i got whale blood on me

So, I this blog is actually from yesterday, I just kinda got too tired and didn't do it, so I am doing it a day late, but NOT a dollar short!

Alright, so the town of Wada is about 30 minutes around the horn west and north from Kamogawa, a lovely little town with surf big enough to hurt a man (when it's big). The road to Wada is home to my favorite sign in Japan (not yet photographed) of a man, apparently with a broken leg, getting mauled by a giant wave next to the road. I'm sure the real meaning us much less dramatic, but whatever, it's there and soon a photo of it will be viewable here. So, Wada is a great place with good surf, great signs, and great people as well as having the privilege of being one of only 3 places in Japan with a whaling permit. They are only allowed 26 whales per year and only during a very strict season. June 21st happened to be the day that the whaling season started in Wada, and I had the chance to be there for it. Diane (David's mom) knows the wife of the man that runs the program there so she called the night before and I was given special "sanitized rubber boots only" access to take photos. So, Tuesday evening I went to the store and bought some brand new, shiny, black, rubber boots and I was ready! Not quite as ready as the guys working there who had cleats on their boots to keep from slipping when things got messy...like I did.

Wednesday morning we got there a little before 8am which was really nice compared to the usual 5am start that the whalers usually do. This day was a late exception because a group of local fifth graders was coming so they had to start late. The whale is left out over night floating just outside the harbor tied up with a slit down it's back to let the sea water cool down it's insides a bit before they prepare the meat.

So, a little after 8am, after the kids arrived, they began to drag in the nearly 10 meter long beaked whale using huge wenches rigged up at the back of the covered area where they'd do the work. There were two scientists there who took all the whales measurements and did tests on everything, at least it appeared to me that they were checkin on everything. With long handled razor sharp knives and sharpeners attached to their belts about 10 guys began the two hour long process of turning a 10 meter whale into manageable, sellable chunks of meat. They worked so quickly and efficiently, obviously they'd done this before, that it was hard to predict the next move to get into position to take the photos. I won't go into detail for those with weak stomachs, but I've never seen so much blood at one time. Oh yeah, and the title of this blog, I did actually get whale blood on my clothes and a piece of whale meat hit my camera which was super rad to me! Yeah, I'm weird, I know.

All together I was there a little over 5 hours, the time it took for a 10 meter, who knows how many ton, whale to be brought from the water and sold out the backdoor of the same place it was "processed". I was talking to a photographer from the AP that was there shooting also and I had a realization that it was truly a privilege to be there on that day, one that few outsiders have ever had before. I got some pretty cool/amazing photos, but for the sake of those reading that wouldn't appreciate them (Cheryl) I am not going to post any of the whale on here. If you want to see them e-mail me. Here is a photo of some of the school children reacting to touching the whale.

There are those that say "save the whales" and even go as far as protesting against it, or so I've seen in the past. I don't have a firm stance on the issue, and one would think that something like this experience would cause me to have an opinion about it, but it didn't actually. I agree that if whaling where not under a strict moratorium here in Japan, only allowing a certain number of whales at certain time of the year, then maybe there would be a problem with bringing in too many or something. But as it stands now, it's a big fish, to be completely honest. The way that the whalers handle every part of the whale and put it to use in some way or another is even more comforting and makes it even easier to handle. If you think about it the ocean is only so big, and whales are soooo big, that if nobody ate them they could like fill up the entire ocean and pretty soon there would be no water, just whale. I don't know where I'm going with this, I don't really have a point to make or anything, I guess I'm just rambling...what' a blog for anyway! I guess I'm basically saying that I witnessed the process of cutting up a whale so, maybe now I should develop a strong opinion for or against "whaling". You, reading this, do you have an opinion oh whaling? hum..we'll see what happens.