STRETCH NAGOYA

 SATURDAY / SUNDAY 11/19 AND 11/20/2022 Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium's Chelonia Institute. Saturday afternoon, after we checked in on the little tagged loggerhead and visited the aquarium, we departed for a short visit to Osu shopping street to wander around- take a little break from the "grind". Sunday: After checking out of the hotel, we caught a local train to Nagoya Station and then the Nozomi shinkansen to Shin Osaka where we were supposed to meet up with Takahashi Ishikara.  Unfortunaely, he was unable to make it because of an emergency at his aquarium.  Flight home.. We took the Haruka rapid train to Kansai and checked in without too much hastle.  Flight left on time and was about 1/2 full which gave everyone lots of room.   Arrived in HNL on time and GHB left for home while I remained to catch my flight to Kona 3 hours later. Flight to Kona was on time so the trip went very well from the beginning to the end. All in all, a whorl-wind visit that was very producti

 Saturday, 11/19.2022 Today is our final day in Nagoya.  We are headed to the aquarium to check on our "tagged" loggerhead and will spend some time with Kurita san and team to finalize all talking points. We will also take some time to walk around the aquarium and see the various exhibits before we leave our wonderful Japanese team mates for the time being.   This afternoon will be spent doing a little shopping and visit Osu district shopping street.  Below:  Walking to the Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium.... a beautiful day and a beautiful area. Heroic Japanese  antarctic huskies, Jiro and Taro View of the PNPA across the bridge. Walking across the bridge toward the aquarium. View from the aquarium back across the bridge we had just crossed. Aquarium Visit. We meet up with Kurita san at 1030 and he took us over to visit the turtle we tagged yesterday.  Everything looks good... the turtle is active, feeding and the tag remains solidly attached.  Below are some clips of our vis

Friday,  11/18/2022 Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium. Today we will conduct a practice attachment to one of cohort 1 juvenile loggerheads.  We will take some time to experiment with attachment materials to determine what we consider the best for attachment.   After some experimentation, we decided to stick with a UV activated polyester resin and fiberglass cloth. Masanori Mori picks a mid-sized turtle from cohort 1 to place a mock tag on. GHB and Saito san transporting our little loggerhead over to the work area. Mixing the elastomer base for the tag. Elastomer base is in place. Triming the elastomer base. Nearly finished tag attachment. Masanori Mori putting the tagged turtle into a special holding basket. The Spot 6 387 tag on our first turtle from cohort 1.  Note that this is just a mock tag and is not functional.

 Thursday, 11/17/2022 Today we had breakfast at 0730 and then we made our way via metro to Nagoyako.  We were meet out front by Masanori Kurita and taken to his office for a brief discussion about logistics and finances.  We were then taken to Masanori Mori to see the turtles.  Please see the videos below for some idea about the size of the turtles. After looking at the 2 cohorts of juvenile loggerheads, we can safely and confidently say that they are being well cared for, growing fast and will most assuredly be ready for tagging in March/April/May. The clip above shows the rearing tanks that Masanori Mori is using to raise the 29 turtles for the STRETCH project. Feeding time for the juvenile loggerheads.  They all look very healthy and well feed.   Feeding time in tank 2 with 15 turtles in it.   After viewing the first cohort, we went over to the Chelonia Institute to take a look at the second cohort ...30 loggerheads.  Masanori Mori showed us the area as he is the director of the sea

 Wednesday 11/16/2022 We had nice dinner together (Larry, George and Marc) at a small curry restaurant that we had eaten at many times during our past trips.  Since our last time here though, they have gotten more sophisticated and have ipad devices at the tables for ordering and electronic summoning of waiters, etc.  Of course, we couldn't figure any of that out and fumbled around wondering why no one came to take our order.  Fortunately, there was a young man who spoke quite good English and he helped us figure everything out.  It was a nice meal and we were able to catch up with each other on our travels, etc.  Plans for the first day of conferences were solidified and we retired for the night ready to go.  Pictures of our old hotel and the street area around Kanayama. Night time view out my hotel window. My goodness, Christmas already in Japan? A new one for me... Pachinko gaming- wasn't here is 2013. Our old Washington Plaza Hotel (were we stayed on many previous trips has

 Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022 Entry way to the Hotel Nikko where we spent the night. We went out looking for breakfast and found "Tasty Street" in the airport but everything was still closed. We asked an ANA representative where we could get breakfast and..... she sent us to -----McDonalds!!! GHB, forever on his phone, as we have a cup of coffee at McDonalds.  It is always good to try the local cuisine when one is traveling in a foreign country! Kansai International Airport is on a man made island and has every convenience possible right at the airport. We spent the night near the Kansai International Airport. We are going to take the train from Osaka to Nagoya which involves taking the JR  line from Kansai to Shin Osaka (main train station in Osaka) and then catching the Shinkansen to Nagoya Station. The route from Kansai Airport to Nagoya /// with a train change in Shin Osaka. Larry Crowder texted GHB this morning that he had arrived in Nagoya and we will get together later when