Things We See Often in Okinawa

As many of you know, Russ and I (and the kids) spent three years in Iwakuni, Japan (on the mainland) in the early 90's. We vacationed in Okinawa once and even then noticed quite a few differences between the mainland and Okinawa. Okinawa became a US territory after WWII but was returned to Japan in 1972. There are at least 12 or more US bases located here and the US has been a strong influence here since the war. Because of the number of Americans located here, we've found Okinawa to be more Americanized than mainland Japan. Okinawans like to think of themselves as separate from the mainland Japanese. They have their own language and many customs that are different.

We've almost been here for six months now and I've found that the more I drive around the island that there are things that I see just about everywhere. Many of these are unique to Okinawa and some were also common on the mainland. So here are a few items I've been photographing for the blog because they are very much a part of Okinawa.

SHISA DOGS - You can't go very far in Okinawa without being greeted by Shisa dogs. We see them placed on rooftops and at entrances to stores, offices, parks and homes. They are believed to protect them  from the evil spirits. Shisa usually come in pairs - one with their mouth open to ward off evil spirits and one with a closed mouth to keep the good spirits in. Everywhere we go we meet a new set of Shisa making their meanest ugly face.   Russ gave me a small set of Shisas for Christmas. I'm not usually one to criticize a gift but when I opened them I reacted before I even had time to think.  I wrinkled my nose and said. "I really dislike Shisa dogs. They're so ugly". He laughed and said, "but you're always taking pictures of them". I shook my head and said that's just for the blog not because I love them. So I now have shisa dogs which magically appeared on Russ's shelf in the new apartment because they didn't really fit with my decor. I'm trying to make sure he's safe from all those evil spirits hiding out there.  I've been hoping that someone will kidnap them but so far they are warding off those evil kidnapping spirits so I guess they are doing their job. I was a little worried when we moved to the new apartment because in Ishikawa they have Shisa Dogs about every ten feet on the sidewalks. I told Russ there must be a lot of evil spirits in Ishikawa for them to have that many Shisa along the sidewalks. So far we haven't met any yet so I think we'll be ok. Here's a few pictures of Shisa's from around the nearby towns. You can read more about them here.

This hotel isn't taking any chances of bad spirits
coming their way.

My Shisa Dogs that arrived at Christmastime

VENDING MACHINES are a big business in Japan. I'm not sure who is employed to keep them all filled but whoever it is has their work cut out for them. On just about every street corner, even in the more remote areas you will always find vending machines. There are probably 30 or more varieties of beverages to choose from in each one. You will usually find cokes, teas, coffees, fruit drinks/juices, mineral waters plain and carbonated in just about every one. If you've got yen in your pocket for drinks, you never have to worry about being dehydrated. I don't worry about carrying a water with me when I go walking because I can always find a vending machine to buy it from cold whenever I need it. Many areas also have ice cream vending machines if you need a little something to cool down with and cigarette machines are also very common for the many smokers on the island.

BLUE SEAL ICE CREAM - Blue Seal Ice Cream had it's beginnings in Okinawa in 1948 when a factory called Foremost Ltd was started on one of the military bases after the war. In 1963, Blue Seal moved out of the base and to it's new home in Urasoe City, Maki Port. It's name was changed to Blue Seal in 1976 and has become one of the most loved ice cream places on the island. Russ and I had our first taste of Blue Seal this winter and loved it. One of my favorites is Foremost Chocolate. It's a deep dark chocolate ice cream with a rich and creamy taste and it's coconut ice cream is a close second for me. I love the atmosphere of the restaurants. It's decorated like a 60's diner. Gives us a little feel of America in the middle of Okinawa. Since our first visit to Blue Seal we've seen many branches of the ice cream shop all over the island. You can read more about Blue Seal Ice Cream here . Here's a few pictures from our visits there.

That's Foremost Chocolate in the right corner.

Me and my Foremost Chocolate

Love the 60's diner decor

FAMILY MARTS AND LAWSONS STATIONS - On just about every corner in Okinawa you will find either a Family Mart or Lawsons Station store. They are very similar to our 7/11 stores. They offer your basic groceries and snacks for the students after school and travelers needing a quick bite to eat. I grew up with Lawson's stores in my hometown (same logo) but they had long since closed them all. I remember stopping many times at our local Lawsons stores after school for snacks as we walked home from school so it's kind of comforting for me to see them still going strong here. After looking it up on Wikipedia I found that Lawson's opened its first store in Japan in 1974 and it now has more than 12,276 Lawsons stores throughout the country of Japan. Mitsubishi is its parent company since it is it's largest shareholder. Family Mart began in Taiwan in 1973 and made its way to Japan as well. It now has over 11,328 throughout the country. In the main towns you will literally see either a Family Mart or Lawson's store about every 2-3 miles. They both seem to be popular stops for the school kids as they walk home from school.

