JAWing On – Life on Okinawa

These days so much seems to be going on all at once. And if a person only has time for a brief rundown of the news, one might think there’s nothing but negative events in our daily lives. Of all the online major news sources, I choose Yahoo News for having the easiest and most complete site. And even though the site is extremely thorough in providing a wide range of general topics and sources, what is lacking on that and other main sites is a category for the positive daily events. I ran across this smaller, somewhat biased (I think I would change the title of the “Unhappy News” category to “Standard News”), site that seems to understand the need for a balance in the human psyche.

Almost every weekend someone new comes to the club and I inevitably get asked the same question, “What is it like living in a foreign place, specifically Okinawa, for so many years?”

Since this is the only place I have resided at for a lengthy amount of time, I can only surmise that it’s the same as any other place that a person lives for over twenty-five years. It has good points and bad points. Of course, having lived in other places tends to place more emphasis on the island’s strengths and weaknesses.

Seems that not everything in Japan is as black and white as the image held by many people. No longer do the simple terms conservative, liberal, and radical depict the typical politician. In these times terms that could be included are is one a radical conservative, a conservative radical, an authoritative liberal, or a liberal authoritarian.

I was reading about Starbucks’ quotes. I think the quotes have achieved what was initially intended. People are discussing differing points of view. What’s wrong with that as long as the list of quotes is diverse?

Thursday October 20, 2005 [S (2/365) LW (10/365) ]

October 2005 Total:
S-sunny (2/365) C-cloudy (3/365) PC-partly cloudy (15/365)
D-drizzle (2/365) SR-scattered rain showers (1/365)
W-windy (8/365) LW-light winds (10/365)
H-humid (8/365) SH-slightly humid (9/365)

This Year�s (June 3, 2005 – June 2, 2006) Total:
S-sunny (26/365) C-cloudy (34/365) PC-partly cloudy (80/365)
D-drizzle (8/365) R-rainy (4/365) SR-scattered rain showers (13/365)
W-windy (41/365) LW-light winds (75/365) VW-very windy (5/365)
H-humid (65/365) SH-slightly humid (70/365)