Pirates! Part I

This is the follow up to the last entry. Yes, I own an inflatable canoe. Yes it is sturdy. Yes, I bought lifevests. And yes, mom, Pirates do travel in canoes... They do whatever they feel like.

All this fuss about Pirates has probably been due to the recent celebration of "Talk like a Pirate Day", which was Sept 19th. I was off of school that day, due to it coincidentally being "Respect for the Elderly Day" in Japan. Jill, John and I all went out in the canoe (which we named "S.S. Boat") and pirated out along the islands in the bay area between Fukushima and the mainland. I don't know if Pirates are allowed to say that things are pretty (other than wenches), but I'll say it: "It was gorgeous!" Some islands had caves, and others had small bay areas that looked like an island from the Goonies, or any other Pirate type movie.





I think another contribution to my thirst for Pirating (and playing the accordion), is the intense reading of "The Pirates! In Adventures with Scientists." Quite an hilarious book, to say the least. It takes place in the mid 1800's and speculates what would have happened if Pirates had boarded "The Beagle" in search for booty and unexpectedly finding Charles Darwin himself. Of course Darwin's theories in the book are quite different from real life. One of his theories include his belief that if you dress up a chimpanzee and teach him how to be a gentleman, then he can become an active member of society. In fact, he believed that this "Man-Panzee" (as it were) would be indistinguishable from regular humans (except for he fact that he has to talk with flash cards). I loved this book, and thought it was hysterical. I found it funny but, the bad science in this book would make my mother cringe in disgust (for the record, she hates the Pokemon movies, too).



So, all these doings of things in a piratical nature led me to the creation of this map. I hope you enjoy it. It is a hand drawn map of Fukushima; colored in Photoshop. In the upper right quadrant, you can see our route to the islands we went to. You can click on the picture for a larger size.