JAWing On – Life on Okinawa

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This is an Okinawan residential street in 2005. The older residential areas here remind me of an apartment complex where the homes are the apartments and the roads are the hallway. This particular roadway was the access to three houses and one 3 apartments complex thirteen years ago. Now it is the access to 10 houses and the apartment complex. Originally the road was about one and one-half times this size. But as the buildings went up the road shrunk. Now it tightly fits one-way traffic only. Most of the newer housing areas have wider access roads that allow for two-way traffic, as long as nobody parks in the road. So if you are coming to Okinawa and have a typical American size vehicle, you’d be better off leaving it stateside during your duration on the island.

Finally, for the past two days the weather has cooperated with the time of year and it actually has begun to feel as if Okinawa is a subtropical island. Of course the fair weather time is spent catching up on all the yard work that was neglected during the mini-monsoon time period. But who cares, because it’s just great being able to get out in the sunshine and cool tropical breeze. Not to mention the opportunity to get some B-B-Qing into the schedule.

Sometimes one just never knows who is going to be a guest in their home. We saved this little fellow from the middle of the road this morning. Once he has recouped, we’ll set him back on his way.

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Even though it’s hard to tell on Okinawa right now, we are heading for the unofficial start of summer in a couple of weeks. For those of you who are planning your summer schedule, don’t forget the annual Peaceful Love Rock Festival is the first weekend in July. This year that means July 2 and 3. This started out as a rock festival in the ’80’s, but don’t let the name fool you. True, most of the artists are still from the Okinawa or mainland Japan. However the concert hosts bands of different genres and locations. Maybe they should consider renaming the concert to the Peaceful Love Music Festival!

For those of you who are interested in a wide array of music, a fledgling Okinawan independent artist download site was announced yesterday. The name of the site, Okinawa Music Flea Market, pretty much says it all. Although this is a newborn site with the works of only about 20 artists available presently, there is a large independent artist community on island. The opportunity for a healthy growth of this site is evident.

The local version of the mile high club. The difference between a real jet and Live Music Bar JET is there is only one stall for women to use the facilities. So when a couple decides to do the cheap version of the mile high club, they are being inconsiderate of every other female in the club. Besides, if a woman wants to be a ****, don’t give it away-at least make him pay for a room (or something)!

Well now that we’re in the official rain season on Okinawa, I’ve been using my time to learn more about Technorati and Flicr. So far none of my submissions to the programs have appeared on the sites. I’m wondering how many other people have never had their submissions listed? Maybe I’m not doing it right.

As I’ve mentioned before, there is limited parking space on Okinawa. Sometimes it is almost impossible to avoid parking on the side of a street and semi-blocking traffic. But is it really necessary to block traffic when there is an available parking space just a few feet, sometimes inches, away from the road?

Let’s face it, who really likes brown-nosing? To me it’s just as bad as when someone has to constantly use antics to get negative attention. If someone is “all that” their talent, actions, and words will be complimentary, not conflictive, and shine through!