Summertime Tips: Tattoos

Who doesn't love summer? Bronzed bodies at the beach, temperatures are going up and up which means people are wearing less and less. For many this is the perfect time to show off the hours upon hours that were spent in the tattoo parlor getting a piece of art permanently etched onto your skin. However, for those of us with tattoos there are some things that should be taken into consideration before you head outside.

Damage From Tattoos: 

Tattoos are made possible by sharp implements breaking skin and jabbing ink. Not very poetic but I think you get the picture. Long story short damage is caused to the  skin which starts to bounce back after a few weeks but take a bit longer to fully heal. Sometimes the only permanent change to the skin is the color where as other times the skin in the area of the tattoo may never really be quite the same again.

This is important to consider for both those who already have tattoos and those who are thinking about getting tattoos during their time here on Okinawa. If you already have tattoos it is important to understand that those areas which have been "damaged" from tattoos that you have received in the past may react differently than you are used to. For example you may have never found it necessary to wear sunscreen when spending a measly 5 minutes out in the sun while in the US but now that you are here in Okinawa your tattoos get burned even after limited exposure.

For those of you who are thinking about getting your first tattoo while here in Okinawa it's important to consider that the area will also be extremely sensitive during the healing process. This means that you're not going to be "beach ready" a short three weeks after stepping out of the shop.

Upgrade to Pro

Keeping Tattoos Covered: 

Tattoos are like fine art. If you're going to go through all the trouble and money of getting one in the first place you might as well keep it in good condition. The best way to do that is to keep your tattoos covered. As a rule of thumb I always have either sunscreen or a UV protective layer of clothing to cover my tattoo (particularly the one on my arm because of its likelihood of being exposed) at all times.

There are a number of products which you can use to protect your tattoos. One of my favorites was the TattooGoo brand of tattoo sunscreen which came in stick form. I really liked it because it allowed me to almost paint on the protection where the tattoo needed it most rather than just lather up the whole arm right away. I also very much liked the stick form because being about the size of lipstick it was easy to carry and therefor not easy to forget. The only problem that I had with this product is that when the summer came around it started to get really mushy and clumpy when applied. I tried some other stick form sunscreens but finally settled for a nice Japanese brand of lotion which absorbed quickly and worked very well without leaving you sticky.

The other option that I often have with me during the summer months is a UV protective shirt which I can use as a pullover. The reason that I like this is because although it gets hot here in the summertime the facts are when you go into some of these stores the AC is enough to keep your freezing and wanting another layer. So having a UV protective shirt or pullover is like a win win. I can wear it outside if the sun gets hot and I want some extra tattoo protection but I can also wear it inside and prevent myself from freezing to death. These types of shirts are also helpful if you are out and about but might find yourself in a place where it may be more appropriate to have your tattoo covered.

Tattoos + Japan = Bad: 

One of the things on the list of grossly misunderstood topics about Japan is tattoos. There are a lot of things that can be said on this topic and I will be happy to talk more about that later but for the sake of this post I want to keep things short.

Tattoos aside, when you come here to Japan (regardless if it is Okinawa or Tokyo) there needs to be an understanding that it is not the United States (or your country of origin). There are going to be things that are done here which are different from your home country and since you are now here you need to accept those things. One of those things is taking off your shoes another is covering your tattoos when in certain social situations. There are a lot of people out there who will go on and on about how if you have tattoos you will be discriminated against while in Japan. I personally have never found this to be true during my years in Okinawa or travels to Tokyo. That being said let's go through some basics and clear up a few things specifically about Okinawa.

Believe it or not when it comes to tattoos 90% of what you encounter here in Okinawa isn't going to be much different than what you encounter in the US. Unfortunately there are a lot of people out there who prefer to skip over facts and history in order to build a case of "social norms are totally weird in Japan". The one we hear most often is that in Japan tattoos were reserved for criminals and yakuza. True? Yeah sure it is. However, tattoos being the mark of a "hard" person is not unique to Japan. In fact in our good ole' US of A there are a lot of the same stereotypes which associate tattoos with gangs, crime and all around tough guys.

