Minoru Yamada thinks there is something rather beautiful -- poetic even -- about the location of the headquarters of JAMSTEC (Japan Marine Science and Technology Center) in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture. And this has nothing to do with being right beside the sea, with a great view across Tokyo Bay to the Boso Peninsula -- though many might think this reason enough.

"Look up behind us," he said, pointing inland. "On that hill there's a shell mound, one of the oldest and largest ever found in Japan. Excavated in Showa 25 (1950), it dates back 10,000 years." The most amazing discovery was a fishhook for catching perch. It was made of stag horn, which has no smell to warn off fish, suggesting Jomon culture was very intelligent; people then were on the cutting edge of marine technology.

"Now here's JAMSTEC, on the cutting edge in the 21st century," Yamada noted. "Cyclical, don't you think?" Ten thousand years ago, sea level was 40 meters lower than it is today and the continental shelf exposed. After the ice age, water levels and the temperature began to rise and are still rising, with tropical fish native to Okinawa increasingly seen around Hachijojima. In the Jomon period, 2000 B.C., JAMSTEC and both our homes were 10 meters higher and maybe farther inland than today.