JAWing On – Life on Okinawa

Rumor has it that one of Okinawa’s own is returning home next year. She is a very well known singer (Marie Kyan) that started-out on the Okinawan rock scene in Medusa, which soon after became Marie with Medusa, of Kinville fame in the ’70’s and ’80s. It seems her mainland recording contract is coming to an end and she has plans to go into some sort of journalistic endeavor. The way I see it, she’s lucky. After all, what better time to return home then when an entire city block, on Gate 2 Street, is getting ready to be torn down to accommodate a major government sponsored facility? The new facility, Music Town, is scheduled to take two years to build. This should allow sufficient time to make necessary organizational and administrative assignments and preparations. Oh well, maybe it’s all just coincidence. Stay tuned and we’ll all find out together.

Well the annual Gate 2 Fest took place this week. As I expected, the event was crammed full of local youths as the entertainment organizer pleased them by promoting the sounds of up and coming J-pop band Orange Range. But the organizer’s disregard of the other side of the Gate 2 culture did not go unnoticed. I heard many negative comments on how the contibutions of the local rock scene seemed to be completely ignored this year. Usually the organizers have a stage at both ends of the street (one for local pop music and one for rock music). There seemed to be fewer hogs out this year as well. But Taki and I still enjoyed our outing for the day, even if it somewhat lacked in international flavor.