The two eventually rounded up fishing and returned to Leo’s island. Miyoko, standing in a thigh-high deep shore, started opening the fish and cleaning the fish guts.  Miyoko cameto Palau where there was no fish shop.  She was now very good at processing fish. Miyoko decided to use the outrigger board of the canoe as a cutting board. The top of the boardwas flat and spacious enough for her project in hand.  Miyoko did not like to attract sharks with the smell of fish blood, and finished processing the fish at the speed of abullet train.

    Miyoko put the cleaned fish in a bucket and brought them up to the beach. She saw Michael stacking branches of pine and palms.  Miyoko approached him wondering what he was doing.

    "Oh, Miyoko, are you done? I'll light the fire now."

    "Why do you light a fire?"

    "Because we smoke fish, right?"

    "Okaay ... you light the palm leaves and then what will you do with it?"

    "I've collected all the leaves that aren't completely dry, so I think they'll make a lot of smoke. Then line up the fish on this wire net and hang it between this tree and that tree. Adjust it over the fire, and the fish will be smoked.”

    Michael proudly showed the rusty wire net picked up from the pile of junk that Leo had created in the jungle. The wire net Michael was now holding was about the size of a desk. In fact, Miyoko remembered this wire net, and secretly thought that it would be perfect for drying fish in the sun.

    Miyoko found Michael's idea very interesting.  From the time Miyoko thought about making dried fish, her mind was to hang the cleaned fish in the direct sun, as has been done in Japan's seaside villages for centuries.  She never thought about smoking it with fire. On the other hand, Michael followed the American common sense that meat should be smoked like jerky.

    "I was thinking of arranging fish on the net and exposing them to direct sun on the beach to dry them."

    "No, flavor is definitely better by smoking."

    "All right. Let's do that."

    Since Miyoko agreed, Michael lighted the green branches. Eventually the fire became stronger and created a tremendous amount of smoke. When one stands downwind, the smoke stung the eyes and was hard to breathe. They both cried and coughed. Every time the wind changed the direction, they had to adjust the net. It was not easy to keep the smoke on the fish on the net all the time. It was difficult to constantly adjust the fire, move the position of the net according to the swirling wind, and turn the fish.  The smell of smoke completely soaked into their skin and hair. It took the whole afternoon and the fish jerky was done.

    As they noticed while smoking the fish, unfortunately this pink fish was not that tasty. After coming to Palau, Miyoko caught and ate various tropical fish, but she thought it was rare to have such tasteless fish like this one. Miyoko realized that the simple sun-dried fish made in Japan was tasty only because those fish were carefully chosen for this kind of treatment.