My Daily Life (New Year’s)

My family has been spending New Year's in Okinawa every year since my son was two years old. New Year's in Okinawa is a lively and colorful event, marked by a countdown and fireworks.

In 2025, we went to Kohama Island. Since there were no fireworks on the island, we stuck to our usual early bedtime and early wake-up routine, and spent January 1st snorkeling from morning until evening.

In the sea, we saw various types of clownfish, striped fish in different combinations, and many glowing blue fish. The children kept shouting, "Nemo!", "Gill!", and "Dory!" as they spotted fish from Finding Nemo. Next, we hope to meet Crush and Squirt, the sea turtles.

My daughter and I got stung by a Portuguese man o' war (jellyfish), which was painful. My daughter insisted that from now on, she would learn about sea creatures through books and videos, and she didn’t need any more hands-on experiences. My son, on the other hand, called the Portuguese man o' war "Katsuo Umeboshi" (a dried fish with plum) and referred to it as something like furikake (Japanese seasoning for rice).

The picture is of the "Mirage Island," a sandy beach that occasionally appears.

Yoshiko Kuno