DAISO & 100 YEN STORES - Daiso is a popular 100 yen store here on the islands. You will find one in just about every neighborhood. They all carry similar items but each one has things you won't find at other Daiso stores so it's fun to stop at each one and see what they have that is different. It's one of my favorite places to go for washi tape (a popular scrapbooking embellishment). It's basically a sheer, decorative masking tape. They also carry useful things like batteries and kitchen items and decorative items. Everything in the store is 100 yen + tax. (less than a dollar).  Some of the other stores also have sections in their stores that they call their 100 yen areas. It's always fun to see what you can find when perusing some of these stores. There are usually several items I question "this is only 100 yen?" and somehow think they will charge more when I get to the register but I'm always pleasantly surprised when they just count the number of items I have (big or small) and multiply it times 100 yen.

BANYAN TREES - These trees caught my eye the first few days we were here and I've been fascinated with them ever since. They are huge and have such elaborate root systems on them. Each one is a little different but for me they seem like they would be great trees to have a reading chair under in the summertime. I can also picture my son climbing in these trees. It comes from the fig family and in most Asian countries it is considered to be a sacred tree. You can read more about them here . I love seeing them all over the island and it is probably my favorite tree here. Here's a few pictures of some on base.

HAPPINESS ABOUNDS IN OKINAWA - Another thing I've noticed since arriving here is that "Happiness" is found everywhere so I started taking pictures of all the many "happy things" I've found so far.

You can rent happiness and choose to live here.

You can fill your house with happiness furniture

Write about your day in your happy journal

Or tell your super happy diary your deepest
thoughts.

The bags from the Happiness store were
personalized for me...Happiness & D?

Do your laundry at the Good Smile laundry mat

You can put on a "happy deo" body sheet

Shop for Happy Goods at this store

Drive around town in a Joypop mini-van

Bring Joy to your dog at the Wagging Tail

I got my hair done at the Joy Beauty Salon

You can buy a new purse at the
Happiness Store (which I did)

Make your face feel younger with
Pure Smile face masks (I enjoyed mine)

There are so many many ways to find happiness in Okinawa. I'm so "happy" I get to live here for awhile and experience all this joy. Come and visit us and you, too, can find happiness in Okinawa.

Keeping Busy

One of the first things I do when I move to a new place is find what they offer in the way of classes so that I can meet new people as well as learn something new. One of my mottos in life is "Never Stop Learning". It's hard to be bored when there is so much to be learned every day.

Since we've had an uncharacteristically long wait to get into our apartment, I knew to keep my sanity I needed to find something to do to keep busy. I saw in one of the base advertisements that they offer a monthly "washi paper craft" class at the Family Readiness office. I asked my friend, Charla if she'd like to do the class with me and she seemed thrilled to try something new as well. The class was free so we really didn't expect much and had no idea what we would be making but were both pleasantly surprised when we found we were making something useful. The first month we made cell phone holders. We were basically covering cardboard with washi paper but when you put all the pieces together it makes a very sturdy, useful item. We both liked it so much that we signed up for several more months of washi paper classes. The teacher is Okinawan and she had a translator in the room for any questions that she didn't understand. The second class we made pencil holders and I think next month (March) we are supposed to make washi paper covered eggs. Washi paper is a unique paper. Very sturdy with a sort of fiber like texture. It comes in large sheets with very ornate designs on them. If you'd like to know more about washi paper click here to read about how it's made.  It's not like your average paper for sure.

Cell Phone Holder

Pencil Holder

Before we left the Family Readiness Office in January, Charla and I signed up for several other classes they offered. She ended up having to miss one of them due to a sick child but I went to all of them. They offered a "space A" class later in the month and  we were able to learn more about the process of taking trips on a military flight. Russ and I flew on MAC flights several times when living in Iwakuni but I wanted to learn what had changed as well as refresh my knowledge of the process. It was a very informative class and I'm hopeful I can take a few military hops while here to visit some of the other areas.


