The Stone Lion of Kishaba

 



Almost everyone who comes through Okinawa is familiar with the shisaa. They come in many shapes, sizes and can be found in either pairs or by themselves. It is common for some nowadays to think of shisaa as good luck charms but this is not exactly the reason that they are around. Overall the shisaa is a protector. There are a lot of stories which I will save for another day but at a time they were most commonly seen on the roof of a house, not necessarily in pairs. This particular shisaa was placed in a location (different from where it sits today) facing a stone which was said to spit fire and therefore to prevent natural disasters in the area the shisaa was placed facing it.  There is no date on the shisaa and like many other things throughout Okinawa it can not be exactly determined when it might have been constructed but it does seem as though it is in the same fashion of the shisaa which are located in the kyuuna area. I have not yet talked about those shisaa in a video but I will be sure to cover them in the future.

The current location of this shisaa is in a small park which is located in the Kitanakagusuku area. The park is beautiful and holds a few different historical areas although at this time I am not entirely sure of what each one is. After walking up a large set of stairs into a large coral stone area you can feel as though you are in the middle of the jungle.

The park has a number of tombs and monuments although we did not venture to one of them because it was too overgrown. Signs mark the direction of each area as well. On a beautiful day this is a great place to get away for a brief moment and enjoy the sun but it is also a great place to see some history as well.

Below all of the tombs, water way and everything else in the overgrown area you can see that there is a large grassy area as well as a sandy area which is more likely than not used for gate ball. Benches also are set throughout the park for people who are wondering through to sit and enjoy the area. Although this is a great place to see this is not a park which is dedicated to kids, at least not kids who enjoy jungle gym equipment.

There are a few things to remember when visiting this park. First and foremost the roads leading to this park are small and you should use extreme caution to ensure that you are able to safely get where you need to go. I do not recommend bringing large SUV type vehicles to this location as you may encounter trouble. Also as with many other places of this type please have a great deal of respect for the area and the residents who are in the immediate area. I understand that when one uses the word "park" it can mean something different to some then it means for others. This is the type of park where you walk through rather than the type of park where you play ball. If you have the chance to check it out and if you want to see some history you will love this location.

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.

 

Kids Will Be Kids: Being in Public

This is not a rant nor is this an anti-child proclamation or how you can be a better parent so if you happened to see the title of this post and thought to yourself that this would be the perfect place to spew your frustration please take a moment and relax before proceeding on. For the rest of you who are reading this because you are wondering about what to expect when you make your way over to Okinawa I apologize for the blunt introduction.

Now that we have gotten that out of the way let me explain why I am writing this post and what you can expect from the content. I was recently asked a question from a reader who had previously read a post where I explained that here in Okinawa we use out indoor voices even when we are outside. She explained that she has a young child who enjoys yelling, running and playing and wanted to know whether or not people in Okinawa would actually get angry at this occurring. In this post I am going to offer my observations both from what I see, what I have experienced speaking with various people from Okinawa and Japan. Before we begin there are a few things that I want to make clear that may give you a bit of perspective from where I am coming from. I have been working with children and their parents for over 12 years now. The fact that children can be difficult is not lost on me but neither is the fact that nothing is impossible with a lot of hard word, consistency and dedication. Again this is not a parenting guide, all I am offering is words of encouragement for those out there who might be reading this feeling like ever gaining control of their child is helpless. The second thing to make clear is that I am offering your real life answers to your questions. I'm telling it how it is. If you are looking for someone who is going to tell you that even if your child hurls food across a restaurant regularly you should still take them out because the staff and other people won't mind this is not going to be the post for you. Finally I ask that, as I do for all my posts, you read this with an open mind and an understanding that when coming to Okinawa you are entering an entirely different culture. Regardless if we are talking about children, food or driving in your car some changes to the way you look at things are ultimately going to have to be made. As always my goal here in to inform so that you don't have any surprises. I hope that you find this post beneficial and of course if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to leave them in he comments or email me at okininjakitty@yahoo.com.

