Okinawa: "Area 51" on Wheels

For all the believers out there....
Coincidentally, while driving near an Air Force Base the other day, my wife noticed that some opaque orbs in the back of a car looked like Aliens... or something to that effect...hummmm.... Subsequently, I noticed that the license plate was simply.... 51. Wallah... a Mobile "Area 51. "
Without question, this has to be an overseas extention of the infamous USofA Area 51. "There heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere!"
Oh, By-the-way......If we disappear for any reason, look for this Car :) !!

Residential Drunk

A quick look out the window early one Sunday Afternoon (Around 1-2 pm) yielded a rather drunk fellow and his Mamma-San or friend trying to get his butt home.

What I did not get were the photos of the children that were jumping around the scene and the car or two who could not pass this fellow when he was sprawlled out in the alleyways..... Poor fella. :(

Note his jogging gear.. wait maybe he went running and had some beers after a very successful run....


Perhaps this is not so uniquely Okinawan, but this is s first for us... Seeing Mamma-san dragging "Daddy" home.. and at such an early time on a Sunday Afternoon.


Wait, I think that I have been this guy, but only in the Party Districts of Tokyo and not in the calm and mild mannered neighborhoods.

house demolition

Behind the house that we rent here in Okinawa, there's a run-down empty house that apparently wasn't worth saving. I noticed the crews out there one day and tracked their progress over the next three days.





This tractor has like a pincher on it (looks a little like a wire stripper, I think) that grabs and "eats" the concrete.. Most homes are made of concrete or stone (maybe because of the high humidity), so you can't just burn a house down like they might do in the States..





you can really get a sense of how close they were working to the other houses in the neighborhood - as far as I could tell, there was no damage...



and viola! you'd never know there was a house there...

Ishiganto

In keeping with the spirit of Halloween, this post will explain the tradition of the Ishiganto.

Ishiganto are typically carved stones placed at intersections to ward off evil spirits, negative energy or bad luck. In some Asian societies, it is believed that evil travels only in a straight line. So Ishiganto are placed on the gates of homes at T or Y intersections to deflect the energy and prevent the evil from entering the dwelling. (My information comes from Okinawa Living magazine, a free publication to service members here.. fabulous photographs, interesting content, and great design, too!)

As it so happens, our house sits in front of a T intersection, so we have our very own Ishiganto to protect us:



The characters are "ishi," or "stone," in English; "gan," which means "to strike" and "tou," or "dare to." There are a few versions on where the name originated, but Ishiganto is thought to be the name of a god or a mythical warrior. Evil spirits would see the name and flee, fearing the god/warrior's presence and forthcoming wrath...

Okinawan Fairies

Since moving to Okinawa, we've seen these statues all over the place.. near parks, business parking lots... sitting on buildings.. of course, every time I see one, I'm dumbfounded trying to figure out what the heck it's supposed to be. So we finally got the scoop from our sensei (teacher).

Apparently, these pointy-eared, red-haired, diaper-wearing creatures are Okinawan spirits that, according to legend, live in banyan trees and like to play with children.. Or as Americans would call them, fairies or sprites. Oh, and I should mention that they are "good" spirits (they don't look too menacing, really).

The Japanese name for them is Kijimuna.. according to Wikipedia: "Kijimunaa are known for playing harmless pranks. Kijimunaa can also be helpful, but they are quick to change their minds. They enjoy fishing and eating fish. The only thing they fear is the octopus. Belief in kijimunaa is representative of the spiritual power of trees in the Ryukyu belief system."

Banana Man..

Before you start thinking "dejavu!" - yes, this is the same post we put on our family website. But it seemed like the perfect addition to a blog about unique Okinawa...

One our way home from lunch last weekend, we stopped to check out the road-side stand that we'd seen so many times in passing. We knew it had something to do with bananas because of the signs leading up to it, and discovered a very "hippie" looking Japanese couple making banana smoothies out of the back of a van.. I'm not kidding, the guy's wife went up and started the van so he could run the blender!! I would probably never buy something like that in the states, but we just couldn't help ourselves!!




250 Yen for one, please... (that's roughly $2.50)


"Banana Man" poses for a photo


This was the inside of the card he gave us, I have no clue what it says, but I love the drawing of the little dudes with big noses wearing banana peels on their heads! I'm guessing this was some kind of Okinawan tradition...

It's a nice day for a .... Yellow wedding??

These newlyweds apparently went down to the beach for a lovely photo-op... But it seems they are a couple of decades behind with the highlighter-yellow wedding dress! (I especially like the black tubing and details..) Then again, they may be trendsetters for the retro movement! I admit, it is a dress worthy of an 80's rock video - Bowie could have some fun with it..







I thought the groom, walking way ahead in the last photo, seemed in a hurry to get it all over with. Or maybe his eyes just couldn't handle the blinding yellow anymore...

Shisa

These little guys are a miniature pair of "Shisas." The are used somewhat like gargoyles, and most Okinawan houses have a pair of them either on the rooftop, or on either side of a gate or entrance to the property. The open-mouthed Shisa is supposed to be scaring away bad fortune, like a guard dog. The closed-mouthed one is holding in the good fortune. I've heard it said that the former is a male, the latter a female, but I'm not sure there's a difference.




Shisas can also be found flanking doors to businesses, apartment buildings, city buildings... they are everywhere in Okinawa! They range in size from keychains to tall-as-me statues. You can read more about their history and see more photos here!

More hours in the day...

Have you ever wished there were more hours in a day? To get work done, to have more time with your family... maybe to drink coffee? Apparently, the local Starbucks here has achieved the impossible - they have added 2 extra hours to our day!



See? ....They are open until 26:00! Know what I'm going to do with the two extra hours? Sleep.... :)

new blog...

We are starting an "extension" blog, if you will, to highlight some of our adventures, experiences, and just plain oddities in Okinawa. We will most likely have more questions than answers about the things we see and share with you, but we'll do the best we can to give you a taste of what life is like here on Okinawa - at least, life as a gai-gin (foreigner).

Stay tuned.....