What a small world! 16 years after I left this apartment, I find my way back...literally...only to find two choros in my old apartment (at the most random time of the day), and one of them knows me and my folks.
I wandered the apartment, told them some of the lore of the place (like, it having had - for a period at least - the only stand-up ironing board in the mission), history of the mission (then, the Okinawa dendobu), and they were, again, just as stunned as I was. I spent no more than 4 or 5 minutes there, but those 5 minutes were absolutely priceless.
Even more priceless than walking through the shotens and somehow finding the farmers market area, and locating the coolers where the pig faces were sold. The same cooler that kept the pig face I held up on my first P-Day in Okinawa. I was impressed to find that they now offer the pig faces in a variety of marinades. What a selection for the passionate foodie out there.
Going to the Kokusai and wandering the shotens was sort of something I had to do, and just barely something I wanted to do. Although I wanted to see a few touristy spots while in Okinawa, I really wated to embrace the mundane (to borrow a term from John Cline - fellow Okinawa traveler from many years past). I'm not a touristy tourist. I think most companion travelers would be extraordinarily frustrated traveling with me. But not Miwa. She's from here. So I think she has an appreciation for all things mundane.
I really enjoy wandering the dusty neighborhoods nowhere near the tourist centers, where if you got lost, you'd really be lost. While we were walking Kokusai, we saw a bunch of gaijin, and I proffered to Miwa that I wish I could take them all to Gushikami, find a little oba store, buy some pan, get an Acquarious, then see how hard we could make the oba laugh by tossing out various expressions in her native tongue (Uchinaguchi). Admittedly, the tourists probably wouldn't get it, nor really appreciate it. They aren't equipped with the language, and probably don't understand the history of the place.
But I do, and I will. Before wandering the oba stores of Gushikami, I had to contribute to the local economy of Heiwadori. We actually did buy a few things (mostly food - fish and shrimp that the vendor then took upstairs to a grill, cooked and prepared for us), some fabric for my wife to make a baby sling with, etc. But I reserved most of my coin for other, more random places.
Kokusai was the first stop. We then went to find my Shuri apartment, with the aid of our navigator and driver, Miwa's mom. After that, down to Big Dip to take our picture in the cone and get some ice cream. We went back to Nishihara to drop mom off, then got back into the car to go in a vain search for my Naha Higashi apartment. "Vain" because I wasn't even sure if I successfully found it on Google Earth. I took the wheel, wandered from Nishihara, through Shuri, and down to Higashi. Sure enough, the Force led me straight to it like I was there yesterday. Coincidently, the apartment is now named "Miwa Mansion" (or was it always named that?). What are the odds? We then took a round about way back to the Shuri apartment, then to the home in Nishihara.
There's something important to me about relearning the routes and avenues of towns I had lived in, in the past. Like it somehow revalidates that I did live there. I was able to piece a few key streets back together, and returned to Nishihara very satisfied.
We still had more to do, after the sun had fallen. We went out with Miwa's high school friends. She had a great time, and I enjoyed watching her have a good time, but trying to follow a conversation between three girls in Japanese is...well, exhausting. So, my brain shut down, and I spent most of that time pondering the appropriateness of the Starbucks in Okinawa screwing up my Grande White Hot Chocolate in the exact same way the Starbucks in Seattle screw it up - by putting mocha in it.
Even more priceless than walking through the shotens and somehow finding the farmers market area, and locating the coolers where the pig faces were sold. The same cooler that kept the pig face I held up on my first P-Day in Okinawa. I was impressed to find that they now offer the pig faces in a variety of marinades. What a selection for the passionate foodie out there.Going to the Kokusai and wandering the shotens was sort of something I had to do, and just barely something I wanted to do. Although I wanted to see a few touristy spots while in Okinawa, I really wated to embrace the mundane (to borrow a term from John Cline - fellow Okinawa traveler from many years past). I'm not a touristy tourist. I think most companion travelers would be extraordinarily frustrated traveling with me. But not Miwa. She's from here. So I think she has an appreciation for all things mundane.
I really enjoy wandering the dusty neighborhoods nowhere near the tourist centers, where if you got lost, you'd really be lost. While we were walking Kokusai, we saw a bunch of gaijin, and I proffered to Miwa that I wish I could take them all to Gushikami, find a little oba store, buy some pan, get an Acquarious, then see how hard we could make the oba laugh by tossing out various expressions in her native tongue (Uchinaguchi). Admittedly, the tourists probably wouldn't get it, nor really appreciate it. They aren't equipped with the language, and probably don't understand the history of the place.But I do, and I will. Before wandering the oba stores of Gushikami, I had to contribute to the local economy of Heiwadori. We actually did buy a few things (mostly food - fish and shrimp that the vendor then took upstairs to a grill, cooked and prepared for us), some fabric for my wife to make a baby sling with, etc. But I reserved most of my coin for other, more random places.
There's something important to me about relearning the routes and avenues of towns I had lived in, in the past. Like it somehow revalidates that I did live there. I was able to piece a few key streets back together, and returned to Nishihara very satisfied.
We still had more to do, after the sun had fallen. We went out with Miwa's high school friends. She had a great time, and I enjoyed watching her have a good time, but trying to follow a conversation between three girls in Japanese is...well, exhausting. So, my brain shut down, and I spent most of that time pondering the appropriateness of the Starbucks in Okinawa screwing up my Grande White Hot Chocolate in the exact same way the Starbucks in Seattle screw it up - by putting mocha in it.
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