Even with all of this being said most of the things you will find you should be covering your tattoos for when in Okinawa are the same things you would cover your tattoos for if you were in the US. (i.e. Formal restaurants, formal events, religious establishments). The only time that you may have to be even more careful if you happen to have explicit tattoos.

The other 10% are things which you may not fully understand but my short response is that you are now in Japan and just like taking off your shoes when going into a home, there are going to be some things you do without fully understanding why. This most commonly includes being in the water whether it is at select beaches, bath houses or water parks. In these cases you will still be allowed to enter (although not always in the case of bath houses because they are primarily nude bathing) but you will be required to wear something that covers your tattoos like a swim shirt or sleeve/sock. I cannot stress enough that this is not discrimination against foreigners, it is simply the way business is conducted for everyone.

Last Work & My Experience: 

At the end of the day having tattoos here in Okinawa is not going to be a bad thing. In fact during my years here the most inconvenient thing about having tattoos has not been covering them when it social situations but rather keeping them protected from the summer sun which is why I wrote this post in the first place. Actually generally speaking I have never had a problem with my tattoos exposed or not.

 

 

Living in Japan - Myth Vs Reality: "Life Is Different In Japan"

I have recently been putting tidbits of information together about life in Japan and talking about the myths and reality of living here. At first I was going to be writing a long post about this topic all in one but then I realized that I would probably get the message across better and more effectively if I were to separate these posts.

Before I go any further I want to make sure that you know I am not trying to be negative here I am just trying to share the information that you are going to need to consider in the event that you want to make the transition to living here in Japan.

Without further delay let's get right into it!

Life in Japan is different than life in my home country and that is why I want to live there. 

Although culture in Japan is different than your home country life itself is very much the same. Each day you are going to get up, eat, work, sleep and do it all over again. Between all of that you will need to find time to get groceries, necessities and everything else that you would do in everyday life.

In fact, depending on your terms of being here you may find that one of your every day average tasks are more difficult than you might encounter in your home country. For example what if your coming here does not involve you having a car. This means that you will need to get groceries either using public transportation or something similar to a bicycle. At first there may be some novelty in riding your bike to the grocery store, in the rain even. The real question is how will you feel about this once the novelty is gone.

"The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" and this is something which is important to remember when you are considering coming here. There are many great reasons to come over to Japan but it's not a place to come in order to escape the realities of life.

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.

Car modification

DISCLAIMER:

Always drive responsibly and abide by the laws and guidelines that Japan and/or your command has in place. 

I have been asked a few times about cars here in Okinawa and there is no doubt that people coming to Japan want to know about what they can get their hands on which is usually followed by what type of modifications are legal to perform on your car here. Now before we go any further there are a few things I want to get out of the way so you know the direction of this post. 1. This information goes for anyone who is planning on modifying anything on their car. That's right. Whether you want to make your car look like something out of Fast and Furious, want to make your SUV roll through the mud and up mountains with the best of them or simply replace your headlight bulbs this applies to you. 2. This post offers information on the areas you will need to look out for but does NOT offer regulation or actual standards. If you want to know actual standards please conduct your own research and contact authorities on this matter. The reason for this? I'm not into giving out bad or outdated information. I am very aware of the basics but when it gets to the nitty gritty (which is what you are going to have to be aware of) like decibels and lumens I honestly don't know the exact requirements as of right now and therefore it's best if when you read this and when you choose to make your modifications  you do your own research (or suffer any potential consequences but we will get more into this later).

Let's start from the beginning: 

Chances are if you are reading this you have not yet come to Okinawa yet and you have preconceived notions about what Okinawa will be like. If you are like many of the people who come through here (whether you want to admit it or not) you have this image of or similar to Tokyo Drift embedded in your brain and yes you've got that itch to get into the bucket seat of some car that you are willing to make your masterpiece. That's completely natural I mean come on you're about to depart for the affordable sports car capitol of the world right? Before we slip her into gear and take off down the strip there are some things that you need to keep in mind right from the get go. Okinawa does not have the hustling bustling sports car culture that some people might imagine because of what they have read, seen on YouTube or even imagined based on movies about Japan. As far as getting around here in Okinawa goes (and I speak from experience) sports cars are expensive, difficult to get around in and inefficient. It is for this reason that you won't see many Japanese people driving their sports cars on the road, they usually have them for track use only. Now this is not to say that you never see them on the road, they are out there but it's not like you might imagine.

