Naha: Please Stand Clear of the Closing Doors

The only train on the island of Okinawa is a monorail. It is located in the city of Naha. With population of about 300,000, Naha is Okinawa's largest city.

I loved the automated fare machine. Like buying a ticked on the Tokyo subway system, you look for your destination and its fare on the map posted on the wall above the fare machine. Simple enough. But, the coin jammed in the fare box while Gordon was trying to buy our monorail tickets. While Gordon was momentarily staring at the fare box to try to figure out how to get our change back, a man's head and arm emerged from between two fare boxes. The man reached around, jiggled the machine and delivered the tickets.

Also like the Tokyo subways, the monorail stations have uniformed attendants wearing white gloves, to "guide" passengers onto the train cars.

And my favorite part was the little stickers on the train doors inside the cars, with graphic pictures of crabs with pinched claws, to keep your hands away from the closing doors.

Talking Trash in Tokyo

Taking out the trash in Tokyo is a complicated affair. The trash room in Gordon's apartment building has twelve different categories of trash. Not only is the recycling separated into multiple categories, but the rules go so far as to require that the plastic recyclable bottles must also be separated from their caps. The trash bins are numbered. Different categories of trash are collected on different days. Instructions on how to sort and dispose of trash are illustrated, color-coded, published, and posted on the trash room wall. And, the trash room is spotless.

Okinawa Peace Park has 1000 Cranes and Underground Caves

Monument with American Soldiers' Names Carved Into It

Paper Cranes Made by School Children

Underground Caves Where Native Okinawans Hid from the Japanese and Americans During World War II

Reading Room Displaying Testimonial Stories of Survivors Who Described Their Experiences 

The Peace Park at the southernmost tip of Okinawa island is a lovely seaside park, but a grim reminder of World War II. The memorial museum is perched on a spectacular spit of land overlooking the South China Sea. A low-walled stone monument bearing American names carved into its sides, snakes through a shaded park, evoking a very strong similarity to the Vietnam memorial in Washington, DC.

A short stroll away is a beautiful sculpture garden with different monuments, each representing a prefecture of Japan. One monument looks like a soaring torch, cradling a globe in its center. Another shelters 1,000 colorful origami paper cranes. The cranes follow an ancient Japanese legend that promises that anyone who folds 1,000 cranes will be granted a wish. Cranes are revered by Japanese as special creatures who are said to live for 1,000 years. School children folded the cranes for the memorial.

If you ask, the entrances to the underground caves will be pointed out. Although the entrances are covered with bars now, it is possible to visit some of the spots where the Okinawan natives hid and lived for months while the Japanese and then the Americans invaded their island home. The Okinawans lived in underground caves for months, fearing violent death from the soldiers who battled on their island. As portions of the island were conquered, Okinawans fled thier homes, migrated and congregated in the south, eventually retreating to live in the hills. They were led to believe that if they were discovered or captured by Japanese, or later by Americans, they would be tortured and killed. As the armies approached, many preferred to control their own destiny by running to the ocean-edge cliffs and killing themselves by jumping into the sea. Over 200,000 Okinawans died in the World War II battles on their island.

A beautiful simple room in the Peace Memorial Museum has Testimonies from survivors on display to read. Some of the transcripts are translated into English. The stories are gory, heartbreaking and riveting.

Scary Venomous Life in Okinawa

The Seemingly Innocuous Blue Float Boundary in the South China Sea at Moon Beach Palace

Bad Things That Can Happen if you Get Bitten

The Deadly Habu Snake

What Those Puffy Plastic Blue Floats are REALLY For - - Stinger Resistant Enclosures

A visit to Okinawa will provide cautious (as well as neurotic) travelers good reason to be nervous about nature's threats. We stayed at Moon Beach Palace, a safe-enough looking place with a lovely beach resort on the South China Sea, with soft sand, chaise lounges separated by beach umbrellas, and a waterfront fully stocked with kayaks, jet skis and big boats for skippered outings.

