Okinawa Kids Clothing Swap

There's no way around it, kids grow like weeds. One day you're cuffing their pants because they drag on the ground and the next they are 2 inches too short. Sometimes clothes have barely been worn before it's time to get rid of them because they simply don't fit any more. Wouldn't it be great if there was a way you could somehow put those clothes to good use? Well, it turns out that a group of people had the same thought and created the Okinawa Kids Clothing Swap.

[caption id="attachment_775" align="aligncenter" width="480"] Founded by Annastasia McPherson and joined by Sarah Cardio.
Current coordinators are Kristina Trujillo, Kristy Wells, Elaine Wang, and Courtney Walinski.[/caption]

 

What exactly is the Okinawa Kids Clothing Swap? In a nutshell it's an event that happens every 3 months where you can bring the clothes that your kids no longer have use for and swap with others who have done the same. Great idea right? Top it off with some super organized individuals who run the group and you have yourself a really great program.

It all started in April of 2009 when a military spouse who was stationed here in Okinawa put together the swap. At the time the group consisted of only about 12 people who met to swap clothes on Camp Foster. This, however, quickly grew to the large event that it is today and consequentially needed to move to a larger venue to accommodate all of the interest.

"How do I get started?" 

Before you run into your closet and pull out everything that you would like to bring to the next clothing swap there are some things that you'll need to know. First of all you're going to have to go over to the Okinawa Kids Clothing Swap Yahoo Group and register as a member which you can do by clicking here. This page has boatloads of information for you to read and to get you on the right track to participating in the next swap. You can also check out the Okinawa Kids Clothing Swap Facebook Fan Page  where you can not only get links to important information but communicate with others who are participating in the swap. I myself have check out the Facebook page and WOW! The great people over at Okinawa Kids Clothing Swap also would like to stress that if you have any questions ASK AWAY! They do a great job of giving you all the information you need.

Once you are registered it's time to get all of your clothes prepared for the event. I spoke with the coordinators over at the Okinawa Kids Clothing Swap who explained that this is the most important thing for participants to do before bring clothes to the swap. Premie/newborn through children's large clothing is accepted (sorry they do not accept juniors). You're going to have to sort and label clothing by gender, size and include your last name on each bag. You must double-check for stains, holes, excessive wear, and make sure that all buttons and/or zippers work. It is also asked that you do your best to bring only clothes which are in "like new" or "gently used" condition. Not only will this ensure that the standard of the swapped clothes is high but it also assists the volunteers from having to do unnecessary work.  Once this is done clothes are then dropped off at Kadena Elementary school, in the cafeteria, Friday before the swap (5-6PM) and Saturday morning before the swap (8-11AM). It is kindly requested that those with more than 50 items drop off clothes before 10AM and that those who participate bring no more than 100 items total.

"What can I expect at one of these swaps?"

[caption id="attachment_776" align="alignright" width="300"] This is no little swap. There are LOTS of clothes to pick from![/caption]

After you have dropped off your clothes you are free to leave and return at 12:30 to sign in and receive a credit total for the items you have brought to be swapped. This is done all by volunteers who sort and count your clothes as well as double-check to ensure that clothes meet their "gently used" standards. They will then fill out a form with your name and the total count of items accepted. If your item is not accepted because it does not meet the "gently used" standards you can choose to receive your item back or have it put into a "free" pile. For those of you who are first time swappers and might wonder why what you brought was not accepted the great people of Okinawa Kids Clothing Swap have thought of that. They will give you your items back and show you why they were not accepted.

The swap itself starts at 1pm at which time some announcements are made and then swappers can check out what items are available. Clothing is separated on tables by gender and size which makes things very easy for swappers. The event itself is quite fast paced and by 2:30PM most of the swappers have already checked out. 90 MINUTES! That pretty much means that there is no leisurely browsing once the event gets started so you should probably know exactly what you are looking for!

You can use all your credits at one time or you have the option of having unused credits carry over for 2 future swaps after which they will expire. Once you choose your items you can then go a check out where volunteers will count the items and record the number of items taken. Then that's it! You can go on your merry way and continue on with your day.

Volunteers are always needed!

These types of events and organizations are great but it's no secret that they don't run themselves. The Okinawa Kids Clothing Swap is 100% volunteer run and organized. This is part of the reason that the event is free to those who want to participate. They also welcome any donations of resources to help keep the event going strong! One of the ways that can help is to volunteer some of your time. Here's that the Okinawa Kids Clothing Swap told us about what it's like to volunteer for a swap:

We will have 3 shifts this swap. Friday late afternoon, Saturday morning, and Saturday afternoon. Friday will be a 2 hour shift for unloading of the stored swap clothes and setup. Saturday morning will be a 4 hour shift from 0800-1200 for clothing checkin, reviewing, and placing on tables. Saturday afternoon will be a 4 hour shift from 1200-1600, and will run the check out tables and assist in filtering out expired clothing, counting items for record keeping, and packing left over clothes back up into our space bag totes.

