Posted on 06/24/2013 12:21:29 AM PDT by TexGrill
It took a devil of a time before finally managing to locate the home of potter Paul Lorimer, the building tucked into a rural lane on the fringes of the Sashiki community on Okinawa Island’s southeast coast.
This is wild country, the fertile, well-watered flatlands coming to an abrupt halt against steep cliffs, limestone caves and mountain escarpments few people dare to explore. The lushness of the farms and kitchen gardens, bulging with banana fronds, trellises of dragon fruit and Okinawan herbs used in cooking and for medicinal purposes, belie the dangers of these fields, infested with the poisonous habu, a viper so venomous it is said that invading wartime U.S. Marines were more afraid of the snake than Japanese soldiers.
Lorimer’s home sits in the middle of a grassy plot with hibiscus flowers and a single plumeria tree. Upon meeting him, Lorimer, a plain-spoken New Zealander, offered no comforting reassurances about reptiles, stretching out his arms to indicate the length of the kind of snakes inhabiting the overgrown field at the rear of his home.
As it turned out, there were several snakes in the house itself, the living room to be precise. Lorimer slid back the doors of a large built-in cupboard, where several glass jars were lined up. These contained samples of awamori, the signature liquor of Okinawa. Some of the darker fluids hosted the decomposing corpses of serpents. They may have shrugged off their mortal coils in the service of maturation, but their faces, paralyzed in vicious death throes, were still alarming.
(Excerpt) Read more at japantimes.co.jp ...
Interesting ...Like to quaff some awamori with him someday and exchange ex-pat “ war stories “ ...Got to get to Okinawa one of these days ...I’m in the neighborhood .
When I was there, the local bad snake was the “mamushi.”
Do I have this name right ?
Yes . Coincidentally , just the other day one shed its skin in one of my drainpipes . Must have been 36 inches or more in length !
Red on yellow, kill a fellow.
Red on black, friend of Jack...
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