JAWing On – Life on Okinawa

It’s mid-November and all around the island bits and pieces of holiday decorations are slowly, but surely, being displayed. The commercial side of the holiday season is very big on Okinawa. Over the past three decades the retail stores have wisely increased the supplies available to the public from a few very questionable-looking trees to just about every decoration a person can think of. This is a time of year I especially enjoy because the various decorations remind me of a more relaxed time in America. A time before putting up decorations became environmentally questionable. Each year we gather our “family”, the dogs and us, and drive all over the island looking for the best of the holiday cheer. And we are never disappointed because each year some enthusiastic and creative individual always divises a new combination of the decorations that inspires and fills other islanders minds and hearts with joy.