And just because you're volunteering doesn't mean that there aren't perks:

All swap-participating volunteers receive 10 PREPICKS! This means that if you volunteer, you must be present at 1215 at the swap location to go pick out 10 items to take home before the swap opens. You get FIRST PICKS of all the new swap items, 10 of them, (as long as you have 10 credits to use). This is our way of saying THANK YOU for volunteering and helping to keep our swap running free and smoothly as a service to all military families on Okinawa. We will provide a letter of appreciation and a certificate if needed for your volunteer service hours.

If you are interested in volunteering you can contact the Okinawa Kids Clothing Swap through Facebook.

My thoughts: 

At first glance I loved the idea of the Okinawa Kids Clothing Swap but it honestly wasn't until I took some time to read more into it and talk with the folks over there that it really started to shine. Looking at some of the online resources and seeing the amount of effort and work that has gone into that alone was great but then to hear how much the volunteers put into this and how many people participate really sold me on how great this is which is why I wanted to highlight Okinawa Kids Clothing Swap for those of you who might be reading this blog.

I would also like to add a special thanks to the people over at the Okinawa Kids Clothing Swap who assisted me by answering my questions. You guys are doing a great thing over there so keep up the great work!

Unfortunately I was unable to post this before the last event which happened this month (November 2012), however that give those of you who are interested in participating in the next swap plenty of time to get prepared and read all of the necessary information.

 

FMF: Speaking Japanese, Driving, Beauty Schools and Non-American Holidays

It's been another long week over here at ONK and there has been a lot of preparation taking place therefore I apologize for not being as on top of things as I usually am. With that being said let's go into today's topics.

"Do you speak Japanese?" 

I can speak some Japanese but not as much as I would like to. I can also read and write but my vocabulary is very limited as far as understanding most of what I am reading although I am improving every day through lots of tedious practice. I have a few different blog posts about this but I also plan to discuss more about this in the future in a video.

"Is it difficult to learn the ways of the road?"

Learning the ways of the road are relatively easy. We do drive on the "wrong" side of the road here although that is super easy to get used to if you focus on driving. The road signs are relatively easy to learn also because in my opinion they are straight forward, although, you can and should go online and study the signs especially because you will be tested when you arrive here in you choose to drive.

So what else is there to know about driving here. . . . there is a lot to talk about here and so I might not be able to cover every detail in this particular post or in the corresponding video. Let's see if I can go through a number of these without going  into too much detail and if you have any further questions please let me know and I will ensure that I get your answers to you as soon as possible.

- Call Phones: Put them down. It is illegal to use your cell phone while driving in Okinawa and you'll need all of your attention on the road anyway.

- Motorcycles and Scooters: They're out there and they use the road so be aware of them. They will also share a lane with cars from time to time which is perfectly legal.

- Three Car Rule At Lights: It is not uncommon to see up to three people run the red light before they are considered out of line. I would not advise doing this yourself because it can be very dangerous but it is something you should be aware of.

- Speeding when cops aren't around isn't necessarily the best idea because Okinawa is equipped with speed cameras which will take a photo if you are exceeding the limit and have a ticket mailed to you. Yes even if you are American. And they are not always obvious as they are in some of the US locations where they have been installed.

- There is a lot of traffic here and therefore you are significantly closer than you would be in your home town so be aware of this and pay attention to the road.

- There are stickers which indicate when a driver is over a certain age (very old) or a new driver. Be aware that if you strike one of these drivers you will most likely be at more fault for not keeping an eye out for them as they have stickers displayed.

- Everyone involved in an accident is responsible to some extent. Period.

- Don't drink and drive. They take that very seriously here not only for you the driver but everyone in the car and even people who sent you on your way knowing that you had some drinks.

I hope that this is helpful.

The last two topics I am not going to discuss because I have already made previous blog posts about them due to the involvement I wanted to provide in the answer. Thanks so much for reading and again please let me know if you have any other questions.

Viewer Question: "It Takes A Village".

Today a post was made both here on the blog and over at the OkiNinjaKitty Channel. Here's the video if you wanted to take a look:

Not long after the video posted a comment was made which asked me the following:

"Have you read Hillary Clinton's book, "It Takes A Village"?? If so, do you think her theory that everyone is responsible for the village children would work in Okinawa? If not, would you agree that Okinawans "parent" their own children starting at home and do not expect the village to do the "parenting" out on the street or at the mall?"

