Kokusai Okinawa

Okinawa, the Champaru culture that it is, hosted an international festival this past week. It was mainly a festival for children with lots of plays geared toward a younger audience. Emily and I volunteered to help out. Emily speaks Japanese really well, so that was her talent, and I like to hang out and talk to people so that was my talent. We were dubbed "Okinawa Goodwill ambassadors". We ended up spending time with a group from Sweden, from Thursday thru to Sunday. They were a great bunch and we had a lot of fun. I especially had fun showing them many different sides to the Okinawan/Japanese culture. Of course we also interacted with a bunch of folks from other countries. We took them out to an outdoor Izakaiya, then we went and sang Karaoke. They had a lot of fun singing. They were all very open minded and willing to try just about anything. We had one particular adventure that stands out in my mind as a prime example of why Okinawa is so great, and why it is what it is. We took them all out to Martins, the Irish pub. As we sat there I stepped back and took a look at the situation. Here we were, a group of Americans, Okinawans, Swedes and French (truly amazing), all sitting together in Okinawa Japan, in an Irish pub, drinking Irish beer, and speaking Japanese, English, and Swedish... a very unique experience for me! Emily and I would love to come back next year to help out again. We never did get a group picture, so I took the pictures we had from when we went to Martins, and combined them. The couple to the left is Yoko-san and her Husband David. They live in Paris. Yoko-san is Okinawan, and speaks French, English, and Japanese perfectly. On the right is Bengt, Me, and Stalle. They were lots of fun, and had a good sense of humor, they both spoke English very well. The center picture is Hisano-san, Emily, Tuve in the front, and Ylva in the back. Hisano-san is Emily's best friend in Okinawa. Tuve and Ylva, were both from Sweden, and both spoke English very well. What a great group.