Next, we attended a "Grocery shopping in Japan" class to learn how to read some of the labels and signs so we know what we're purchasing. Living in Japan has it's own challenges when you don't know how to read kanji and/or katakana. We definitely do a lot of guessing.The instructor gave us a handy little booklet with many key phrases like low-fat, no-fat, per item or per unit as well as how to ask for certain items in Japanese. It was nice to be able to ask questions about items we were unsure of. I found it interesting that there is an ice machine at the registers that is free to use to put around your frozen items or meats to keep them cold until you get home with them. I regularly saw the Okinawans using this but didn't realize it was free and what it was there for. I know that will be useful in the summertime when the temps and humidity are both high. It was also interesting to note that there are some canned drinks that look like a can of fruit juice but are actually alcoholic beverages. She showed us the symbol to look for to know if it has alcohol in the contents. I noted the locations of several of the items I regularly used in Iwakuni for my Japanese recipes. Another informative and useful class. After working up an appetite with all these classes, Charla and I always allowed time to go to lunch and try out a new restaurant. In these pictures we randomly picked a restaurant near my apartment and ordered by the pictures. It was actually very yummy and we were pleased with our selections. Sometimes you can never really tell what you're getting. Neither of us like fish so we order cautiously most of the time.

One day while reading one of the base magazines I noticed that the Arts and Crafts Center was offering an Advanced Photography Class so I signed up for that. It was two Sunday afternoons with a week separating them. For the price of the class I was a little disappointed because it was definitely not advanced and there was very little content to the class.. Most that came to the class didn't know how to use their cameras so it felt more like a beginner class. The instructor was a Canon user and she wasn't familiar with how to change settings in the Nikons. It turned out that the majority of the class were Nikon girls so we basically spent a lot of money to be told to look in our manuals to figure it out. I helped her out by showing the Nikon girls where things were on their cameras to help the class move along. I guess I don't think of "what is shutter speed and what is aperture" as items to be taught in an advanced class. I was hoping for someone to show us how to do photography tricks like the best settings for a sunset or how to capture lightning or fireworks. Needless to say I was quite disappointed in that one. Seemed like the other girls liked it though so it may have been just me. 

Russ has been trying to learn how to play the guitar better during his evening hours. He put my guitar and a few music books in the quick shipment so he'd have something musical to tinker around with while waiting for his piano to get here. I'm glad he did because I think he'd be going into withdrawals by now waiting for our shipment to be delivered all these months. I really miss his piano playing in the evenings and that is something I'm totally looking forward to when we move to our apartment this month. Since he can't run, he also tries to either walk or go to the gym several nights each week and on the weekends walks at the nearby athletic park. He's read quite a few books this winter too. 

The weather in January here has been super rainy and cooler.  Fifty degrees here feels quite cold with the winds off of the ocean on both sides of us. I've been content to stay in more these months working on scrapbook projects, writing letters, doing jigsaw puzzles or writing.  In January I spent several days at the library or USO with my computer using their wireless internet. We finally got our internet hooked up at the temporary apartment on February 3rd so most of this month has been spent catching up on all the computer updates that needed to be done and watching some Netflix or Hulu shows we've missed. I found a few series sets on DVD at the thrift store and we've spent our evenings working our way through some of those or we pull out the games we got for Christmas. On the nice days I take a walk with my camera and find things to photograph. Sometimes it's flowers, and sometimes it's signs or buildings that I find interesting. I'm trying to learn my camera and I've found the best way to get familiar with what settings I like in certain circumstances is to just play until I achieve the look I'm wanting to see. 

On one of my camera walks I met a charming Okinawan lady who invited me in for tea. She saw me taking pictures of one of her flowers and walked over to tell me the name of the plant. We stood at her fence for awhile and tried to communicate with our choppy Japanese and English. (she knew about as much English as I knew Japanese). Then she asked if I'd like to come in for tea. I thoroughly enjoyed myself that afternoon. She fixed a fruity flavored tea and put out some chocolates for me. I used google translate to help with some of our conversation but I'm not sure how well it translated things. She didn't seem offended by anything so I guess it did okay with its translations. I was going back into my memory banks of 25 years to remember Japanese words I learned in Iwakuni. We managed to communicate fairly well. I showed her pictures of my grand kids and kids and she showed me pictures of hers. She gave me some peppermint sprigs from her garden to take home. She had a nice green house in her middle room as well as beautiful plants in her yard so it was obvious she loved gardening. I would love to find her again and spend more time with her. 

We're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel now. Our apartment inspection date was moved to February 16th and the contracts have been approved by housing so hopefully we'll get the movers set up to deliver our HHG (household goods) next week sometime. This girl is quite excited about that.