I had my first official meeting with an Okinawan High School Principal last Wednesday. It was most fascinating. This first meeting was the culmination of my desire to do a joint rehearsal and performance with an Okinawan High School. This seems like an obivious way to get the kids from both cultures to learn more about one another.  I can’t say that many high schools in the states have such an opportunity literally blocks away. With virtually no costs involved, it should be a slam dunk.

 

Except this is Okinawa, and Okinawans follow Japanese business customs. Everything moves at the pace of a glacier and motives for the different parties don’t always mesh.

 

This meeting was held at the U.S. Consulate. As far as I know, that is kind of like an embassy, but smaller with less services. It is the place to go to apply for a U.S. visa or if you have troubles with your paperwork as a U.S. citizen travelling in Okinawa (not for those of us involved with the DoD though; we get taken care of on the base if there are issues). Going through security in this facility was way more difficult than anything on base. We had to have an appointment to drive into the lot, then give up all electronic devices and go through metal dectection, then be escorted through a labyrinth to the meeting room. I wouldn’t have been able to find the exit on my own.

 

Upon entering the meeting room, there were two members of the consulate, and the Okinawan Princiapal with one of his teachers. One consulate member was American and the other was Okinawan. With me was the school district cultural liason (who I originally contacted in September about doing something like this), the district Public relations officer, and the band director from our other high school. Everyone in the room spoke English I later would discover, but the first ten minutes involved the business card ritual.

 

If you aren’t familiar with it, it’s quite fascinating to watch. Upon starting a meeting, all participants exchange cards. Howeve, unlike in the U.S., the cards are handed over in a specific presentation style, where upon the receiver studies the card carefully while verbally exchanging names as well. This happens with each and every person who has a card who doesn’t know someone else. In our setting, that was several cards. After all the cards are exchanged, they are laid out on the table in front of you presented in the order of importance of the person who gave you the card. If I would’ve put the Okinawan teacher’s card above the Principal’s card, it would’ve been a faux pas for sure.

 

Nothing solid was accomplished after an hour of speaking and listening, but at least the process has begun. My principal later told me it could take years to build up the relationship to the point that they might allow some type of joint event to occur. He did say tat learning to speak Japanese seems to help. There are two teachers in our building that can get soccer or baseball games scheduled against Okinawan schools any time they want because they have made the connections, but primarily while speaking Japanese.

 

So, bottom line; I need to learn the language. Realistically I will not ever get a chance to work with one of these schools unless I do so.

 

I did ask if I could participate in the local high school band competition. He said that would be highly unlikely. It was kind and polite, but for Japanese, that is the equivilant to saying, "Not a chance in hell". They really don’t ever say no here. I’ve seen the word in print, but never spoken.

 

I really get a strong sense that as an American here associated with the military, I am far outside the circle of trust and it will take a lot of effort on my part to change that perception.

I’ve decided today that I hate running. I don’t get the joy out of it that I get on the bike. Perhaps it’s because it hurts so bad to run. It hurts on the bike too, but that’s different. I’ve been running regularly for about 10 weeks now and the massive knee pain that hits 20 minutes into the run hasn’t gone away. Whether I run hard or easy or 22 minutes or for an hour; it doesn’t matter. The outside joints of both knees feel like someone is sticking a knife in them and it makes for an unpleasant experience.

 

I’ve only gone swimming once. For two weeks afterward everything I heard was garbled. People talking, instruments playing, bands rehearsing…they all sounded out of tune. I’ve since had a doctor’s appointment to get my allergy medications going again and she said my ears were plugged spent about an hour blasting water in them to clear them out. Needlessy to say, it was unpleasant, but she finally stopped when what she referred to as ‘the plug’ came out. She says I shouldn’t have issues with water anymore, especially with the after swim ear drying solution she recommended. Whether I decide to do triahtlons or not, I want to be able to get scuba certified, so the ears must work in and after water exposure. Seems like I should be able to hear better too. We’ll see.

 

So maybe I won’t be a triathlete after all. I just don’t like running. It hurts too much.

They tell me that typical January and February weather here is the low to mid 50′s and rainy. so far I’ve only seen a few days of that type of weather. Most of the new year has been 60 at the coldest and as warm as 78 on occasion. We have been getting rain, but not too much and several days of sunshine as well. Makes for great riding weather all around.

 

The marines typically get an extra day off whenever there is a three day weekend federal holiday. So this last weekend when most of us got Monday off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the marine core also had today (Tuesday) off as well. Two of my riding buddies  are marines and reserved a room at Okuma Monday night to do some riding from there. Okuma is the major MWR (mental welfare and recreation…I think) facilty here. It is on the Northern part of the island where all the best bicycling is. It’s a narrow span of land with a huge, beatuiful beach on either side. They have several cabanas and campsites for rent. They have bicycles, golf clubs (9 hole par 3 course), beach gear, jet skis, ski boats, etc. It is a beautiful beach:

And as you can see, it is quite large. There is an equally large "South Beach" as well. The cabanas are relatively inexpensive to rent, but I’ve heard that they are booked as much as a year in advance for busy weekends. Our ride took us through the heart of the jungle up an amazingly steep road to this lookout:

It might be hard to tell from the pic, but you can almost see both sides of the island from this 1000 ft high ridge line.

We just kept going on this little unmarked roads and came across this interesting fence:

This is a gate in the fence with a picture of some small animal. This fence went on for several miles and hundreds of pictures of birds and other small animals. Occasionally we saw a couple of signs that said "no more mongoose" in English and we did see a mongoose later on. He was trying to get away from us through the fence but he couldn’t cross it. We then figured out that it was an anti mongoose fence and they were trying to protect all the animals pictured. Apparently the mongoose was brought here years ago to take out the Habu snakes (very poisonous local snake). Well, the mongoose left them alone and started eating all the eggs of the local birds. So this was a wildlife preserve of sorts. You can see the fence extending into the distance on the right of this picture of Steve climbing one of the steeper sections of the ride. This part was so steep that I had a very difficult time getting the bike moving again after I stopped for the picture.

Later in the ride we stopped for a snack in a remote area. This was the beach across the road from the market. It was kind of a ‘general mecantile’ type store. It had a little of everything and looked like the center of action for this tiny village we were in. The northern part of the island definitely resonates with me more because it is so rural which I’m much more comfortable with than the urban landscape around the base. Here’s a castle we rode to the previous week. It’d be great to go back some time with the real camera. It was all shrouded in mist and very eerie.

 

Here is a house near the castle that is typical of the older generation homes that stickout around all the modern buildings made of concrete:

 

It’s finals week here at school. I can’t hardly believe that we’re halfway through the school year already. It’s gone by so quickly. I need to get out more and be more culturally enriched. That means I need to dig back into my study of the language. I haven’t been doing so well on that.

 

Until next time…