January 29: Dolphins!

Today I touched a dolphin. This is not as weird as it sounds, since I am specifically here in Japan to write about dolphin skin. My host at the Kyoto Institute of Technology took me on a two-hour trip to an aquarium on the coast, where we first watched a dolphin show. Afterwards, as the audience dispersed, the two of us were invited forward to get up close and personal. Everyone else was wearing galoshes and rain gear. I was wearing Amber's black, wool, floor length, St. John's coat. But, hey, no big deal, the salt stains only show on the inside lining. (Don't tell Amber, maybe she won't notice.)

Anyway, dolphins are either as human-loving as dogs, amazingly compliant, or extremely-well-motivated by being fed fish, because they certainly didn't mind being man-handled. One did a nose dive and held his tail up in the air as we felt it. Another jumped up onto the dock for us to feel his side. Both kept their dolphin smile the entire time.

Dolphin skin, it turns out, has the consistency of rubber, though the texture is smoother than that -- slightly more like leather. (Oooh, yuck. Leather is skin, isn't it? Scratch the leather simile. Let's just go with vinyl instead.) The dolphin part was cool, but it's where it went from there that gets interesting. It turns out this was like the petting zoo aquarium. Who knew? First, I touched an octopus, a creature that was decidedly less excited about human touch than the dolphin but nonetheless fascinating to feel -- so diaphanous as to seem almost not there. I can see how it could squeeze itself into a bottle. Next I got to touch a sand shark -- kinda gritty; a seal -- like wet cow-hide; a sea slug -- not as gross as you'd expect; a sting ray -- vinyl again; and an urchin -- which was, well, spiky.

But the best thing in the aquarium -- and I didn't get to touch this, but boy did I want to -- was the "leafy sea dragon." Go google this creature right now. They're like something Dr. Seuss would have dreamed up. Yellow, and a foot long, they look like a giant sea horse that's let a jade plant grow all over it. I have never seen a creature so perfectly camouflaged as something it isn't. You'd think it was yellow seaweed if you didn't see its little nose. They're from Australia and , if anyone is listening, I want a whole aquarium of them in my home.