JAWing On – Life on Okinawa

Well I guess it’s time to explain something. As I said, I came to Okinawa as an AF dependent daughter, age 17, in my last year of highschool. I was one of the most rose-colored glasses people you will ever meet. All you have to do is read my senior yearbook to see that. Life> on Okinawa tends to drain all of that hopefulness, enthusiasm, and tendency to see things on the bright-side away from a person. You can spend years trying not to be the ugly American and doing it the “right” and “acceptable” way, whether logical or not. If you are unfortunate to be too good-hearted a person over here, family, friends, neighbors, just about everyone is constantly after you for what they can get out of you. Eventually all that takes a toll and you reach a culture crash (yes crash not clash!). And trust me, because I have been through it already, this is when all the leaches begin to strike. If one is lucky, they get past the crash and try to remain as open-minded and positive towards life as this culture will allow a foreigner to be.
If I were to describe the majority of locals that I have experienced since 1974 in two words, the words would be histrionic and salespeople. Because of the limited amount of manufacturing and other big business on the island, the majority of the islanders are entrepreneurs. Everything they do has some aspect of business in it. Although this culture is supposed to have been influenced greatly by Buddhism, they didn’t seem to grasp the “middle road” philosophy except when it comes to mixing business and pleasure. Almost everything else they do is to one extreme or the other. Another thing that seems to be lacking in the culture is responsibility for one’s own actions. Because of the social structure, what happens is one or two children in the family, hardly ever the oldest son anymore, end-up finacially supporting every hair-brained idea the parents and non-responsible siblings manipulate them into. If you come into all of this from total inexperience in the culture, you tend to be used to help in the family plot of schemes. Over the years all of those ill concieved plots begin to crumble and then everything comes flying back to those good-hearted children and their families. Over here, a person is always confronted with a pack of people just waiting for any opportunity to take advantage of a situation, usually for their own financial gain. It is almost like watching a pack of wild dogs go after injured large game.
I must add, there are some very nice people over here who are sincere, well-intentioned, and truely wanting nothing more than friendship, but it is a rare occasion when I stumble upon them.

Sometimes just running around the internet doing research or just for fun can lead to some interesting surprises. Once again I have come across a website about Japan that very clearly expresses the surface of the culture on Okinawa. Maybe the two cultures, although different, aren’t as different as they think? Anyway, this weekend I happened to have been asked, again, why our beer prices were so high (the $5.00 price at a Live Music Bar is considered to be reasonable over here). This website has a very good explanation for that and many other aspects of the “Japanese” culture. So check it out, you’ll be surprised by the frankness and detailed explanationsWhy Are Prices In Japan So Damn HIGH?? I should add, this is obviously written from a male’s experience.

Oh man, it’s cold season already. And I’m getting hit with the first wave again. Oh well, just like this summer, at least I’ll get over with it quickly. In case you haven’t noticed by the past two Pet Peeves, changes have been happening on Gate 2 Street and more are looming on the horizon. We had a change in guitarists this year. Al has moved his Harley shop up north. Rumor has it that the number of available bands is on the decrease so the number of night clubs with live music has decreased accordingly. However, there still is a wide array of night clubs for those seeking the “Wild On” type experience. But Live Music Bar JET is NOT one of them!!! What the club IS about is decent vintage rock music and mature-minded people who know how to appreciate and enjoy it without getting into other people’s faces or trying to become the main attraction! Luckily that is the type of customer we normally get at the club. Our customers come from all walks of life and range from parents of service members visiting from stateside to young cola-sipping musicians who want a chance to gain knowledge about rock music through observations of live performances. Because of past events that have happened this year involving people who were unable to control their behavior, dancing by males is limited to couples consisting of one male and one female only. Also, and this shouldn’t even be an issue, nobody is allowed to bring in beverages of any kind from outside of the club! So if you are into exhibitionism, x-rated or “adult” entertainment, mosh pits, sardine-packed night clubs, meat markets, or lack of common sense manners, you’ll be better off just passing us by.

I was watching the first part of a “King of the Hill” episode the other night before going into work. Coming to Okinawa from Texas thirty-one years ago, I found the subject matter a little surprising. It was the episode where Hank was trying to teach Bobby self-reliance and they run into a group of “hippies.” Hank comes back from somewhere and Bobby has turned all of their possessions over to the group. I always thought there was something a little weird about a group of people who expected someone to give all their worldly possessions to the leaders of the group. Isn’t that what cults were all about? The leaders of these organizations fed off of other people by tossing around romantised idealisms and catch phrases such as “peace,” “brotherhood,” and “love.” Meanwhile, they were living it up on the members of the group’s hard-earned money under the pretense that it was for the “good of the group.” I always felt if someone had to side-step an issue, then they aren’t mature enough to be honest with themselves or anyone else.

People who are so caught-up in their own world that they don’t get it! For those of you who think it’s been fun to cause trouble at the club recently, again, get a clue. So you really think that I am so weak-minded that I am going to stand by and let you turn our club into a total disaster area? Do you really think telling me that the reason you won’t come back to the club is because I won’t let you do whatever you want is going to change my decision? I have been dealing with the underlying hatred, prejudice, and anger of the local nationals since 1973! The only thing you few morons are going to do is ruin it for everyone else. Which is a real shame, because we normally have very good customers who know how to have fun without getting into anyone else’s face! It has only been within the past year that this wave of aggression has been taking place. First with the destruction of both toilet bowl tanks last December. Then in late spring with the onslaught of a couple of groups of people trying to disrupt our business and totally disregard our basic rule of using simple common sense manners. Now, for the past three weekends, this unwelcome behavior has reared its ugly face again. If you don’t get a handle on your behavior, you will leave me no choice but to take whatever steps are necessary to get it under control!