Now I realize that this is about car modification here in Okinawa but I am sure that you are going to want me to explain why I just said that sports cars here are expensive, difficult to get around in and inefficient. I will go through these quickly and briefly but if you have more questions please feel free to leave a comment or email me at okininjakitty@yahoo.com and I will answer your promptly.

Expensive:

To say sports cars are expensive is much more than to say they will cost a pretty penny to purchase. In fact you may find here that it doesn't cost much at all to purchase a car outright. This, however, doesn't mean that the car will be affordable throughout the entire time you own it. Insurance and road tax are significantly higher on a lot of the more desirable sports cars out there. They also require a higher octane gas (if you are one of the people who is going to modify your car or has a high powered combustion engine and care about how it runs) than you can get from the on base gas stations (information based on current available gas octane os of June 30 2012.) You will also find that repairing and finding good (and I stress good here) parts for your car can also cost you a pretty penny. A lot of these cars are older and in some cases need parts special order. In other cases they can have parts replaces with newer models which are again expensive. There are also some cars out there, such as the Nissan 300zx, which requires a special mechanic to work on the engine because of it's complexity and therefore more money is involved. Another point which we will get into later is the amount of money it takes to actually modify and maintain these vehicles.

Difficult to get around: 

If you are serious into getting a sports car it's going to be a stick shift. I do apologize to all of those people out there who feel that an automatic is a perfectly good sports car mostly because they don't know how to drive stick. For your own benefit learn and I promise you that you will never look at an "automatic sports car" the same way again. Trust me when I say that there is nothing like trying to drive back from Naha to Okinawa City on a Friday afternoon in bumper to bumper traffic with a stick shift let alone a stick shift with some sort of high performance clutch. I've been here. . . . I don't care how much you like sports cars or what your passion is for them this is not enjoyable. This same concept goes for trying to get back home for many of us who live in areas where the size of a sports car (and to be fair a large van or SUV) is difficult to maneuver.

Inefficient:

Aside from cost usually sports cars don't offer the same ability to get your family (which many sports car people have) from point A to point B so you're going to need a second car and for many families here in Okinawa you might find yourself with only one parking space if any at all.

Of course these things are solely based on my opinion and for some these things may not be a problem but I am just explaining what I had said before.

Back to modifications

I think that it is safe to say that things you couldn't modify in your home state are the same things that you are not supposed to modify here. Ride height (both too high or too low), window tint, headlights/tail lights, tires, how your wheels sit (under the car, camber) and exhaust (decibel based). It is also important that  in some rare cases you may run into a problem with adding things to your car like a roof rack or brush guard. I can't speak too much about this because I do not off road and therefore I do not have a full knowledge but I have seen people being ticketed (by military police) for having a brush guard on their SUV even through the brush guard was stock. Again just reporting what I have been made aware of which in this case I saw first hand. With all of this said this does tnot mean that you will never see cars with these types of "illegal" modifications here on the road. So if these modifications are illegal why do people have them? It's pretty much like anywhere else I suppose. You do what you want either until you get caught or until it's time for an inspection.

Enforcing the rules

So how are these rules enforced? To be completely honest how these rules are enforced are greatly dependent on how you compose yourself while you are driving. For example if you are drying a heavily modified car down the road like you would drive any normal car minding your own business, obeying the traffic signals/signs the odds are that you're going to be left alone. The only time that this is not necessarily the case is if you happen to be passing what many refer to as a safety check. To be completely honest I have never experienced one of these safety checks. I have heard about them from other people but I have not been pulled into one or even witnessed one. That being said I really can't speak about this.

Unfortunately the chances are if you are reading this you are going to be affiliated with the military bases. Your affiliation will mean that you are going through the gates at least once each day and therefore have a much better chance of being flagged for your car not meeting the standards required to pass an inspection. It is also much more common to be ticketed for modifications on a military installation.