This is a great question! I wanted to respond right away but because of the character limit on YouTube comments I took some time in order to organize my thoughts so I could summarize what I wanted to say all while fitting in the space provided. Then I realized. . . . I've got a blog I can use as much space as I need to answer and so here we are. Because there are a few different parts to this question I am going to take it piece by piece and hopefully it makes it easier to write about and communicate what I am trying to say.

"Have you read Hillary Clinton's book, "It Takes A Village"??"

I unfortunately have not read the book "It Takes A Village" but I am very familiar with the concept that the book is said to discuss.

"If so, do you think her theory that everyone is responsible for the village children would work in Okinawa?"

The more that I examine this part of the question the more complicated my response becomes so hang in there with me for a moment here while I try to take what is in my head and communicate it with words that people other than myself will understand. In many ways I believe that this "it takes a village" theory is very much in place here in Okinawa but not necessarily in the way that we might envision it as Americans. What I mean by this is that here in Okinawa it seems as though the "village" is the family. Children are taken care of my parents, grandparents, great grandparents, great great grand parents (it is Okinawa after all), aunts, uncles and other family members who may be part of the large family structure which seems to be common among Okinawa's families. It is common for families to also do things together so in short there is always someone to keep their eye on the child. For example if you go to a local shopping center mom may be doing the groceries but the child is upstairs in the children's area with grandpa. I have also known people who feel that their children are not quite well enough behaved to bring into public situations and therefore they choose to have a grandparent babysit while they are out and about.

Now I realize that depending on your views you may feel that this is not necessarily an illustration of the "it takes a village" theory but let me explain for a moment what brings me to feel as though it is. Based on the experiences that I have had with some of Okinawa's families there is a lot for the children to learn within the family structure.   Discipline, recreation activities (playing, gardening, cooking) and how to conduct yourself in social situations all seem to be learned through interaction with different members of the family structure. This is enforced when the family comes together and eventually when families spend time in more social situations with outside groups (being in public). Each and every family member has something to offer and therefore this brings me to my observation that this theory is very much practiced here in Okinawa.

"If not, would you agree that Okinawans "parent" their own children starting at home and do not expect the village to do the "parenting" out on the street or at the mall?"

Even in the case of the family being the "village" yes I would agree that most Okinawans "parent" their own children starting at home. There is a certain level of discipline that the child must have before going to a grandparent's house so that the grandparents are not burdened. There will eventually be another level of discipline that a child must have before going into public/social situations so that others are not burdened. Remember people in Okinawa are relatively non-confrontational and have a certain respect for the people around them. If there is something that they as a parent do not feel is acceptable the prevent it from happening, even if it means removing a child from a situation completely, before a stranger has to mention it to them.

As always I do need to stress that there are people out there, as there are anywhere else, who do not have the same feelings towards respecting others and avoiding confrontation. for the most part, however, they seem to be far and few in-between. There is always an exception to every rule. With that being said I hope that I was able to offer an answer to this question. If there are any other ares that you feel I need to clarify on please let me know.

Celebrating Non-Japanese Holidays In Okinawa

Today is the Fourth Of July and for many Americans it is a day to celebrate America's Independence. But what if you are here in Okinawa? I mean it is Japan right? So how do people celebrate Non-Japanese holidays here in Okinawa? This is actually a great topic for discussion and I think that it is one that many of you will be interested in so let's discuss.

The first and most obvious thing to discuss and understand is that here in Japan there are a set of holidays which are simply not celebrated like they are in the states because they do not hold significant meaning here. Independence Day, MLK Day, Columbus Day, Memorial Day and so on. These are the days celebrated in America because of American achievements. Naturally the Japanese don't have any interest in these holidays and therefore these days are just like any other day of the week. However, there are some Japanese companies which actor to American customs here in Okinawa that may have these days off. You may also find that if you are working on or for the Military bases you will usually observe these holidays as you would in the US but be advised that this is not always the case and you should always take special care to ask your employer or command whether or not you are granted these days off. It is also important to note that if you are American and part of the military bases you may find yourself having the ability to attend special celebrations on some of these holidays. MLK day usually has some sort of African American in America Pride/Accomplishments type seminar or event. Memorial Day usually has some type of memorial service and Independence Day has a celebration also. It used to be that the Air Base known as Kadena did a thing called "America Fest" where they would have a ton of different activities for all including the local people who were not normally allowed on base but this year they did a small cookout style event with a live performance from some local bands with fireworks.