"Using Indoor Voices" 

As I had said in the post that I had listed above it is common practice for people to use their indoor voices throughout Japan, even when outside. Let's talk a little bit about this. American's are loud, there's no way around it. The kids are loud, the adults are loud the cars are loud. . . . . we're loud. In Japan, and particularly Okinawa this is not the case. It's quite here which is why you see me say that using your indoor voice is "common practice" and not "common courtesy".  Again (I know I have talked about this in other posts but for the sake of ensuring I am consistent) it is about the culture. This is a laid back relaxed quiet culture and does take some adjustment when you come here. There is also a different attitude when it comes to being out in public places (which we will get into here in a bit so keep reading). Some places are for relaxing, some places are for conducting business and other places are for having fun. A great deal of consideration is taken by all people to ensure that you are able to relax, conduct business or have fun at these various facilities and therefore I believe it is safe to assume that everyone, including foreigners, have the same type of consideration when out in public.

"Kids will be kids" 

It's no surprise to me, or to anyone else in my honest opinion, that kids have their moments. After all they are still learning how to handle themselves in public situations, control their emotions and overall function as a part of society. There are going to be up's and down's and yes from time to time dreaded center of the aisle tantrum. That's life. Are the people here in Okinawa going to get angry with you? To be honest this completely depends on how you handle the situation as a parent. Again, it's a different culture here and therefore some of the parenting techniques that are acceptable in the US may not be as accepted in public here. To better illustrate what I am talking about let's go over some of these techniques:

The Separation Technique- 

Ok. . . . so I don't know what you would call this but I am coining it as "The Separation Technique" maybe you have used this technique as a parent or if you are like me it was used on you as a kid. So what is The Separation Technique? This is when a child , who is of an age where they can walk on their own and/or are not sitting in a stroller, is misbehaving and/or not listening. The parent then starts to walk away from the child saying something like "Ok. . . . . . bye. . . . . I'm leaving now. . . . " until the child decides to go with the parent rather than being separated. Usually with each remark the  volume of the parent's voice increases and potentially the pitch gets higher and higher but that is depending on each parent's preference. The Separation Technique.

This technique is not necessarily one that would be acceptable to use here especially if you know that it will result in your child becoming overly upset. Remember it's quiet here so doing something that might involve you becoming intentionally loud or that might trigger your child to become overly upset is going to get a bad reaction from the people around you. This also leads us to the next technique. . . .


Raising of the Voice Technique- 

As you might imagine in a society where people are quiet raising your voice at your child is not necessarily something you might want to resort to. I won't hold it against you but trust me when I say an American raising their voice in a shopping center in Okinawa is like Zeus' thunderous voice calling down from Olympus.

Avoidance- 

If you want to know when people in Okinawa are going to become upset or even angry at the behavior of a child it is almost always when the parent is using a technique which I refer to as the "Avoidance Technique". This is when a parent completely avoids any and all confrontation with their child allowing them to conduct themselves in any manner they so choose. In other words the parent completely ignores the child altogether as well as any consequences or effects that their child's behavior may have. An example of this might be a baby in a fancy restaurant. (One might wonder why there is a baby in a fancy restaurant in the first place but we'll get there in another post.) If the baby cries and the parent tries to sooth the baby or if the crying continues removes the baby from the situation there will be no problem. However, suppose the baby is crying and neither parent makes any attempt to stop the child from crying but just allows it to happen. This would cause anger or frustration with the people around you because you are not being considerate by even making an attempt to sooth the child.

Overall what I hope that I was able to illustrate with what I have said above is that yes things are different here. You are going to have to take a few things you wouldn't normally into consideration but overall if you remember to be considerate to those people around you and try to prevent and stop situations which might disrupt people around you then you have nothing to worry about. If you, on the other hand, don't care about other people or how what you or your child does affects them than yes you are gong to cause frustration and in some cases you may even cause a disadvantage for others in the future, but more about that later.


