I am stationed in okinawa Japan and am very interested in taxidermy I am very new to it I've only done two bird mounts and would like to expand my experience but now that Im over here I have no idea how to obtain specimens that would survive the mail service or any thing else I could do to try and develop my skills if you have any advice please tell me I need all I can get thanks for your time.
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fish, there's some great bass fishing in Japan. When I was there the last time I tried ordering videos on taxidermy and customs wouldn't let them through. Leave your address and I'll send some tapes to you. You can receive Breakthrough and Taxidermy Today to occupy your time untill you gat back to the "world" Go to the base library and talk to the person in charge they will order them as educational material.
Isn't that the land of the Mandarin duck? (It sort of looks like a wood duck on acid) That is the specimen that I'd be after. How about the local markets...sure that you can find all types of fresh birds there!
Nicholas, you're going to have a tough time while you're on The Rock. Most of the small animals, other than the rats running the benjo ditches, have been killed by the habu's. You can try them on for size or the occasional mongoose you might find in along the occasional rice paddy. If you get up around what used to be called Nago (probably still is), you MAY find some of the wild pigs that lived around in there. If you're stationed around Okuma there may be some there as well. And there's ALWAYS those big purple doves. (We used to use stainless steel tubing and the plastic caps to plug aircraft lines. We'd imbed a heavy wire in the cap and hot glue it and that was our "dart". Then we'd sneak out into the jungle and dart us a couple of them to have for supper. At that time we had to dodge the RAFP (Ryukyuan Armed Forces Police). Don't know what the Japanese police call themselves now. Sometimes I'd get a buddy going into Korea to bring me back a couple ringneck pheasants from there.
one of those banana spiders, there as big as groundhogs! LOL. Look me up when you get stateside, I'll send ya some freebe's. Semper Fi Devil Dog!
www.buckeyetaxidermy.com
I was going to say the "Rock" as well but I didn't want to make him feel bad by comparing the beautiful island of Okinawa to a prison. I guess he could find some good mounts down on "creep street". Nicholis fish are your best bet where your at.
It's a tourist trap from mainland Japanese now and the native Okinawans still have a few hard feelings about the history of their two countries even if they are united now. But you should have seen it when I got there in 1964. Trust me, time has been good to Okinawa.
I really appreciate all the input here I was searching all over the internet trying to find specimens that I could order and it sounds like there are some unique ones over here if I can just locate them. I'll post some pictures when I finally get my hands on a specimen. John my address is
CPL Moody, Nicholas R
3rd Recon Bn B Co. 4th Plt
Unit 36180
FPO, AP 96602-6180
THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL THE ADVICE
I'm in the Air Force stationed in Turkey right now. I'm hoping to go on a couple hunts and some fishin trips here to get my specimens. Have you tried your "Outdoor Rec" or MWR facility? Maybe they have some contacts. I have an Uncle that's a former Marine, now retired, working on Iwakuni. Not sure how far away that is from you but maybe he'd be willin to send you some pheasant or fish. Have you ordered all your supplies online? I haven't tried any mounts yet. I'm back to the states in a few months, but I can't wait to get started. Good luck!