Under the sea

This morning I woke in Okinawa Japan. I love Japan. It drives me crazy with the compliance. Yes, Tony could not get into the car until our driver had seen him walk back across the road and take our luggage trolley, which I had left outside, back into the airport building. At any point of purchase, the process is so thorough that it adds extra time to each transaction. But it is because of this, because of the commitment to precision, politeness, thoroughness, and cleanliness, that I love it. The purchase becomes a ritual of human respect.

Dare not jaywalk. Dare not to break the rules of society. Yet the art. Manga. The dress culture. Rules broken at the artistic level. 

And the toilets. Even the public ones. Best toilets in the world.

We woke and went on two dives. Diving is such a meditation. Hearing your breathing. The smoother the breath, the better the dive, the calmer the diver. I literally listen to the state of my mind.

I held my hand out and these gorgeous navy blue fish nibbled on them. We saw sea snakes, coral trout, and blowfish. And a garden of soft coral.

I was the visitor in their world. The immigrant. 

I was ignored for the most part. Granted permission to pass. 

I have been reading Luke Kemp’s book Goliath’s Curse – The History and Future of Societal Collapse. He reminds me that we are, of course, all immigrants. 

All. 

There is no pure race. No superior species. Just a mixed amalgam of humans who have roamed the Earth over thousands of years.

While we are the apex of apex predators, we are minions in the eye of the storm or the strength of the wave.

And while we are apex predators with weapons of global destruction in the hands of people who cannot think further than the next photo op, our error is to think our lady Gaia is not a living being, ever watchful, ever alert, and able to topple us with one wink.

Under the Sea is a meditation on a world so different from ours. One hostile to our long-term existence.

I was the guest. I am the guest. 

If we lived as a guest in all of our actions our world would be happier and healthier.

Japan is a master of welcoming the guest with great honour. 

The rest of the world might learn from Japan.

Photo Taken November 3rd 2025,  Wenwu Temple, Yuchi, Taiwan, Article published November 6th, 2025