JAWing On – Life on Okinawa

On Sunday, Taki and I went to a charity event in Ginowan. The event was a culmination of various traditional-style Okinawan music and dances. One of the participants was an American friend of ours that had joined a dance troupe about six months ago. Similar troupes from the island voluntarily gathered for the charity event. We knew about his participation in the local culture, but had no idea he what was to spring on us. With the local style of dance, there are female as well as male parts. So, the last thing we expected was our friend to suddenly appear fully decked-out in a female role – make-up, wig, and all! Although his golden-colored fans were trembling, he was great. Another part of the event that was extremely enjoyable for me was when “senior” local citizens, up to age 85, performed a Cuban-style samba with impressive agility. Over all, the performances were what the locals would call “tottemo tanoshi! If you ever get the chance, I would recommend attending one of these types of events.

It is so annoying when a person can’t hold their liquor, explodes all over an entrance to or the bathroom of an establishment, and doesn’t inform anyone! How hard is it for someone to let the facility’s personnel know that there was an accident and a mess that needs to be cleaned? Nobody wants to see or smell that kind of slop when they are out to enjoy an evening of music.

Okay, this really doesn’t have anything to do with Okinawa. But, one of the things that brings joy to someone’s life when they live so far away from family for an extended period of time is finding-out that one of thier siblings has done an extraordinary job with a passion. If you are into scaled-down model ship replicas, you will get a kick out this site – Prince de Neufchatel . Good job Bro!!!

Leave it to the weather systems this year. Typhoon season is “officially” over. The holiday season decorations have begun to make thier annual display of lighting extravaganzas. Lo and behold, typhoon #10,000,000… (or at least that’s what it feels like this year) is heading our way! Luckily, we don’t have an outside Christmas display, other than a Moon Santa hanging in our window. But all those other people who, with glee, made the annual declaration of December by decking-out the exterior of their yards are now faced with tearing it all down to make room for Mother Nature. I hope this doesn’t put a permanent damper on the normally colorful holiday season.

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.

What is it with men who have to grab and tug on women who say they don’t want to dance! If a woman says “no” the chances are she doesn’t want to dance, and dragging her out to the floor isn’t going to make her night very enjoyable. These men need to learn to relax and leave the poor women who say they don’t want to dance alone!

Well it seems my assessment of how “friendships” and business on Okinawa work (West Wind, East Wind) was pretty much on the nose. The organizers of the Gate 2 Fest are people Taki has been associated with for many years. Each month they get together to discuss plans for promoting and advancing the street for all the businesses’ benefit. Yet when they planned not to include JET as part of the entertainment this year, not one of these so-called friends had the guts to be straight forward with Taki about it. After waiting until three days before the festival to hear from them concerning confirmation of the schedule, Taki finally called them and found that the band was not on the schedule! Even though JET will not be performing this year, as it has in the previous Gate 2 Fests, we still wish the organizers the best of luck in having a successful event where they can rake in the profits.

Here it is 3 o’clock in the morning Thanksgiving Day. It is the calm before the holiday madness. This is the beginning of the season of non-stop partying on Okinawa. It begins this weekend with the annual Gate 2 Fest which brings together Harley owners from all over Japan for the impressive parade of hogs and a continuous cornucopia of festivities. Next comes December, the time of bonenkais. These are annual year-end parties giving thanks and bidding farewell to the current year. In addition there are the Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. Finally come the shinenkais in January, which are annual parties welcoming the new year with hope of wealth, health, and happiness. So Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays!