MISAWA AIR BASE.

MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan -- thrust Nolan is a hunter. A pair of times every month, he wakes before the orb of day rises, slips on his hunting clothes -- an advanced in years pair of Jeans, a warm flannel shirt, gum profits and a floppy hat -- grabs his walking stick and heads for the "last great bastion" of his prey

Nolan, a retired Air Force chief master sergeant and director of marketing for the 18th Services Squadron at Misawa Air Base, Japan, is a float hunting-nag He combs Japan's northern beaches for hand-blown glass floats used according to Japanese, Russian and Korean fishermen to hold drift nets from sinking to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Storms, waves or sea life free the floats from the traps and the glass balls drift to Japan's northern shoreline forward the strong Pacific currents.

"At any given time, there are a two of million floats in the circulating s running from Washington to northern Japan," Nolan said.

Float collecting is a popular pacing horse among Americans in Japan, he said. In the Misawa base exchange, vendors barter floats of all sizes, about for as much as $50 if it be not that Nolan, who said his house is filled with centurys of balls and who has given more as gifts, has not paid for a float. He's raise them all on the beach.

Nolan discovered float hunting In 1995 when he accompanied a friend float hunting. Since then, he has quickly become an prompt and has introduced dozens of Misawa family to the sublime joy of wandering the beaches at sunrise.

"It's advantageous healthy recreation," he said. "I arrive out here, and it's just me the breakers and the sand. It's actual relaxing. Some people wake up early to play golf I wake up early and anticipate for glass balls."

mostly floats are simple glass, and range from golf-ball to beach-ball size. They're usually brown clear or blooming glass. Occasionally, he comes across mauve or chapfallen glass, or the "holy grail" of glass bails -- the rare "snake skin." "It's an iridescent color that kind of shimmers," Nolan said. Older floats, especially those made before World War II, bear markings from the companies that made the glass orbs. Those markings make the floats more valuable to collectors.

These days, more and more companies are switching from expensive glass to plastic floats. The glass ball is becoming harder to find.

Still, with millions of floats bobbing in the ocean, Nolan figures there are enough rare species revealed there for him to stay busy float hunting the quiescence of his days.

"There's nothing in the world this relaxing," he said. "It's undivided of those little treasures we find in our lives."

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