JAWing On – Life on Okinawa

Each week we have people who try to use the club as their personal repayment bank. These people try to bring in a snack or soft drink for employees out of “‘friendship” and then expect a free drink as repayment. First, if you give someone a present out of friendship, it is suppose to be with no strings attached. Otherwise it’s not a gift. Second, we do not pay other people’s’ personal debts. If a favor is done for someone, it is their responsibility to pay their own debts, not ours. If they owe a debt, they can always pay it back their self and shouldn’t expect us to pay it for them! If an employee owes someone a drink, then they can always buy a drink for that person. Taking a beer from the club stock is not the same as paying back a debt. It is the same as us paying the employee’s personal debt.

On Okinawa, it isn’t uncommon for people to let their dogs run loose at night or early morning. These people do so to let the pets relieve their selves in someone else’s yard. This is one on the laziest and rudest behaviors a neighbor can perform. Because of the sub-tropic climate, most home owners spend quite a bit of time on yard work. It isn’t very amusing to have someone else’s pet dump on your clean yard. Many of the locals use pets as nothing more than status symbols. We have one neighbor that has two very beautiful and energetic black Labs. These poor animals are kept on extremely short chains on a concrete carport. Very seldom are the animals taken off the chains, and when the animals are it’s the situation I talked about earlier. If someone can’t take the time to care for an animal properly, they should really consider getting a robot pet!!!