cramp or anything. Go figure.)

Naturally, we were armed with a camera, and Eddie dutifully snapped away. Here are the results:

A somewhat less menacing sea urchin than the ones we saw a couple of weeks ago at Kouri Island...
ZOMG! Fish!!
Another fish!
A large piece of brain coral? Or a small hand? You decide...
We see little vivid blue fish everywhere on this island, and today we saw them by the dozen:
This place was seriously infested with bright blue fish, leading me to believe this is where their mothership deposits them for dispersal around the island.

They're fearless little bastards too...
We also saw a few odd creatures that we hadn't seen before:
God only knows what this thing is, but its expression cracks me up:
And no snorkeling adventure is complete without a puffer fish. This one was freaking huge, too, and Eddie got a very nice pic:
We also saw a very large lionfish, but it was an elusive creature, and we weren't able to get a photo of him. Fortunately, yours truly came up with this artist's rendition so you too can enjoy the awe-inspiring majesty of today's lionfish:
There you have it...another day of snorkeling. Presumably we'll get back to exploring the dry side of Okinawa soon, but hey, it's summer, the water is littered with cool critters, and we have an underwater camera. There will be more snorkeling, of that you can be assured. There will be more undersea pics on this blog as surely as there will be gratuitous pictures of the Leto Brothers, James Purefoy, and Gerard Butler.
See?