Japanese Pool

We were supposed to take the boat out the other day and snorkel but there was a weather advisory and too strong of winds and they wouldn't allow any "B Boat's" to be taken out. So we had to cancel and make a change of plans. I was bummed out but it actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise because Greg and I had one of my favorite days together yet.

It was low tide so the waters weren't covering a certain area by the runway that is called the "Japanese Pool." It' s a small coral area that is dug deeper and traps a lot of things in it. We decided that we would grab our snorkel gear and water shoes and check it out.

Water shoes were necessary to walk around on the parts that were usually covered in water because it was rough and slick walking around on it. It was really cool though because there were little pools or puddles that had some sea life trapped in it that couldn't get out and that didn't wash back into the ocean when the tide lowered. So we found a semi easy entrance to the Japanese Pool and tried to maneuver our way in. I was nervous as usual at first because who knows what could have got trapped in this confined area. But once I got my flow down and we got to moving around in it I felt better. It was so pretty and there were a lot of pretty fish in it. We saw a black and white spotted fish that was like a ball with spikes coming out of it, of which Greg later told me is called a tiger fish and it is poisonous, AWESOME probably a good thing I didn't know this while in the pool.

 I missed it but Greg signaled to me that there was a shark in this pool too, which totally freaked me out because as I said before basically all the sea life that's in this thing is trapped, and it's a really small space. I figured this shark was pissed off and wanted out and maybe he was hungry for humans lol, but sure enough he never bothered us. It was a little difficult to get out of the area because there is so much coral around but once we were done snorkeling we found our way out and exchanged our flippers for water shoes. We walked around the land part (I'm struggling to find the right terms to describe it) that wasn't covered in water at the time, but usually is during high tide. The ground is real squishy and slippery, but I only busted my ass one time. It was really cool though to walk around and look in the little puddles at the different fish left in them. We even saw a couple eels, which totally grossed me out. And of course naturally I think all eels are electric and can kill you (thanks crash bandicoot game ha) but Greg said they aren't those kinds of eels. They looked like thick slimy snakes. After we saw those I was afraid the whole rest of the day I was going to step on one. There were a few starfish left in the little pools too. It was a great experience just exploring around and seeing the different life that existed and bicycling by later that day to see that it was completely covered by ocean now and that whatever was trapped in there had probably washed back out to shore and the next time would have a whole new party crew of fishies in there. I can't wait to go back and do it again!