You may be wondering about the title of this post, but I assure you that I will explain.
Today in Taiji marked the annual "Whale(ing)" festival. Not only can you honour the whales through slaughter, but you can also try free samples of whale meat. Now that's tradition.
We arrived in town early this morning, around 7am to check if the dolphin molesters had left port in their banger boats. They did not. The Cove Guardians had a day off. We headed into town around 10am, after breakfast, to attend the whale(ing) festival. We strode through town in our SSCS gear, and upon arrival were swamped by the media and police. Our every move was caught on film. We watched the festivities on stage which included a dancing dragon and a giant stuffed dolphin joined by Taiji children. If one did not know of the dolphin slaughter it would seem as if the children of Taiji loved dolphins. The biggest interest of the media was to find out what it is we were going to eat at the festival. They were serving roasted corn on the cob, and the cameras proceeded to catch lengthy footage of the Sea Shepherd crew consuming corn. Hence the title. We joked that the headline news for the day would be "Sea Shepherd Eats Corn at Whale Festival". It was a whale of a time.
Ryan, "Big Gunns", Dave, and myself decided to head out of town to do some sightseeing. We drove to the Nachi waterfall to visit the temples and waterfall. The drive was stunngingly beautiful. The area around Taiji is mountainous and covered with trees. We enjoyed our afternoon with an invigorating hike through the forest to sacred areas, visiting the largest waterfall in Japan, and viewing some of the oldest temples. It was nice to see beauty in nature after the horrors of the previous days.
Some pictures from the day: Dolphin on stage with Taiji children
Stairway to Nachi Waterfall
For The Oceans,
Tarah
Thanks Tarah for your Taiji Cove posts! It is so great that all of you Cove Guardians can be there physically to give witness to the inhumane behavior taking place in the Cove waters under the guise of "fishing". Great photos. Just wish the Cove Guardians were there to enjoy dolphins tours instead...some day!
ReplyDeleteEVERYONE: Please do not pay money to see dolphin shows or pay money to swim with captive dolphins. If you do you are supporting the continuation of dolphin slaughter and capture.