The swimming area is outlined by rope punctuated by blue foam floats. The scariness evolves when you approach the water's edge and read the signs. Fortunately, the signs are in both Japanese and English so that English-speaking tourists can take in the gravity of the warnings. The Notice starts predictably enough, with routine reminders like: Children Must be Accompanied by an Adult, Do Not Swim When the Flag is Red, and No Pets. Then, it was endearing to read the awkwardly translated manners-controller, "Prohibit Any Conducts That May Embarrass Others". But finally, the safety warning was simply, "Swim Only in the Authorized Areas". Upon closer inspection, what had appeared to be an ordinary roped-in area was actually a protective net. The rope on the water's surface was actually the top of an enclosure-like cage formed from soft netting, anchored around the perimeter of the safe-swim area.

The reason for the protective cage became evident when we read the next sign, "Venomous Marine Life in Okinawa". There were detailed instructions what to do when bitten or attacked by various nefarious sea creatures. The instructions were hilarious -- unless, of course, you actually needed to heed them. Photos of the offending creatures accompanied the first-aid steps. For an injury by one creature, you must use vinegar. For a different one, no matter what you do, don't use vinegar. Seek medical attention at once. Use cold water and ice. Whatever you do, don't use ice; use heat. (Right!) My takeaway was to seek medical attention for everything, disregarding all of the detailed directions, since you probably wouldn't know how to match what bit you with the pictures of what to do about it.

We decided to get away from the potential terrors of the beach. (Not really -- we had our fill of swimming and were ready to go out touring). We visited the cultural center at Ryuku Mura, where we encountered the deadly habu snake. The habu is a venomous pit viper snake unique to the Ryuku archipelago, of which Okinawa is the largest island. To visit the habu snake theater, we had to pay an upcharge beyond the general admission fee to the cultural center. As we entered the theater, we passed by photographs on the wall showed disgusting injuries from habu bites, which are often fatal. A demonstrator pulled a habu out of a box, placed it on a stick, and waved it across the front row, where I was sitting. A little too close for my comfort. But I did snap a picture. The habu show ended with a silly 3D video of a habu encountering and succumbing to its natural enemy - the mongoose, which was imported from India about 100 years ago. The video was anamatronics of the hokiest kind, where the mongoose and the snake joust and parry in jerky motion until the mongoose strikes and crushes the snake. Upon leaving the theater, we passed by a sign of apology. "Notice: Habu and Mongoose fight show has been forbade by the law of animal protecting. Now, we introduce and present the show on 3D screen with explanation in Japanese. Thank you very much for your understanding". It was OK with me not to see that gory fight in real life.

Jokan Ji - Honoring Death by Fire

Remembering the Dead

Memorial Tombs, Black Cat Sitting on Top

In the northern part of Tokyo, near Ueno (say "Way No") is a small Buddhist temple called Jokan Ji. It is hard to find, tucked on a side street. The temple's building is surrounded by scaffolding and is undergoing renovation. We took a peek into the temple office and saw a robed monk painting calligraphy with a paintbrush, surrounded by piles of papers and books in a musty cluttered room. The main attraction at the temple is the cemetery and its history. Around the time of the 1650s, Tokyo was known as Edo. The area surrounding the temple was overcrowded with brothels made of straw and paper. Buried in the cemetery are people who died in the frequent fires, one wave of which killed a reported 100,000 people. The temple cemetery also memorializes the courtesans who were tossed over the temple wall, rolled in straw mats after outliving their usefulness, whether they were dead or alive. (The "or alive" part of the story was published in Lonely Planet Guide for Tokyo, but I didn't see that part of the story mentioned in anything else I read). A black cat posed on top of one of the memorials just as I snapped a picture.

