Sea Glass Beach

Before we arrived in Okinawa, I had spent time exploring Okinawa Hai which is an amazing resource that was originally started by my friend Meredith. Although she is far too humble to take any credit for it, she really should. Okinawa Hai is the go-to website for learning about the island, planning fun day trips, and finding restaurants.

One of the first things I remember seeing on Okinawa Hai was a blog entry about Sea Glass Beach. I have a vivid memory of a large glass jar in my parents' house filled with beautiful sea glass that was collected in Gloucester, MA. Or at least that's where I think they found it; since I am the author I get to decide the facts. Anyhow, when I saw that there was a place for finding sea glass in Okinawa, I knew that Maddox and I would have to make the trek. The directions to Sea Glass Beach had few road names, some semi-off-roading, random landmarks, and signs in Japanese, so I was a bit skeptical that we would make it, but we did!

From what little I know, it seems this area used to be a dumping ground for trash; hence the amount of sea glass (or sea tile or sea random pottery shards or sea plastic) that can be found. Meredith had warned me of the possible disappointment, that it might really just feel like a trashy beach. However, one of Maddox's Brownie badges involved participating in a beach clean-up, so I figured even if we had no luck finding cool sea glass, at least we could collect sea trash.

Maddox with her beach clean-up collection. Isn't our car cute?

And did we ever find sea trash! Maddox was most amused by the one crutch she found. Or maybe it was the single shoe (not a flip-flop). Regardless, we very quickly filled our bags and some plastic buckets that had washed ashore. There were other treasure hunters out there that day as well, some of whom were looking for unusual objects to repurpose. 

We did find a nice collection of shells, some sea glass, and some smooth pottery. Looking back at our Okinawa guidebook before writing this post, I am now wondering if the shell on the far left (up and to the left of the blue glass) is a shell from a cone snail which I am reminded is a carnivorous, venomous, and aggressive sea snail. Chalk up another parenting win for me! If so, it must have been empty, but more about presumably empty shells later...

Maddox had been shell-seeking before during our annual beach vacations on the NC coast, but the patterns and shapes of the shells here were far more intricate than what we usually find along Holden Beach.

I was so excited to find a nearly intact sand dollar! I found a few others as well, but this was the best specimen of the bunch. There was a place called "Sand Dollar Beach", but we never made it there.

After sorting and washing the shells and spreading them out to dry,  I packed them in an empty ice cream container with a tight-fitting plastic lid. Then one day, about a month later, Maddox and I were trying to survive an afternoon with each other (that is probably an understatement) when I kept hearing a strange sound. At first I thought it was workers outside, then maybe some wind blowing something around, but after some detective work, I realized it was coming from the box of shells. The prisoner was scratching persistently. Even though I figured it was a crab, I was ridiculously nervous to open the top. Eventually I did, and we did indeed find a stowaway.

I don't know much about crabs and their eating habits or their need for fresh air, but apparently they can live for some extended period of time in a plastic container with no air holes. Can I make a curriculum note about this under "3rd Grade Homeschool Science"?

We took our little guy (or gal) to a nearby beach and sent him on his merry way. We then went home and double-checked the rest of the shells. And I might have had a glass of wine (or five) after all the excitement.