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.