So what about these other holidays that are celebrated by Americans?

Halloween

Kids all over America can't wait for Halloween and for the American kids being here in Okinawa is no exception. So how does Halloween happen here in Okinawa. If you are in a standard neighborhood out in Okinawa you are not going to see anyone observe Halloween. It's not something that people do here even though you might see little basic costumes out in town or halloween decorations BUT this is not the case if you are on a base. The bases do have an observance of halloween which usually consists of the camp commanders determining when children can go out from house to house and what children can go from house to house. That's right. The date, time and age of the children who can trick or treat is determined by each camp. Unfortunately this leave some kids out in the cold, for example one year if you were over the age of 12 you were not allowed to trick or treat which I found a bit silly but again that's my opinion. There are other celebrations you can attend as an adult and sometimes you may have halloween events to attend as a teen but there is usually a large gap between the little kids and the adults where there is not much to do unless you organize it yourself.

Christmas 

Christmas is one of the holidays that although you might not have the day off in a Japanese company, is still celebrated here in Japan. Unlike in the US it is not religious in nature and is more of a romantic holiday comparable in my opinion to valentine's day where you and your loved one can go on a date, do romantic things and enjoy each other's company. There are still decorations and it is a beautiful sight to see. Again if you are on the military bases you may or may not have this holiday off.


To be completely honest I can't think of any other holidays that are celebrated in America to mention. That's not to say that there re not others out there but I just don't have them to comment on right now (feel free to ask away and I will add more information). Now the question most of you are probably wanting to ask about, how do I celebrate the holidays here in Japan. Well to be completely honest it depends on what the holiday is and how much money and effort I am willing to put into it. The best celebration we have had recently was Thanksgiving last year when we went around from place to place trying to make a "thanksgiving dinner" out of random things. The word "Thanksgiving" has the link to that video so please check it out. As for other holidays we take them as they come. We celebrate Christmas be doing some fun little things but we really don't to too much as far as decorating goes because of the cost of electricity and the lack of space that we have. We do still exchange gifts though and we do maybe go out for dinner or something nice like that. Other holidays really aren't a thing though. Today for example we are just going to have another day like any other. Maybe we will do something like eat hamburgers or hotdogs which is not something we would normally eat and that will be a bit of our celebration to remind us of home but other than that it's just another day for us here in Okinawa.

How do you celebrate the holidays?

Leave me a comment below, on Facebook or email me at okininjakitty@yahoo.com

High expectations the reason for bad travel reviews?

I have been doing a lot of research recently for my Tokyo trip. I am not looking for a great deal of information but just a few things that would make the trip easy like if the hotel has a laundry service so nothing big. During my research I ended up spending time some time reading reviews which I found were interesting and at times surprising.

To be completely honest I read only the English comments because I wasn't into translating. During the time that I was reading I started to see a pattern and that pattern is that basically I think people have high expectations when traveling to another country and in some cases feel that that country should accommodate to what is part of your particular culture or it simply is not up to good standards. This is best illustrated in the example of bedding. Now here in Japan it is most common for people to sleep using futon. Futon can be closely compared to a long thin mat that is rolled out on the floor and from there a sleepy person would sleep upon it like a bed because. . . . it is a bed. If you were to go to home shops you might also see the same type of thing where the futon is rolled out on a raised level which looks similar to a bed or in some cases a mattress is used although it is usually firm. Knowing this you might only assume that it is natural for the beds in Japan to have a similar build where they are firm. Unfortunately there are a great deal of people traveling to Japan who don't seem to know this and therefore feel extremely disappointed or even distraught about the fact that the beds are firm or "feel as if you are sleeping on the floor". The comments that I had read were absolutely relentless stating things like "Japanese obviously hate Americans" just for the feel of the bed. It actually makes me wonder if these people had ever traveled to another country ever before. My thought is no and the reason that I say this is supported by something else that I found myself reading during my research and that was that no one spoke English and "staff was extremely unhelpful because of it". Wow. This is always one of the things that surprise me the most when I hear it from people who travel to countries which do not have English as a primary language. Of course English may be available from time to time, however, just because a hotel has "english speaking staff" for example does not mean that everyone on staff at all times speaks English. Truthfully I do not feel as if there is a lot of explaining for me to do in order to try and help others understand that when traveling to Japan it might not be possible to communicate in English but I suppose that there are some out there who just feel this way and that saddens me. In fact the reason that I am most sad about this is because the way that these comments are made almost make it seem as if these families were traveling to Tokyo and going to certain destinations and then having no assistance whatsoever. It seems like they are made to figure out everything on their own and fend for themselves which I do not think is the case. What I can do is explain what I have experienced in the time that I have been here. I have been in Japan for approximately  6 years now but my language skills are not the best especially because Okinawa is not the best place to learn Japanese but I will get into that during a different post. Regardless my lack of language skills I have never encountered a problem doing anything here in Japan be it Tokyo, Osaka or Okinawa. I Have also take a number of steps to ensure that I do not run into problems. I have a great survival vocabulary and when I do not know I have taken time to make accommodations for ahead of time. Anyone can do this and I encourage anyone going to any country to do something similar.

