Okinawa, Japan

Despite the sign in the background welcoming us to Okinawa, our entry into Japan was not the easiest nor most efficient that we have encountered on this trip. At their insistence, all 987 passengers and crew had to disembark for a face to face inspection and stamping of passports. Not one person could return to the ship until all 987 persons had passed this inspection. Okay, we've had things like this before in less developed countries, should be a piece of cake here. NOT! According to their published schedule, this task was to have been accomplished in less than two hours. Not totally out of the realm of possibilities considering the reputation for efficiency of the Japanese. And it could have happened if only they had bothered to fully staff their interview stations. Perhaps it is difficult to hire here also. Only thing I have encountered thus far in this country that hasn't been absolutely wonderful!!!!

My excursion of choice for Okinawa was a visit to the Prefectural Museum and shopping along Kokusai Dori Street. We had been warned to expect light scattered showers in the afternoon. It is the start of the rainy season here which also means the temperatures are a tad lower. This is a very welcome break from the scorching heat and humidity of the tropics. I actually reached for a jacket that hasn't been worn since Antarctica. It felt good! Our guide was a proud lifetime resident of Okinawa who spoke near perfect English. When asked where she learned it, she replied that she had formerly worked in the marketing department of a company headquartered in San Francisco and thus had traveled there often. Then she revealed that she now has a son (she didn't look more than 30 herself) who "works in IT department for a small company in Houston." When pressed she said it was Academy. Not so small a company in my mind. Last fall she went to Houston to visit him. She likes Houston very much because it reminds her of Okinawa. "Hot and humid like here!"

That's about as much information as I gleaned from her as she could not talk in the museum, did not go into the Coffee Shop therein, and of course, we all scattered to the four winds on Dori Street. She had more to say on the bus than I heard, but some of my shipmates were engaged in conversation obliterating whatever she was trying to say. Good thing for them that they were out of my reach.

The museum was one of the very best I've seen tracing the history of mankind back through the ages with pottery pieces, bones, etc. found in various digs around the world. Each piece had a notation of where it was found and who would own it once no longer displayed herein. Of course no pictures were allowed in the museum but it was very interesting. Upstairs was a Museum Cafe where Nancy and I joined several others in our group for Jasmine Iced Tea and their "Baked Sweet of the Day" which turned out to be a not very sweet cross between a granola bar and a brownie. Both items were very good! Crumbly but good! Thankfully they accepted credit cards as neither of us had converted our dollars to yen at this point. Nancy found some things in the Museum Store that she could not leave behind but I resisted.

Next it is off to Kokusai Dori Street where the picture was taken amidst a few sprinkles. A very interesting array of shops are located along this street including an A & W Root Beer shop, two Seven Elevens, Japanese equivalent of Dollar General and some up scale clothing stores. Though I saw items with color in them, the uniform for the workers in Japan is either all black, black with white, or black with tan. So who wears the colors displayed in the windows? We also found a cash machine. Marvelous invention, this machine. Not a bank card but a machine that recognizes what type of money inserted (about 6 or 8 different types of currency were accepted), what denomination of your bill and spits out that equivalent in yen. Now they may have had these things for decades but it was new to me. I then took my yen to convert it into a bottle of Listerine. They sell it in the ship's store but at a premium so I bought it at a Seven Eleven because we all know what bargains they have. Problem one arose when I could not decipher the price. Problem two followed shortly thereafter as I had no clue the denomination of the bills and coins I had just received. So I did the only sensible thing, went up to the counter, plopped down the bottle of Listerine, took out a handful of my yen, placed it in their handy little dish and smiled and said to the teenager behind the counter, "Take what you need." Apparently the youngster didn't speak my brand of English as he looked very quizzically at first me and next the Japanese man at the next register who was dying laughing. Glad I could provide some entertainment for him. I got my Listerine and still have lots of yen left. Mission accomplished.

Apparently these statues are supposed to be some kind of welcoming spirit. Didn't catch all of what our guide was saying about the ugly little creatures, but they were all over the city in varying sizes and colors. Coming from the port onto the main street into the city were huge ones on either side of the street - kinda like the arches in St Louis. At this writing I have now visited four other locations in Japan and I am so very much in love with this country and its people!

Today Is Someday! Live It! Wherever You Are!