Child Friendly Places

With all this talk about keeping in line there is bound to be places where kids can REALLY be kids right? Absolutely! In fact one of the things that I found remarkable about Okinawa is the fact that there seem to be parks (and I don't mean the ones where the old people walk and enjoy the sunshine but ones with swings and kid stuff) all over the place. Not only is there one in almost ever neighborhood but they are clean and well kept too. These are places where kids can get out of the everyday shell and just enjoy being a kid. There are usually swings, things to climb on, sand and almost always some sort of large and ridiculous slide. Not only are these fun places to take your kids but they are also nice places for you to sit and enjoy being a parent with covered tables and benches as well as usually a water fountain so that you can keep yourself refreshed.

If you are willing to pay a little bit of money to give your kid the chance to play there are various other places where you can take them for some indoor fun. Although I do not often remember the names of these places because I personally do not frequent them there is one which is referred to as the Jungle something and another one which is located in a San A in the Naha Area. There are also sometimes special performances at shopping centers and even times of the year where they set up ball pits and bouncy houses right int he shopping centers for the kids to enjoy. These indoor areas are great for air conditioned fun especially in the summertime when mom's and dad's want to avoid that summer sun.

If you want to be out in the sun there are also a variety of playgrounds, such as the one at Araha Beach, which are on the beach. The kiddles can play in the sand and pretend to be a pirate while mom or dad sits in the sun and works on his/her tan. . . we are on a tropical island after all might as well look like it. This particular playground is known for being a lot of fun among many of the military families because of it's location in central Okinawa as well as being a 1 minute walk from pirate ship to ocean with a bathroom near by (although be warned the are squatty potties) and a refreshments stand.

Of course you are going to want to be a tourist sooner or later and there are many child friendly tourist destinations as well. This would include the Aquarium and Okinawa World. These are both great fun for kids offer fun activities for children and over all are safe even if you have a child who likes to dart out of your sight.

Places Not For Every Child

Like anywhere else there may be places where you don't want to take your kids. I will maybe go over more of these places in the future but for the sake of this post and the topic that we are on I am going to take about places you might not want to take your child if they are a screamer or a runner.

The Screamer

For a moment let's go back culture (don't worry I will do my best to summarize). Here in Okinawa the outdoors are very important to people for various reasons some religious. This is why when visiting some places you may find yourself encountering people praying, shrines or monuments. These things can be found at parks (the big and culturally protected ones not the ones that I described above), castle ruins, caves and shrines. People regularly visit these locations to honor ancestors or pray and therefore when visiting these sites it is important to ensure that you are doing so with the upmost respect and consideration for the people around you. This may be a tourist destination for you but it is a huge piece of history and culture for the people of the island.

The reason that I have titled this section "The Screamer" is because for children who have an uncontrolled desire to scream and/or yell this may not be the place you want to take them. Remember this is a place of worship for many and in some cases people travel great distances (even from Mainland Japan) to worship at these sites.


The Runner

When it comes to children who run it no longer becomes a matter of consideration for other people, in my opinion, but more a matter of safety. The one thing that you will notice about Okinawa when you first get here is that it is considerably smaller here than it is in the US. In stores, for example, aisles are half the size that you might find in the US. In many cases it's just enough for two people with shopping carts to pass through and corners are very tight so the odds of your child running through the store and getting hit by someone's shopping cart or accidentally running into a display case are pretty good. This isn't really the concern though. There is a bigger concern for parking lots in which people drive considerably faster than they should most of the time. The biggest concern in my opinion, however, is when taking your children to tourist locations much like the ones I mentioned above (Caves, Shrines, Recreational Parks and Castle Ruins). Many of these places have stairs and walkways made of coral which is sharp and slick. Stairways are also extremely steep as if you are climbing a mountain (I realize that seems exaggerated but I honestly do not know how else to describe it) These castle ruins are also built on mountain tops which undoubtably mean that there are cliffs in some cases they are straight drop offs. I have seen them and yes they are there without any barrier. Again it is a matter of knowing your child and determining whether you believe they are capable of handling a trip to a location such as this.

