I've been channeling Sterling Archer a bit.

 The television station FX has an animated show called Archer.  It is not in any way, shape, or form a kids show.  But it is hilarious.  Sterling Archer is the laziest, most lax and unconcerned spy on the planet.  In so many ways he is a horrible human being, but he has these moments of self-aware reflection.  Just watch a few episodes if you can.  The reason I bring it up is S6E01 - "The Holdout" where he encounters a WWII Japanese soldier who has been on an island since 1942 and does not know the war is over.  Archer parachutes in to find a plane that crashed to recover a computer that has sensitive information.  Hijinx occur and the episode ends with them being friends.  As they make it to a beach Archer's extraction team comes around a point and into the bay.  Ken, the Japanese soldier, asks Archer if he knew the boat was coming.  Archer replies, "No.  Things just usually work out for me... and I guess I kind of take that for granted."  So, why this elaborate build up?  Because, things have just been working out for me here.

This morning Thao and her husband were going to meet me at Ishii station and then drive to the Kazura vine bridge.  We were planning to eat lunch and then take a boat ride down the Oboke Gorge.  It rained there today (or at least it was forecast to), so we took a chance on going to Naruto.  Now, Naruto is well known for many things - pears, pottery, red sweet potatoes, the sports drink Pocari Sweat, and whirlpools.  

Just north of the city is a narrow straight between the islands of Shikoku (where I am) and Awaji.  The bottom of this straight is unusual and when the tide changes, either in or out, whirlpools form.  There is a manga and anime called "Naruto" and the title character wears a headband with a whirlpool symbol.  You can take boat cruises out to where the whirlpools tend to form.  In the screenshot below, Shikoku University is the black circle and the whirlpool location is the red circle.

Thao has never done the cruise, but her husband has.  However, he has never seen the whirlpools because of timing and weather and all that.  We arrive at the center where you buy the tickets for the cruise.  The next boat is just as the tide is beginning to change, so there isn't likely to be good whirlpools.  We opt for the one an hour later.

That was a good choice.  We got to see many whirlpools form as the tide moved out.  What amazed me most was how the location where the whirlpools formed was pretty small.  It's really choppy there (to be expected).  All around that area, though, the water was smooth.  Kind of like when oil has been spilled on it and the small waves don't even form.  But, you could see places where it looked like something was coming up from the bottom and stopping.  If you've ever been in a pool and put your hand underwater, then flicked your wrist so your palm quickly rises but doesn't break the surface you'll have seen what I mean.  You get this column of water that comes up and sort of rolls out from a central spot.

I don't think I mentioned that Natsuki said according to the surf shop where I rented my board the surfing has been pretty bad for the last two weeks.  Saturday was an excellent day to go.  Then, I didn't expect to talk about neuroscience last night.  Bad weather forced a change in plans today that resulted in me (and Thao and her husband) getting to see a natural phenomenon for the first time in our lives.

Below is a small bit of video.  It was kind of difficult to capture the whirlpools, but you might see the edge I was talking about above.

Fun.