Ishigaki is filled with interesting creatures. I worried that taking a picture of an owl with my flash may have blinded it. This worry is clearly shown in my mangled pre-snorkelling hands.
Around here, they are really into their
Shisa statues. They are lion-dogs, which seems like a cool pet when you can't decide between a dog and a cat.
Here, we demonstrate our support.
Barry once again attempts his angry scary face, but this time somehow ends up looking like he has no teeth.
The tourist shisas were more brightly coloured so we didn't miss them.
They warded off evil all over the place.
The local public school taught is about international cultures. Italians wear overalls, Aussies like fish patterns, and the Senegalese are angry.
It seems the Brits stole a Hudson Bay blanket, and the Ghanaians enjoy their symbol-wear. Pretty sure the Iranian should be covering up a bit better, mind you.
The Malaysian demonstrates that we haven't seen enough of Malaysia yet.
Davy Crockett was a Canadian? I like the white socks with black shoes. But I like Indonesia and the Irish milkmaid even more.
To complete our learning, we went to a restaurant in Singapore serving the same type of Japanese food. This may have helped us if we'd gone before, but also made life less interesting.
The large glass snowmen wish you happy holidays.
It was also Barry's birthday, so we had burgers at our new favourite place.
Since Santa is coming, we took appropriate hygienic measures.
Since Barry's joints have aged prematurely due to overuse in triathlons but he's still a masochist, we now have to design our own. Above, Barry is shown waking up at 5:30am. Below, phase 1.
Home-grown triathlons are conveniently located.
Barry was very lucky - he came in first place!
And won the prize! It was a clock radio, go figure!
In other news, Singapore's subway system seems to have melted down last week. One of the most modern in the world, it trapped passengers in trains in the dark for an hour, which leaves me with the question: Do trains not have emergency exits? What if there was a fire? Why bother showing emergency videos in stations, given this?
We went to South Africa, where there are scary animals.
There were also spice mix-up hazards.
We practiced our African drumming skills.
Barry got a little too into it.
Then we had an 80's flashback moment.
It's known for its wineries.
Cool wedding band - better than Barry on the drums.
The above wins the best Christmas Engrish award this year. Let us examine it more closely.
Looking for something to drink with loinclothed Grandpa and the kids at the beach? Well this poster at the 
The museum did not teach us much else, since we have not learnt to read Japanese yet. But apparently old rusty machines have been replaced by big shiny new vats.
Barry and I enjoyed the tasting part, although we wore more clothes.
I learnt much more quickly than Barry to order "Olion biru", shown above. We did not figure out why so many things referenced constellations and astrology, mind you.
Barry got his points for learning to order Ishigaki Beef, albeit by accident and raw the first time.
I'm going to repeat this a few times for emphasis. 
Cook for a few seconds on each side, look how delicious.
Ishigaki is a pretty little beach town with gravel and walls made of washed up coral. Back in, well some year, they started driving on the other side of the road, as illustrated by this monument.
After that, it seems, things got a little quiet.
Pretty from up high... 
But if you look a little closer, there are lot of big areas of creepy big crypts!
Scary, no?
Then we noticed that some of the houses were bit empty, and missing windows.
Do you think the goat mural goes nicely with the curtains?
We also found signs of Canada.
Which, upon closer inspection, turned out to be Engrish!
You get the beach to yourself.
However, even here slightly creepy creatures linger. We learnt that some sea slugs are squishy and others hard.