Behind the Barbed Wire at Kadena Air Force Base on Okinawa

One of the Hangers That Kamikaze Pilots Used in World War II

The "BX", or Base Exchange

Suburban-esque Housing

Golf Course on Base

We toured the US Air Force Base at Kadena, as the guests of a gracious host who is stationed on the base. We were grateful for the opportunity to see what's behind that miles-long barbed wire covered fence that cordons off a chunk of the island of Okinawa. The base is "closed", which meant for us that civilians can enter only if signed in by someone stationed on the base. We made arrangements to meet our host at 11:00 for him to drive us around on a tour, and ending up meeting his family for lunch at the Tea House. Mistakenly, I thought he said the Tea House. He actually said the "Tee" House, which is the restaurant perched at the top of a steep hill with a magnificent view of the driving range, golf course and ocean. And, the view also takes in the landing strip where pilots were circling around repeatedly landing and taking off, to achieve the required number of landings and take-offs to maintain their proficiency.
We thought the base was huge. Apparently not by military standards; but we had little to compare it to. The houses look like a suburban subdivision that goes on for miles and miles; and could be a TV set or a dated version of The Truman Show. We drove by just one of the three full-blown elementary schools.
The base appears to be completely self sufficient to support the people who live there, with barbershops, veterinary hospital, car repair shop and so on.
The "BX" as the shopping mall is called, could outclass most shopping centers. "BX" stands for Base Exchange - the corollary of PX, or Post Exchange at an Army Post. The thing is absolutely huge, with a food court filled with Taco Bell, Burger King, Popeye's and so on. The stores look like a giant Walmart - brightly lit, wide, tidy aisles of endless types of merchandise from Yankee Candles to Coach handbags. They even sell cars and Harley Davidsons.
Okinawa's military base provides support for operations halfway around the world from much of the USA. It was an important facility for the Vietnam war. The US government took it from the Japanese at the end of World War II, when it had served as a Japanese military base. There are hangers still remaining that were built into the sides of hills, where the Kamikaze pilots took off for their missions at the end of World War II.
Local farmers are allowed onto the base to cultivate plants on some of the unused plots of land. Kind of like community gardens??

Shisa Always Come in Pairs

All over Okinawa we saw statues of dogs that are kind of square looking with curly fur. They often flank the doorways of homes and businesses, and sometimes are even seen perched on rooftops. They are called Shisas and they are typical to Okinawa. Shisa come from Okinawan mythology and are a cross between a dog and a lion. They look like the Chinese guardian lions, but appear friendlier. We learned that the one on the right always has his mouth open and the one on the left has his mouth closed. There are differing explanations. The mouth-open sound is like the first letter of the Japanese alphabet which sounded to my very untrained ear like "aaahhh" and the last letter sounded to the same unsophisticated ear like "mmmm". The open-mouthed shisa takes it all in, evil spirits and all. The closed-mouth shisa shuts it out. Another explanation (which is somewhat contradictory) is that the open-mouthed shisa scares away the bad and the closed-mouth shisa keeps in the good.

The Unusual Foods and Longevity of Okinawa

Goya - more Vitamin C than Lemons

Okinawan Sea Grapes - sometimes called Vegetarian Caviar

Agu - local pig, often displayed wearing sunglasses (Really!) Noses sold separately

Shiikuwashi Juice - yummy citrus, sitting in a vending maching

Beni Imo Posing on a Sidewalk

The Real Beni Imo, Waiting to be Eaten

On the island of Okinawa, Japan, people eat big gooey purple sweet potatoes called BENI-IMO. They are made into candy and ice cream; they are sliced thin, salted and fried (think Terra Chips); and they are modeled into 4 foot high plastic replicas that stand outside shops on the streets of Naha. Beni-Imo supposedly is exceptionally nutritious, with very high beta carotene and 150% of the antioxidants of blueberries. For a relatively small island of Japan, Okinawa makes a big splash with its distinct foods.

There is a delicious little citrus fruit called SHIKUWASA, also native to Okinawa. It looks like a small lime, but its meat is orange and it is delicious - kind of like a mandarin orange. It's also sold in vending machines as a canned juice.

At Teppan Yaki restaurants (think Benihana Japanese steak house style), there are two kinds of meats unique to Okinawa. AGU is the local pig and ISHIGAKIGYU is the local beef which is very marbled (i.e. fatty) and extremely delicious.

OKINAWAN SEA GRAPES are gorgeous and tasty. They are a type of seaweed that are light green in color and glisten like little crystals. We had them served to us on the side of a sushi dish. The sea grapes are little plants in the form of balls clinging to a stem, spaced evenly along the length. When you bite into a branch, the little balls burst and squirt salty water into your mouth. I heard sea grapes described as vegetarian caviar. Perfect description.

TACO RICE is just funny. Some restaurants catering to Americans seem to make stuff up. Like most restaurants, the ones serving American dishes post photos of the dishes with name labels so you can see what you would get if you ordered a particular item. The first time I noticed taco rice on a menu, I saw a photo of a circle of white rice topped with some ground meat in the center, and some green chopped garnish. The taco rice offerings at some restaurants ballooned to the point where they warranted a whole section of the menu, vying for the same status as a food group along with meat and fish. Taco rice dishes even included "Abocado Taco Rice" - misspelling and all.