Well here it is Halloween time again. This particular holiday has really begun to take its hold over much of the island. Until about three years ago, I would almost never see retail stores with Halloween decorations. But with more and more international events and establishments on island, the retailers have seemed to have caught-on to the market value of the holiday. However, I have not seen evidence of the mainstay trick or treating for the little ones off base. This, as with most of the other holidays, is mainly another reason for young adults to go out and party. I hope you all have a safe and Happy Halloween!

Okay, so you fall for the typical image of Okinawans being a mystical, quiet, timid, easy- going culture. Well so did I thirty-one years ago. But my experiences have taught me that they are no different than any other culture, just less forward about their activities. A saying that I have heard often over here is “…no evidence….” In example, I have had an ongoing situation with my land development neighbor. We bought our house about fourteen years ago. It is old military officer’s housing built after WWII. When we bought our house it had a beautiful scenic view of the ocean. Well the locals decided they liked the view as well, after forty years and began building new homes basically on top of ours. And they had every right to build their homes.
The problems began when they waited until we weren’t home and then climbed a fence in order to make a property mark, with red spray paint, on the top of our house. Following that, another land developer built in back of us and thought he had the right to use our land to build a road to access his home which took all of his own property. He waited until we went to work and than built a wall partially on the land we pay rent for each year. Then he tried to have the telephone/electric company place the pole in my husband’s parking space which would have prevented my husband from being able to park there. Luckily, my husband wasn’t at work. He woke up and caught them after they had already dug the hole. What gets me is the workers didn’t even check to see if the person who made the request was authorized to move the pole. Soon there were more new homes and more people thinking they had the right to turn our rented land into road. We had dump and cement trucks tear up our car port, flower beds, cut our trees, etc. Not a single one of these people asked us, even if we were home, if we had any problems with this. Once it became obvious we didn’t want to give the land to an ever increasing population of new home owners, they would wait until we weren’t home to do their dirty deeds. Most of this came to an end about seven years ago when they finally finished building a new home right in front of our carport. Although the law states that to build a new home there must be a five meter access road and these people told my husband that they were just building a prevention wall to keep cars from a dangerous drop. What we ended up with is a new house within three meters that totally blocked our ocean view. Over here the rule seems to be, once it is there, whether legal or not, you can’t do anything about it.
About three years ago, workers came again. This time our water line was supposedly improper and outdated and they needed to change the pipe to a hose. Once more we had digging on the property due to a request from someone other than the owner without a proper authorization. This only tore the carport entrance a little, so no big deal. Well, this morning I opened the front door to find water company personnel out in our front area checking out the pipes again. Once more the land developer had made some request to have the pipes replaced (this time from hose back to pipe), which would have led to more digging on our property. And once again, even though we were home, the workers didn’t check to see if the person who made the request had the authority to request digging on someone else’s land. Now this land developer told my husband that he just found out that the water lines that extend from our carport supply his water. And he has been having a problem with water pressure. I’m sorry but that is just a little too much for me to buy. First, his daughter just built a new home next to his about six years ago. With him being a land developer, one would think that he would have easy access to all documents containing information on water lines, power lines, sewer pipes, etc.
This same man had our in-laws’ rented land torn-up, without their permission and while they were at work, so he could install a street light and has repeatedly tried to “widen” the road that provides access to several new homes, including his daughter’s. The thing is, the road was too small to begin with (it was only big enough for one way access). Then these people came in, built all these new homes (in which all of their land is used), and increased the traffic flow from three households to nine households. When they built the home in front of ours with less than three meter access, it made the road even more difficult to navigate. Part of our rented land is parallel to that home. We have trees and bushes on it as a measure of privacy and to help block some of the car fumes that now permeate our home because of the increased traffic flow. So now it is back to the situation of how obsessed is this man and will he have the workers come when we are not home again. If so, how much will get torn-up and reorganized this time?

Previously, I discussed the role of the hostess bars and the trickle-down effects on Okinawa. One might ask if they know what is going on why do the men still go to these establishments. As Donald Trump put it when Jay Leno asked him why he does what he does, “…the scorecard ….” For men, that’s usually what anything is about. It’s all just another game. Is he going to be the man who gets that illusive woman to break her pattern? Knowing that, the women over here figure why not make a few bucks off of it. The men figure it’s worth spending a few bucks on the pleasures of chasing women. And so on, and so on, and so on… What’s really funny is this so-called difference in men and women comes to a screaming halt when men meet a woman who won’t play the game. Usually what happens is the rules of social behavior take over. They gather together in a group and are as obnoxious, catty, and gossipy as women are in an attempt to show their disapproval and manipulate that female into playing the game. Bonus points to the group who can get that female to enter the game, and fifteen minutes of fame if it’s an individual! And all goes quiet on the Eastern front, as the information of another successful social conquest is passed through the island grapevine.

What is it with people who don’t know how to have fun without getting into other people’s faces? Most people go out to have fun, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But if your idea of fun is causing trouble for other people who are minding their own business and trying to have a pleasant time, than you are an a**hole! And as the saying goes, “what goes around comes around.” Call it karma, call it whatever you want. If you are going to be a jerk and get into other people’s faces, than you deserve what you get!