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Published: January 25th 2008
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the guardian mythological creature in Okinawa, shiisaIt’s been a couple of weeks since my winter break, but I’ve been so busy with the new semester that I haven’t had time to write anything about my trip to Okinawa. I did so many things and took so many pictures there, that I have decided to break this entry up into two parts. The first half of my trip was in the capital city, Naha, on the main island of Okinawa. The second half of my trip was spent on a much smaller island southwest of the main island of Okinawa.
Okinawa is the southernmost prefecture of Japan, located in the subtropics and made up of hundreds of islands that stretch all the way from mainland Japan to Taiwan in the East China Sea. A very long time ago, Okinawa was its own kingdom, but in the 1300s it became a part of China. It continued being under China’s rule until the late 1800s (relatively recently in Japanese history) when Japan took it over. Therefore it has a very distinct culture compared to the rest of Japan, combining Chinese, Japanese, and its own unique island customs. Even their language is much different. Okinawa prefecture has always been an
outcast in Japan, and Okinawan people feel they are mistreated by mainland Japan (especially in the case of the American military bases controversy). Okinawa prefecture continues to be the poorest prefecture in Japan.
Even though Okinawa is half way to Taiwan, my flight was only an hour and a half. The terminal at Naha airport was full of orchids, letting me know that I was in the subtropics even before I left the airport. From the airport I took the convenient monorail, which played a bit of traditional Okinawan music at each stop on its line, to the center of the city (only about a ten minute ride). The first thing I noticed about Okinawa is that it didn’t feel like Japan at all. It felt much more like the countries I visited in Southeast Asia, particularly Singapore. Maybe it was just because both places have a monorail, but the tropical temperature, the relaxed ambiance of the local people, and the slightly dilapidated buildings added to the Southeast Asia feel. And there was fresh fruit and fruit juice stalls everywhere!
The second thing I noticed about Okinawa was the shiisa! This is a mythological creature in Okinawa that
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SHIISA!!! resembles a cross between a lion and a dog. Shiisa statues are everywhere, and they are believed to protect from evil. Therefore they are often put on the roofs or at the front gates of houses. They are often found in pairs with one having an open mouth and one having a closed mouth. The open mouth is to keep evil away and the closed mouth is to keep good in.
The third thing I noticed about Okinawa was that the weather was terrible! It was cold, windy, and rainy; basically what the weather had been like on Yuge when I left. I was pretty frustrated at first thinking that I had spent a whole lot of money to fly to another cold, windy island just like Yuge. I was only planning on staying in Naha on the main island for a day or two before I wanted to head out to some of the smaller more southern islands close to Taiwan. The ferry to the southern islands is quite a long ride, so I decided to go reserve a seat on the ferry a.s.a.p. I went to three different travel agencies, and they all told me that ferries
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This shiisa was in an artist's studio and cost a fortune. I bought a pair of much smaller shiisa from him. had been canceled for the entire week due to a combination of factors including bad weather, repair work, and the New Year holiday. And there went my plan. This vacation was definitely starting to be very unlucky!
I spent the rest of the first day wondering around the main street, kokusaidouri, which is a colorful hodgepodge of souvenir shops, restaurants, bars, music shops, food stalls, and shiisa art studios. There were also several interesting alley markets that again made me feel like I was in Southeast Asia, not Japan. Because of the American military influence in Okinawa, a lot of American food has fused into Okinawan cuisine (which I was happy about). A very popular dish is Taco rice, which is like a combination of American Texmex and Japanese love of white rice. I was thrilled, as Mexican food is hard to come by in mainland Japan. They also have lots of A&W root beer (completely unknown on mainland Japan) and even A&W fast food joints. So I got my hands on some of this American food as soon as I could. Oh, and to my surprise and disgust, Okinawans love SPAM!
Of course Okinawa has its own
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sugar cane juicer food specialties that haven’t been influence by the Americans (and probably haven’t been tasted by them either). The most popular is goya champuru. Goya is a vegetable which kind of resembles a zucchini, but with lots of bumps. It doesn’t taste anything like a zucchini though, and many people don’t like it because it is extremely bitter. However, if cooked the right way, I think it is very delicious. Goya champuru is goya stir fried with tofu, egg, miso, and soy sauce. It usually has pork (or spam) in it too, but of course I asked for it without the meat.
I stopped in some of the music shops selling mostly the traditional instrument of Okinawa, the sanshin (meaning three strings). This instrument evolved from the Chinese sanxian, and eventually further evolved into the instrument which I am taking lessons in now, the shamisen, common throughout all of Japan. The sanshin, however is smaller, lighter, and its body is made out of a stretched snake skin. It has a beautiful sound, and is becoming more popular in mainstream Japanese music as more musicians from Okinawa become famous.