You either love or hate GOYA. It looks like an overgrown cucumber with pimples. It is a very bitter gourd with claims of great properties for health. It is claimed to have three times more vitamin C than lemons, to reduce blood sugar levels and that it lowers high blood pressure. I liked it only when it was sliced paper thin in small pieces. Otherwise, in big clumps, it's gross.

I am not the only one who wonders whether the foods on Okinawa have any relation to the fact that Okinawa has more centenarians per capita than anywhere else in the world. I googled longevity and Okinawa and found that the island of Okinawa is the best place on earth for healthy aging. The Okinawans have:

* more people over 100 years old per 100,000 population than anywhere else in the world
* the lowest death rates from cancer, heart disease and stroke (the top three killers in the US)
* the highest life expectancy for both males and females over 65
* females in Okinawa have the highest life expectancy in all age groups.

They must be eating something right.

Soap, Water and Dry all in one sink in Don Quijote

There are some really cool things in Japan. For instance, take the sink in the ladies room of a department store I visited today. Instead of just having a spigot and hot and cold water handles at the back of the basin, there is a hood-like shelf that hangs over the basin. It has three simple buttons. You can choose: Soap, Water, and Dryer. How clever! You just slowly slide your dirty hands under the shelf, from left to right and your hands come out the other side clean and dry. …and I wasn’t in just any department store. It was a crazy, crowded, jammed to the ceiling with everything you could imagine kind of place. The store is called Don Quijote and it’s a six floor discount emporium in the upscale Roppongi district of Tokyo. Picture Ocean State Job Lot or one of the discount electronics stores on Times Square and intensify it by a lot. Hot pink hand printed signs hang askew from the ceiling. Music blares throughout the store, playing different tunes that clash and compete as you move about. They sell stupid little Halloween pumpkin hats for dogs to wear, as well as Baccarat crystal. In the food department, you can get Spam and Ritz crackers (both very popular in Japan), as well as real Canadian maple syrup, locally grown melons and a million kinds of dried seaweed snacks. There is a luggage and bathing suit department (yep, the bathing suits are strung on a rope above the suitcases). You can buy washing machines, bicycles, a “Human Relations Calculator” (which looked to me like a regular calculator), and bras. Alex and I spent an hour in there, drawn to the craziness. He bought a tee-shirt with a nonsensical Engrish slogan that says “Souther Extra Enjoy Motorcycle”.

Tugging War in Naha, Japan with US Marines

Good thing we wore sneakers. Alex, Gordon and I pushed and tugged and got squooshed along with about 25,000 other people as we competed on Sunday, October 10, 2010 in the one of the world’s largest tugs of war in Naha, Japan. Naha is the capitol city of Okinawa, the largest island in the Ryukyu archipelago, which is in the southernmost area of the country of Japan. In fact, Okinawa is so far from Tokyo that it is closer to Taiwan.

The tug of war is an annual event. Apparently, it was the Guinness record-holding tug of war until this year, when a Chinese contest took the crown. Well, it certainly was the largest tug of war I have ever seen; and it is the only one I have ever been to on an island in the East China Sea. The city of Naha, about 300,000 in population, prepares for the tug of war by laying a large twisted cable down the center median of its main thoroughfare. As we arrived in Naha by car, driving down the main street, we couldn't help but notice the cable bisecting the road, looking much like a very large sewer pipe waiting to be laid. It stood about four feet high in diameter, with braided rope wrapped in a spiral around it. The middle section of the rope was disconnected by the width of the principal cross street, to allow traffic to pass until just before the start of the tug of war. The two ends of the rope came just up to the sides of the four-way intersection. One end of the rope was twisted into a hook and the other was twisted into an eye formation. Before the contest could start and after the traffic was cleared from the roads, the crowd of tuggers was directed by the festival officials to push the two segments together into position, which connected the rope.

Shortly before the start, the police closed off the road to busses and cars. By the time the 3:00 PM scheduled start time approached, the sidewalks and street had become swollen with people, moving toward the rope. The competition is open to anyone who wants to participate. Onlookers positioned themselves in the windows of upper floors of office buildings lining the street. We found a spot very close to the center of the rope, just beyond the four-way intersection where the two pieces would be joined together.

