JAWing On – Life on Okinawa

Okay, this really doesn’t have anything to do with Okinawa. But, one of the things that brings joy to someone’s life when they live so far away from family for an extended period of time is finding-out that one of thier siblings has done an extraordinary job with a passion. If you are into scaled-down model ship replicas, you will get a kick out this site – Prince de Neufchatel . Good job Bro!!!

Leave it to the weather systems this year. Typhoon season is “officially” over. The holiday season decorations have begun to make thier annual display of lighting extravaganzas. Lo and behold, typhoon #10,000,000… (or at least that’s what it feels like this year) is heading our way! Luckily, we don’t have an outside Christmas display, other than a Moon Santa hanging in our window. But all those other people who, with glee, made the annual declaration of December by decking-out the exterior of their yards are now faced with tearing it all down to make room for Mother Nature. I hope this doesn’t put a permanent damper on the normally colorful holiday season.

As I was doing some web searches, it came to my attention that several websites have begun to use several variations on the JET Okinawa or Live Music Bar JET Okinawa terms for ranking and/or business purposes. I want to state right here and now, we are NOT ASSOCIATED NOR AFFILIATED with these sites!!! There are three official homepage addresses associated with JET band and Live Music Bar JET these are:

http://ryukyuno-okinawan-rock.jet-okinawa.com/JET/
http://live-music-bar.jet-okinawa.com/Official Website/
http://jet-okinawa.com

In addition, there are various tour sites that also contain links to the outdated Japanese JET band member fan website. Please use care in screening your searches.

When I was researching some legal information, I ran into a site that provides an outlet for persons wanting to release some of the frustrations associated with the political environment on Okinawa. It is good to have such an outlet, but if you read the posts all one sees are the same old issues being tossed back and forth in varying degrees of anger. If I have learned anything in all my years on Okinawa, it’s there will always be one group against another. This isn’t because it’s Okinawa, but because that is the nature of groups. Being in an interracial/intercultural marriage for thirty years has put my husband and me in the situation of not really fitting into any specific group. We are okay with that, but the groups aren’t. There is always some group trying to force their belief system on us, trying to put one label or another on us. On occasion the differences in cultural backgrounds and/or gender cause disagreement on how a situation should be handled. I can tell you right now, there is nothing that an opposing group finds more satisfying than causing dissention in an adversary. If the adversary is busy arguing amongst themselves, then the focus is taken off of the opposing group.

What we have found over the years is that both sides of a politically based argument usually have legitimate reasons for their positions, and this can lead to nothing more than an ongoing standoff. We tend to throw away the cultural social formalities, since they are equally legitimate, and focus on the belief that brought and kept us together. The belief is that one human being should treat other human beings as such. A person doesn’t impose on others, but at the same time doesn’t allow others to walk all over them.

Having resided on Okinawa for the majority of the past thirty-one years, I have to wonder what in the world is being taught in America as far as public behavior. When I left America, the rule as far as being dissatified with a business’ house rules or personnel was you filed a complaint and/or found a business that more closely met your personal preferences. If the people we get at our business are any indication, the procedure these days seems to be the dissatisfied person ignores the rule, throws a temper tantrum, or acts like a thug and tries to harrass the business owner. What are these people thinking? I doubt that very many business owners are going to make changes in their rules based on that type of behavior. Very few business owners establish rules just for the fun of it. The reason most rules have had to be established is usually because of some serious difficulty with a particular behavior in the past. Ignoring the rule, temper tantrums, and harrassment only escalate, not eliminate, the situation and stresses the reason why a particular rule was needed in the first place.

I was watching the first part of a “King of the Hill” episode the other night before going into work. Coming to Okinawa from Texas thirty-one years ago, I found the subject matter a little surprising. It was the episode where Hank was trying to teach Bobby self-reliance and they run into a group of “hippies.” Hank comes back from somewhere and Bobby has turned all of their possessions over to the group. I always thought there was something a little weird about a group of people who expected someone to give all their worldly possessions to the leaders of the group. Isn’t that what cults were all about? The leaders of these organizations fed off of other people by tossing around romantised idealisms and catch phrases such as “peace,” “brotherhood,” and “love.” Meanwhile, they were living it up on the members of the group’s hard-earned money under the pretense that it was for the “good of the group.” I always felt if someone had to side-step an issue, then they aren’t mature enough to be honest with themselves or anyone else.

My online posts must be hitting a nerve with someone. I received several what I call “spam-mails” from a person who’s into online poker. They seem to think that it is the job of a blog to impart philosophy. Well, this particular blog’s mission is to impart life experiences and observations a viewed by a foreigner on Okinawa. I merely provide information on the many aspects of life on Okinawa. However, if you are looking for some deep thought how about this?

We say mankind is a creature of habit. What are habits? I see them as no different than addictions trained into the brain over a certain period of time. If a person is denied the ability to perform the habit, then “withdrawal” occurs. I propose that pleasure or happiness is nothing more than getting a “fix” of these addictions, whatever they may be. The real question is, if mankind is a creature of addictions, than who determines which direction and form these addictions are to take? Religion, business, who?

So far this year the typhoons have exploded all around us. With it being October, the typhoon season is nearing its end. All great events have a grand finale. Sure enough, we are now sitting-out a large blow hard as it makes its way over the island. And after that, there is another one awaiting the chance to display its massive show.

As I mentioned before, I acquired my first computer about five years ago. I love having access to a wide array of information and especially enjoy learning how to create a variety of artistic expressions. Until recently, the usage of my computer for creative endeavors was somewhat limited because I was mainly using it for scholastic projects. Learning somewhat about html and css has been fun. One thing I was surprised to find when I began creating logos and slogans in more than one language for the club website, since we live on Okinawa, was that you can put the exact same phrase in major search engines in the English version with international search and then the Japanese version with international search and end up with two totally different results! Computing and the internet are constantly full of surprises.