Uni

People actually eat these. Ojikans love sea urchins. A lot of Japanese people love uni. They're actually quite a delicacy. I'm not actually sure how much the mustard-like meat of a sea urchin can actually pull in, but everyone keeps telling me they're quite expensive. I've eaten sea urchin rice and sea urchin sushi and sea urchin soup... and I hate it. I hate it all.

It just so happens to be shellfish season in Ojika and people have spent a couple days a week pulling sea urchins, turban shells and other nameless (to me) mushy, lumpy bodies held up in hard shells from the sea.

I had the opportunity to join Madara elementary school in their afternoon at sea.

Here's Nanami with her haul. A basket full of uni.

Here's Marino with the small octopus she dragged out from underneath a rock. I screamed when she convinced me to offer my finger to one of the tentacles and it compressed against my digit so severely I had to tear myself away.

These wooden boxes with plexi-glass at the bottom are used to see underneath the water's surface clearly. I was amazed by the simplicity and usefulness.