I learned how to surf for the first time here in Hawaii about 10 years ago. When I was a university student, I received the opportunity to stay in Hawaii about a month with my best friend, Rev. Tone. Since then, we visited Hawaii once a year to surf until coming here as ministers. At that time, we were working part time job in Japan. This is why we had money saved. But the money we saved was not enough. We were thinking that we would get a license for scuba-diving here in Hawaii with our saving money. We wanted to do this because getting a license of scuba-diving in Japan was very expensive. But we forgot to save additional money for scuba-diving equipment. We had just enough money only to obtain a license alone. We finally gave up to get a license for scuba-diving.

As we could not get a license and also buy scuba-diving gear, we decided to buy a board. By comparison, the cost of surfboards in Japan is more expensive than here in Hawaii. If we bought a board in Japan, the cost would be about three times the amount in Hawaii, at that time. The day we bought our own boards, we went to North Shore. The waves on the North Shore were very high that day. We did not think at that time that high waves were so dangerous. We were ignorant of this fact. Though we tried to surf with our new boards, we could not surf at all. We began to sense that the ocean was dangerous. The waves in the ocean were rolling in with strong power. Suddenly we were engulfed and rolling in the waves. Somehow, miraculously, we escaped from the high waves and landed on the beach. However, our both noses were running without stopping because we swallowed a lot of sea water. I thought I almost drowned. This was my first experience of surfing here in Hawaii. After learning how to surf in Hawaii, we often went surfing in the Japan Sea as well as in the Pacific Ocean.

I was born in Toyama Prefecture which is next to the Japan Sea. Since I was a child, I often went to the ocean to play. Though I have been to the Japan Sea since childhood, I am now living here in the Hawaii islands surrounded by Hawaiian ocean waters. I always feel that it is different from my native prefectural’s ocean. The ocean waters in Japan are of a darker murky color. But here in Hawaii the ocean waters are of a beautiful deep blue green color. Also, the salinity, creatures in the ocean, and many other things are different from things in Japan.

About three years ago, the Japan Sea was polluted by leaking oil from a Russian ship that broke in half. People living around the Japan Sea, especially the fishermen, suffered a lot of damages. People were desperately collecting the spilled crude oil from the ocean and beaches every day. According to reports given by volunteers, the oil was washing up on the beaches and getting below the beaches. So collecting oil was very a difficult task. If the oil could be burned, it would be easier to handle. But if the oil was burned, it would cause further pollution.

Also, the Japan Sea has peculiar swells in the ocean. Especially, during winter time the swells can be quite large. This swells in the ocean made it very difficult to collect the spilled oil. Before the pollution, the swells of the ocean were a benefit to the fishermen and people who eat fishes. Because of swells of swimming in the ocean, the fish taste especially good, because their flesh becomes firmer. However, most of the fishes which lived in the Japan Sea were gone, killed by the crude oil’s toxic effect. Just like the living creatures dying in the Japan Sea, we humans too are dying. We do not know whether it will be today or tomorrow. Let us hear the voiceless voice of Amida Buddha.