Right after the police cleared the streets of auto and bus traffic, the streets filled with eager people. We wriggled our way through the crowd to get close to the rope, and all three of us managed to get a grip on it. Contest official men were dressed in black pajamas with white piping and looking very serious, standing on top of the rope, spaced about every ten feet. I was standing right under one of those guys. He never smiled.

There was an air of excitement and anticipation as we waited for the contest to start. It didn’t start for about another hour because first, there was a parade. So, we stood, pressed against the rope by a large crowd of people eager to begin tugging and warring. The parade featured about twelve very tall poles. The crown of each pole was decorated differently and festively; all with long banners streaming. We were told that each pole represented a different district. I’m not sure about that – it sounded too much like the explanation got confused with Palio in Siena, Italy. Anyway, the poles were probably taller than utility poles and just as wide. Each of the poles was led down the street by a group of men, also wearing pajamas, balancing them to try to keep them upright as the parade moved forward. The image was dramatic – with the tall poles advancing through the crowd; noisy horns and drums throbbing as the pole-holders wove their way forward. Their balancing acts were made harder because the crowd kept filling in the voids in the parade, giving little leeway to the pole-balancers’ needs to step back to correct the angle of a leaning piece of lumber bigger than a traffic light pole. I will admit that I did find it scary to see a swaying telephone pole come tilting my way; with no escape from the throng of people.

Some Okinawans and Japanese were sprinkled throughout the crowd where we were located. But, the majority of people participating were American military; both men and women. Many of the guys in the crowd surrounding us were holding beers or cups that used to have beers, or bottles of alcohol as an alternative to beers. Those guys were the loudest and rowdiest. However, the longer I stood there, the more I began to take in the quieter people in the crowd. There were two military women standing near to me, who I found interesting to talk with about their tours of duty on Okinawa. One was very enthusiastic about all the festivals and all there is to do on the island. I did notice that she was wearing sandals and I wondered about her feet getting stepped on once the pushing and tugging got started. I stood next to a crew-cutted 40-something year old Marine who handles logistics. As the delayed start moved into its second hour, he said he wished he had taken advantage of the opportunity to use the bathroom before getting up to the rope, because he really had to go, but couldn't get out now. Even he saw the amusing irony of poor potty planning by a logistics guy.

A whistle sounded and the officials gave a signal ordering us to push the rope forward, so that the ropes’ two ends could be connected. The officials uncoiled nests of guide ropes which had been piled on top of the main cable, and spread those smaller lines out into the crowd, as tentacles, extending the reach. Instead of pulling back, like one does in a tug of war, we pushed forward, to get the two big ends to meet in the center of the intersection, to form a single rope. The heaving and hoe-ing was intense. I felt my ribcage getting a bit squashed and did not like that one bit. At that point, my personal strategy became one of holding my arms up at waist level, creating a bit of a cage with my elbows. I hoped that the two ropes got connected quickly, preferably before I got crushed and unable to breathe. I wanted to quickly escape from my not-so-prime-anymore spot next to the rope before the real tugging began. As soon as the crowds succeeded in moving the ropes forward into position to connect, I squirmed out of the throng and onto the sidewalk. Right on my heels were the military girl wearing sandals, and Alex. Gordon stayed on for the duration.

After the hook and eye were connected, a giant wooden pin was inserted to secure them together. Lots of pajama-wearing officials swarmed over, under and through the connection to guide the big wooden pin into place. There was a final ceremony before the contest began. Two costumed ancient warriors strode the length of the rope – each began at opposite ends and met in the middle at the intersection. They acted out a sword fight at the center of the rope.

High above the warriors’ heads, at the center of the rope, about ten stories in the air, a gold-colored ball was suspended over the intersection. It hung from a line, much like the ball that gets dropped on Times Square on New Year’s Eve in New York. The moment the warriors finished, the ball was burst open. It spewed balloons and streamers, signaling the start of the tug of war. For about eight minutes, there was a lot of heaving, ho-ing, screaming, drums, whistles and other ear-ringing noises. The competition ended in a tie.

Everybody wins. Tradition is to take home a piece of the rope for good luck. We secured a big long piece and set off in our sneaker-clad feet for the trek to the monorail station. All along the way, we walked with throngs of happy celebrators with ropes looped around their necks and waists. I was quite happy leaving with pictures taken from the sidewalk instead of blisters from rope burns.