At the end of the first day I checked into my
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fruit stall selling all kinds of tropical fruit from Okinawa youth hostel (that I would end up staying at much longer than I had planned) a few blocks away from kokusadouri. Another thing about Okinawa that makes it totally different than the rest of Japan is its cheep lodging. Youth hostels are, by definition, cheaper than your average hotel because you often share bunk beds in dorm-style rooms. In the U.S., hostels are usually about $10 a night, and in Southeast Asia hostels can be as cheap as $2 or $3 a night. However, in mainland Japan hostels are usually about $30 to $40 a night. But the hostel I stayed at in Okinawa was only about $17 a night (unheard of in the rest of Japan)! And, if you stay for a week at a time, it’s only $100 for the whole week.
This weekly rate makes staying at a hostel for a long period of time cheaper than renting a place in Naha city. Therefore, to my surprise there were some people who had actually taken up residence on the bunk beds. I noticed that the girl on the bunk below me seemed to travel with a whole lot of stuff. I asked her how long she
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the famous goya vegetable from Okinawa had been staying there, and she replied, “Over a year.” The owner, all of the residents, and the guests at the hostel were extremely nice. We all complained about the weather together, as it had not only ruined my vacation plans, but most other’s too.
There were travelers from all over the world staying there and it was nice talking to some people my age for a change. A few American women, a Japanese guy and I decided to rent a car to escape the city for a bit as long as we were trapped on the main island. We drove down to the most southern part of the island where there’s not much more than sugar cane fields everywhere you look and explored some castle ruins that were located on a beautiful cliff overlooking the East China Sea. We also stopped at a monument at the top of a cliff for the thousands of people during the war who were brainwashed and ordered to commit suicide by jumping off the cliffs to the rocky ocean below. After that we went to a slightly tacky, yet informative cultural park that showcased various Okinawan traditions such as glass making, pottery,
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a popular dish from Okinawa, goya champuru traditional music, and sugar processing. There was also a huge cave there, much bigger than any cave I’d been to in West Virginia before. It took about 45 minutes to walk all the way through it and had magnificent stalactites and stalagmites.
On New Year’s Eve, the weather was still horrendous so most people were stuck inside the youth hostel. We had a fondue party and watched what most Japanese people watch on New Year’s Eve, Kouhaku, which is a singing competition event on TV every New Years Eve. Then, after midnight when the rain let up a bit we did what most Japanese people do on New Year’s, which is called hatsumoude. This is the “first visit to a Shinto shrine for the new year.” People make their New Year’s wishes and buy their New Year’s fortunes and charms there. The shrine was so packed with people, we had to wait about an hour just to ring the bell at the shrine and make our wishes. I was pretty satisfied because I got a pretty good fortune and bought a charm for studying hoping that it would help me get in to grad school.
The next day
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coconuts ready for drinking the weather finally got better, so I did the last thing on my list in Naha before I bought a ferry ticket to a nearby island. The last thing on my list was to go to Shurijo, the ancient royal family’s castle. It was one of the most beautiful castles I’ve been to in Japan and was also very different. It was made during the time when there was a lot of Chinese influence in Okinawa, so it was much more grandiose than the simple styles of most Japanese castles. I was pretty disappointed because I hadn’t had the opportunity to see any performances of traditional Okinawan music which was one of the things on my list to do. But, lucky me, just as I was about to leave the grounds of Shurijo, they announced that there would be a traditional dance and sanshin performance. So I stuck around, and it was a good thing, because the performance was excellent! The costumes the dancers wear were beautiful and the dances and accompanying music was very interesting.
A traditional cloth from Okinawa is called “bingata” and looks a lot like the textiles from Malaysia and Thailand. As opposed to most
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sanshin, the traditional instrument of Okinawa, displayed at the music shops other fabric in Japan which has simple designs and natural colors, bingata is very bright with complicated designs of flowers and sceneries. After I left Shurijo, I walked down the road to a bingata factory where you can watch the fabric being made and, if you want to pay a fortune, buy some cloth for yourself.
Finally, I was finished with my extended stay in Naha, and was off to the island of Zamami! For more details and photos from this exciting and beautiful part of the trip, stay tuned for my next blog!
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Erin Wight
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Aw man, seeing that meal for Warahondo is making me so hungry! >_< It was really nice to just go into a restaurant and order, wasn't it?! Oh, by the way - I think I told you that Yoko, the owner, married someone from Aomori, right? Well, my friends told me that "Warahondo" is Tsugaru-ben (the dialect spoken on the west coast of Aomori) for "children". I didn't know that one yet. I think I'm gonna fly down there next month just so I can order some more food!! Lunch... so far away.... ~_~