JAWing On – Life on Okinawa

If you want a “Big Mac” do you go to KFC for dinner? Do you think being intoxicated will change the KFC menu into a McDonald’s menu?

Saturday – June 4, 2005 [C (2/365) SR (2/365) LW (2/365) SH (2/365)]

C-cloudy; SR-scattered rain showers; LW-light winds; SH-slightly humid

If you can believe this, other business owners who are in the same business expect you to post ads for their business in your establishment (in the name of friendship at that). C’mon, does McDonald’s post fliers for KFC? Would you? This is the type of thing that one faces as a business owner on Okinawa, or maybe just a business person who has with a foreign wife! Or possibly it’s just the type of “friends” one has.

Friday – June 3, 2005 [C (1/365) SR (1/365) LW (1/365) SH (1/365)]

C-cloudy; SR-scattered rain showers; LW-light winds

Okinawa is classified as a subtropical island. The weather is one of the more unpredictable characteristics about the island. On the other hand Guam, a tropical island, has a fairly stable weather pattern. As with most things in life, there are good points and bad points to that stability. The consistent 85 degrees and almost constant sunny skies were conducive to barbecued lunches practically every day at Tumon Bay. Of course there were the super typhoons, such as Pamela, to deal with. And with a constant weather pattern there is a lack of seasons. So exactly what does �subtropical� mean? I�ve decided to keep a log of Okinawan weather for the next year to find out exactly how many pleasant days annually we actually have.

Well the blow hards (otherwise known as tropical cyclones) aren’t wasting any time this year. When I turned on the local American TV channel this morning sure enough TC-4 was posted on the station. Although it may be a few days premature, there is a tropical storm out there and once again the typhoon season begins.