Conclusion

With all this being said what can we really conclude here? To be honest I leave it to you. Questions or Comments can be left below or you can email me at OkiNinjaKitty@yahoo.com. If you would like more information about kid friendly activities please  let me know and I will be happy to do some research and post information. Thanks for reading and I hope that you find this post helpful.

How not to stick out in Okinawa. . . . at least not as much

There has been a lot of discussion in the JVLOG community recently about racism and discrimination but some of you are most likely reading this and wondering how to simply make a good impressions when you get here to Okinawa. This was something that I was wondering when I first got here to Okinawa as well and there were various things that I had read but I found myself feeling as if I was reading information which was not necessarily up to date or simply not practiced.

In the interest of writing this post I have been doing a great deal of information searching among different JVLOGGERS who are out there from different parts of Japan. This allowed me to see what was and was not acceptable in different parts of Japan. Some of these things were big and others were small but nonetheless we will discuss some of them in this post.

The first thing and most difficult thing to transition to when coming to Okinawa is that indoor voices are used everywhere. I am sure that you are familiar with the "indoor voice" as we learn about it in grade school. Here people are all around just more quiet then you would expect. Even when I think I am being quite I a little too loud and need to adjust my voice. Of course this is not always the case, there are people who are louder than others, however, in general being quiet is the accepted practice. There is then the issue of actions that are taken in public. As an adult you are expected to conduct yourself as an adult. I realize that this is not always the case in the US and other countries I am sure when on a friday night people over the age of 18 or 19 are running a muck and painting the town with no consideration for people around them but this is extremely unacceptable here. Jumping about and running in public places like malls is not acceptable.

If you have children it is important to ensure that they are good listeners and by your side. Children who scream and run about is not acceptable here. Of course there are always exceptions to every rule and newborn babies tend to cry without warning at times however if your child is old enough to walk without assistance through a store they should be conducting themselves in a disciplined manner. This also carries out through restaurants and other entertainment venues (movies, live shows. . . ) as well. Children who are crying should be removed as to not disturb other patrons. Of course strollers are acceptable but I would not use a double stroller (where the children sit side by side rather than front to back) when inside shopping centers due to their size and the limited space in aisles. It will not only be inconvenient for you trying to maneuver it around the tight corners but you will find yourself blocking out others trying to get through the aisles as well. The best recommendation in this case would be an umbrella stroller which will most likely be easier to take around and move around the stores with.

Overall tattoos are accepted here within reason. If a tattoo is offensive in any way (such as nudity, gruesome or overly religious) you might want to have it covered when in certain situations. You should also always use discretion when showing your tattoos in certain public places which might be fancy or dressy especially when they are not around the central Okinawa area. There are times when having tattoos will mean that you have to cover them or you will not be allowed service such as some bath houses or pools. This is policy in various parts of Japan and this policy sticks here also. This also does not only apply to foreigners but also applies to Japanese people as well. The most important thing is to ensure that you keep in mind that tattoos have a different meaning here in Japan than then do in the US and therefore they are looked at differently.

One more thing about tattoos in Okinawa is ensure that they are covered by either an outer garnet or sunscreen at all times! The sun is hotter here and even people who never used to burn like myself find that it is only a few hours out in the sun on an overcast day and I am burnt to a crisp. Of course you should take time to sunscreen your whole body but ensure that you protect your tattoos with something. More often than not I like to put on a long sleeve shirt because it can be taken off without leaving an oily mess but of course sunscreen is also a good choice.

Finally I would like to close out with something brought up by another JVLOGGER called silent observation and this is the most important thing to do when you are here in Japan let alone Okinawa. Keep your eyes open and watch the people around you. Never act first. You could also say move with the flow of traffic if you are going too slow you stand out if you are going to fast this is the case too. Go with the flow and do as the Japanese or Okinawan people do and you will have a smoother transition.

To close this out I would like to ask for you to let me know your experiences. Has anything you have experienced been different from what I experienced? Put it in the comments below.