What Was the Name of That Jam Band with Trey Anastasio?

  • Author Author Ashikaga
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I love fish. I should say "fishes". I grew up in a household with many animals and we had many goldfish as well as tropical fishes and wild freshwater fishes that had been caught in the local rivers and streams.

Back in Boston, I had 3 fish tanks in my room. One was a "Hawaiian Reef" tank in which I kept reef fishes and creatures from Hawaiian waters including my beloved Puka the Yellow Tang. Another one was an "Amazon River" tank with fishes found in Amazon River with aquatic plants. The other one was a "Lake Victoria" tank which housed the cichlid fishes from the African lake.

I really enjoyed trying to recreate their natural habitats in these tanks. It was landscaping as well as animal husbandry.

There is a famous public aquarium in Boston called New England Aquarium. I had a membership there and would visit at least twice a week. I would just look at the fishes for hours on end.

I loved it so much I ended up working there as a volunteer aquarist for a few years. My main responsibility was to take care of the fishes in their research facility where they were breeding the cichlid fishes from Lake Victoria. I also helped them in the kitchen preparing the food for the animals in their Giant Ocean Tank, which is home to many different species found in Carribean reef including Sand Tiger Sharks and Green Sea Turtles. They were using restaurant-quality fish and while cutting up squid for the sharks or the turtles, I would steal a taste here and there. lol

When it came the time for me to come back to Japan, I had a huge fish-stew dinner for my friends since taking my fhishes home with me was not an option. Nooooooo〜〜〜〜 I'm kidding. I donated most of them to a tropical fish store where I knew the owner very well. The rest, I gave to my friends.

I really miss having fishes in my life. Yesterday, I drove my friend Mina to a goldfish store because she wanted to buy some medakas for her pond. It just brought back all the fond memories of watching my fishes swim around happily in their tanks.

I am thinking about setting up a tank. Probably a freshwater tank with some local species of medakas and loaches with lots of plants. There is a nice little stream running through my neighborhood I am sure I can catch some there.
I am getting SO excited just thinking about it!

It is too bad there are no public aquariums where I live. My dream would be working in one.

BTW, the answer to the question in the title is PHISH.

Comments

aww its a shame there are no aquariums around Ashikaga-shi. Have you ever thought about training to be a marine biologist when you were younger? I think I would kill any fish (or any living pet for that matter...). I love aquariums too...when they're not swimming with lots of school children. They're usually the first place I visit if I go to a city :P
 
A marine biologist.... no, it never occured to me. As a student, I was never very motivated/goal oriented. lol
 
Ahhh yeah I was never goal oriented much during high school either...

All the kids in my class are fresh out of high school...I wonder what it must be like to do a undergrad course when your in your 30's or 40's?

I hope you can live your dream someday Ashikaga-kun :) Do you miss Boston much now that your back home in Japan?
 
I do miss Boston. When I see a picture of the city on the internet or watch a movie set in Boston, I get a little nostalgic. It WAS home to me for 20 years... Although, thanks to the internet, it is not that hard to get in touch with my friends back there and I can keep up with what is going on fairly easily which makes you feel you're not that far away. When I left Japan, USA and Japan seemed world away but now, not so much. What DID we do before the internet!?
 
Tailor your train travel!

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Ashikaga
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