JAWing On – Life on Okinawa

Saturday – June 18, 2005 [C (8/365) D (2/365) LW (10/365) SH (14/365)]

This Year’s Total: S-sunny (1/365) C-cloudy (8/365) PC-partly cloudy (7/365)
D-drizzle (2/365) R-rainy (1/365) SR-scattered rain showers (7/365)
W-windy (6/365) LW-light winds (10/365)
H-humid (2/365) SH-slightly humid (14/365)

For those of you who feel like you’ll loose it if there’s one more drop of rain, don’t feel alone. It seems we have had a four day total accumulation of rain that is a record breaker. The past four days has given us more rain than the entire month of June for the first time in one hundred thirteen years! Good news is that the mini-monsoon season should just about be over.

Friday – June 17, 2005 [C (7/365) R (1/365) LW (9/365) SH (13/365)]

This Year’s Total: S-sunny (1/365) C-cloudy (7/365) PC-partly cloudy (7/365)
D-drizzle (1/365) R-rainy (1/365) SR-scattered rain showers (7/365)
W-windy (6/365) LW-light winds (9/365)
H-humid (2/365) SH-slightly humid (13/365)

Thursday – June 16, 2005 [C (6/365) SR (7/365) LW (8/365) H (2/365)]

This Year’s Total: S-sunny (1/365) C-cloudy (6/365) PC-partly cloudy (7/365)
D-drizzle (1/365) SR-scattered rain showers (7/365)
W-windy (6/365) LW-light winds (8/365)
H-humid (2/365) SH-slightly humid (12/365)

Wednesday – June 15, 2005 [C (5/365) SR (6/365) W (6/365) SH (12/365)]

This Year’s Total: S-sunny (1/365) C-cloudy (5/365) PC-partly cloudy (7/365)
D-drizzle (1/365) SR-scattered rain showers (6/365)
W-windy (6/365) LW-light winds (7/365)
H-humid (1/365) SH-slightly humid (12/365)

Tuesday – June 14, 2005 [C (4/365) SR (5/365) W (5/365) SH (11/365)]

This Year’s Total: S-sunny (1/365) C-cloudy (4/365) PC-partly cloudy (7/365)
D-drizzle (1/365) SR-scattered rain showers (5/365)
W-windy (5/365) LW-light winds (7/365)
H-humid (1/365) SH-slightly humid (11/365)

One of the more unusual questions I’ve been asked by a local male while tending the bar at the club was, “Is being married to an Okinawan man better?”

I didn’t think this question could be answered honestly without an in depth discussion. Given the situation, being asked while I was busy at work, I also found it to be somewhat a leading question. So I just smiled.

If I had had enough time I would have explained that given that I have only been married once I have no point of comparison. Also, I married my husband for the person he is not because he is from Okinawa. I wouldn’t still be with him 31 years later and working with him every weekend for the past eight years if I didn’t like the person he is. Has it always been a smooth marriage? No, we even went through three separations. But given that we only dated each other 6 weeks prior to our engagement and were married 6 weeks after that, there were many unknowns to be worked out. Furthermore, the Okinawan divorce rate is the highest in Japan (the last time I had been informed of the rate it was similar to the American rate and stood at 50 percent), so I do think we are one of the lucky couples that was able to overcome the cultural differences in the expectations of what a marriage was as well as stereotypical images we had of each other’s cultures.

Monday – June 13, 2005 [PC (7/365) SR (4/365) LW (7/365) H (1/365)]

This Year’s Total: S-sunny (1/365) C-cloudy (3/365) PC-partly cloudy (7/365)
D-drizzle (1/365) SR-scattered rain showers (4/365)
W-windy (4/365) LW-light winds (7/365)
H-humid (1/365) SH-slightly humid (10/365)

Sunday – June 12, 2005 [PC (6/365) SR (3/365) W (4/365) SH (10/365)]

This Year’s Total: S-sunny (1/365) C-cloudy (3/365) PC-partly cloudy (6/365)
D-drizzle (1/365) SR-scattered rain showers (3/365)
W-windy (4/365) LW-light winds (6/365)
SH-slightly humid (10/365)