JAWing On – Life on Okinawa

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.

Sometimes things can eat at you until the right connection and words come to mind. As I watch and learn more about people’s actions in general, I have to wonder if fame and/or fortune have become the “drugs” of this society. I saw what addictions can do to people in the ’80s. Some of the behaviors of people in search of more and more money seem to be very similar. “Addicts” are willing to do just about anything to get that next fix – lie, beg, and steal among a few. They don’t care who the victim is as long as the end justifies the means. Do the pressures of trying to be “better” than everyone else, and thereby achieving fame and recognition, lead some people to these behaviors? Or are the behaviors a manifestation of these people’s own characters, or possibly brains? I do know that the pleasure mechanisms of the brain are still not completely understood by experts. I can’t help wonder if these people get some perverse pleasure in enacting the behaviors? Are the messages to be “someone” in this world you have to be esthetically and materially “ahead of the Jones” creating a society of a new type of addict?

Pets, sometimes they are just so amazing! A long time ago we realized that our pets understand certain words. They would be in a complete different room when we would hear their response to statement we were making. A few months ago, I was watching a TV show that claimed dogs can “understand” up to two hundred words. We weren’t surprised. So like a parent who wants what is being said to be kept secret from prying ears, we started spelling the words. Well today, one of our dogs has figured-out what the spelled word is and responded to it. Now we are reduced to lipping and softly whispering certain phrases. What next?

I often get asked why I don’t let people bring their own beverages into the club. I really think that’s pretty self-explanatory. Inevitably I get someone who thinks they’re going islander and tries the “…but that’s not the local way!” on me. Well anyone who has been here long enough would know, the owner and/or manager of the facility decide which “system” is appropriate for that particular club. For some clubs that means “No Americans” for others it means somewhere around a one thousand yen cover charge. At Live Music Bar JET, it means no outside beverages allowed.

Another thing one hears over here is the “I have a brilliant idea” person(s). My question to them is: if that idea is so brilliant, why don’t you use your own funds, time, and energy and open that club yourself?

Anyone who has lived on Okinawa for a while knows there is an incessant amount of crawly critters that call the island home. The most irritating of these is the gokiburi, more commonly known as a cockroach. It is as if the ever-present crawlers are everywhere all the time. This year we have had an unusually large amount of big tropical cyclone systems. I don’t know if anyone else over here has noticed, but cockroaches don’t seem to do very well in water. With all of the rain that the typhoons have brought, there appears to be a lack of cockroaches crawling around. As they say, the good comes with the bad.

As Mike points out in his comment to the Really!!!© Pet Peeve of the Week #14, “Funny how things never change in Okinawa….” I don’t know exactly when he was on Okinawa, but he’s absolutely correct. The only things that change much are the roads and the width of the island, due to constant construction. Over the past thirty years, there has been a large amount of construction. Much of the it involves man-made beaches up North and new residential areas in the center of the island. As for the rest of life on Okinawa, it is similar to being in a bubble at times. It is a good place to come if you are interested in history and/or water activities. I don’t know what Mike’s hobbies are, but the main form of socializing is still eating and drinking which is mainly done at some sort of izakaya.