There were other things that I had read about and just thought was amazing that people were not considering these things when they left on a trip to Japan. I suppose some people are just never satisfied. Thanks for reading.

I think I live in what was base housing. . . .

Let me first start off by saying that I do not live in what is a "traditional" japanese style house. To be honest I am not even sure that there are any more traditional japanese style houses in the southern part of Okinawa. Yes some of them have been preserved and rebuild but they are not the majority of what you will see here. Of course this is not something that you would have to search the history books for because the houses are clearly different from what you see in the parts of Okinawa that were not so much affected by WWII. I also live very close to the base fence line like many other people in Ginowan and yesterday I noticed something interesting. When walking up the road to get back to my house I found that one of the tombs along the left side of the road had been cleaned up. The wall is usually covered in growth but someone usually comes by and takes care of it. Yesterday, however, it had been cleared out all the way down to the stone wall itself and I noticed that it said painted in stencil yellow it said "SLOW DOWN 5 MPH". This was very interesting to me because first of all there was no Japanese that was painted on and the us of MPH rather than KPH.

Now for those of you who may be reading this looking for historical value I am going to be very up front. At this time  I honestly do not know the factual information about the location where I live as far as what it was before the past 10 years. Okinawa is a very difficult place to follow especially when it comes to some of the places like MCAS Futenma. Many of the articles that I can find about the location are focused on certain topics and it in the past 24 hours has not produced information regarding the actual layout of what the base used to be in the past. What I do know is this, MCAS Futenma during WWII was build as a "temporary" air station. The land was leveled to allow for American air planes to land and assist in the war efforts. At some point I do know that the American Military opened some land back up for the people of Okinawa to live back in again. This is basically the extent of what I know. Well that and the fact that MCAS Futenma is still here. (**For those of you who are reading this who are aware that there are a lot of other facts regarding what was and may never be recovered from MCAS Futenma's "settling" in Ginowan please know that I do know that information and have not chosen to go into that type of detail for this particular article. In the future I may take the time to put together an article with that information, however, I would like to devote to it the proper time and research to ensure that all of my facts are right rather than just pulling it together carelessly. Thank you for your understanding**)

So, we're walking past this sign and I say to my husband "I bet we live in base housing" to which he stops in his tracks and said, "wow I bet we do". There are a few clues to this which become clear when you take a look around. First off there is the structure of the base housing. Even if you are not a military member you would be familiar with this structure because of the houses near the fence line. These houses are usually one story, concrete and have a roof which is I can only describe as what you would see on a house of cards. Flat across with an overhang around the sides. This is the same style of house that you can find in certain areas around the bases in the MCAS Futenma area. Although some of them have been changed understandably since the 1970's when I imagine most of these were built you can still see the distinct similarities. These houses are small, maybe two or three rooms but enough that a small family can live there or maybe a small group of Military personnel.

The road that I live on is also quite curious. As many of you who may have seen my videos before know that it is small and leads to nowhere really, except for houses and to be completely honest it is not large enough for more than one car to go down at a time with few places which allow for a turn off. There is, however a road that is on the base beyond the fence line which runs parallel with the road that I live on. I imagine that at one time the fence line went further down maybe all the way down to 58 at which point it would have perfectly met where the MCAS Futenma sign sits today. Maybe this small neighborhood (and many others) were part of that on base land and then were given back and the fence line moved back? I truthfully have no idea. If this was the case I find it quite sad. The reason being is that there are tombs throughout this entire neighborhood which means that if this were to be part of the base at one point families would have been unable to visit the tombs of their loved ones which is a rather big deal here in Ginowan. Now I do understand that this was and is still very much the case elsewhere on the base right now but still the thought of this land being off limits does still strike a cord with me. Now, it could have also been the case that this was base housing which was constructed outside the base. This was something that I understand was also done during certain time periods. Even now this same type of thing happens where housing is built targeting the American Military members. The potential difference is that now you can rent the houses where as there may have been housing that military members used without paying at some time in the past.

Regardless what turns out to be the actual factual information (which I will hopefully find some times in the future) this is an interesting thing to ponder around.