JAWing On – Life on Okinawa

This is a traditional New Year’ s wreath, a shimenawa. The symbolism of the wreath is very similar to that of a Christmas wreath. Each New Year’s Eve, caretakers of homes and businesses hang wreaths on the outside of entrances in the spirit of bringing happiness and prosperity.

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This tea cup set was a present. The unusual aspect about the set is that on the inside of the cup is a hidden image of a face of a traditional clad woman.

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After 32 years of marriage, it’s not always easy coming up with a new idea for a gift. With all the construction of new household residences in our neighborhood over the past fifteen years, we have lost most of our original ocean and night sky views. (The ocean view due to two and three story homes right outside our door. And the night sky view due to all the new street and home lights.) But with new technology, that’s not a problem. My love of nature and this challenge of changes brought out the inner nerd in hubby for this year’s present….

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This is a captured pic of some video footage I took of the Goya overpass in Koza (Okinawa City) Japan prior to deconstruction, which was completed last night. The overpass and I have a history in that it was one of the first places in which I had an encounter with the locals when I arrived on island in 1973.

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View brief video

This miniature “tree” ornament was given to customers with the purchase of Coca-Cola in 1999.

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A pic of hubby jamming at a local street festival.

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View brief video of some festival highlights.

Another pic, of a hiphop troupe, captured from the street festival video.

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This pic is captured from some video footage taken during a recent street festival. One couldn’t help enjoying this local getting down to some rock ‘n’ roll cover songs being played by a local band.

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When people live in one spot for a lengthy period of time, there tends to be an accumulation of unusual items given by others for various reasons. This is one version of a Japanese “piggy” bank that we recieved somewhere along the path.

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