Conclusion

Overall there are a number of details as to what can and can't be done to a car. My personal suggestion is to know what it is that you want to do to your car and then from there find out what your limitations are. If you are like me and prefer to stay within the limits while still doing as much modification as possible this is not out of reach. Good luck and please remember to drive responsibly.

"Do you speak English?"

A few years ago a friend and myself were at a local shopping center just walking around looking at the things that we wanted to purchase but didn't necessarily have the money, space or use for. We were then approached by a young man between the ages of 17 and 20 (The truth is I never really know the age of Japanese people here. A ballpark figure is the best that I can do.). This young man then approached us and said "Do you speak English?" Of course we have just been speaking to each other within the store so to say "no" would have been an extremely rude and obvious lie so I said "yes" and he then said "I have a question". Of course with time to kill we then sat there and answered some questions that this young man had for us. After the occurrence my friend said to me "Why did you answer those strange questions? Don't you think it was odd?"

The truth is that yes I did think that some of the questions were odd but not int he way that you would expect. The questions had clearly been rehearsed and were in no particular order with no cohesive path. In fact the language was almost text book; English speaking text book. Having been trying to learn Japanese for some time now the questions made a lot of sense to me: "Nice To Meet You." "What is your name?" "Where are you from?" "Do you like ~?" "I like ~." "Nice to talk to you." "See you again.".

There are some JVLOGGERS out there who will say that Japanese people do not prefer to use English and are shy about it so they will not just approach you or in some cases will avoid you all together to try and prevent using English. Of course I am not trying to discredit them in any way but the fact of the matter is that here in Okinawa there are a lot of good incentives for learning English and therefore people will make more of an effort towards it and from time to find you will find yourself being approached for a moment or two by someone wanting to try and learn a little bit about the language by asking you some questions. There are people who find this threatening because these people could be trying to gather information about you and you could be putting yourself at risk however my thought is that if you have a Facebook page there is nothing you can give them by answering a few questions in English that what you are broadcasting on the world can't already tell them. You also may find yourself being asked by a group of giddy school children a few questions in English at various tourist attractions. This is one thing that I had been asked to do when I was in the Aquarium a few years ago with my inlaws and it was a lot of fun because the groups of girls who approached me were having a great time and actually seemed interested in learning English.

So what if you don't want to answer questions. Of course you can always politely decline. There is not always time to stop and have a discussion with someone in the middle of a shopping center or in the middle of your vacation destination, although I would encourage you to not only answer the questions but try to answer them in Japanese. This will allow the person to try and use their English and you can take this opportunity to try you Japanese which is a difficult thing to do for a number of reasons which I will discuss in an upcoming post.

Have you had any experiences like this? If you have share them below or please feel free to share them on our Facebook page!

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.

"Racism" in Japan: My take on this topic

There have been a few videos recently by some various people in the JVLOG community regarding racism in Japan. As I have never talked about this topic before I figured that today was as good a time as any. To begin this post I should mention that although I have spent short periods of time in other parts of the country most of my experience comes from being in Okinawa so please keep that in mind while you are reading this post.

I am going to just cut to the chase; I don't really think that racism is a "thing" here in Japan. That is not to say that it is not out there but it is truly my belief that the term "racism" is used almost as a buzz word rather than a truly descriptive term of what is being experienced by a particular person. This is why you will see the word in quotes in the title of this post. To be honest I feel that most cases of "racism" here in Japan by foreigners can be broken down as follows:

90% People who misunderstand you.

9% People who are just jerks regardless your race

1% People who are actually racist by definition

The 90%: People who misunderstand you. 

When I say "misunderstand" I am not simply talking about language although that part does exist. I am talking about people out there who do not understand your intentions as a person, your abilities or your culture. This could be for a number of reasons but the ones that I believe (from my past experience) are the most common are stereotypes of a culture and examples being made by the "louder and prouder" (let's say) of our culture. One of the common things that people will say is that they were given a fork at a Japanese restaurant rather than chopsticks like everyone else. Another example of this might be given a limited menu which is in english and more catered to the palate of an American. Neither of these cases are because of a person thinking you are incapable of doing things like everyone else but rather giving you a helpful hand rather than watching you suffer through eating a salad with chopsticks. While we are talking about restaurants let's talk briefly about "Japanese Only" signs that may be on store fronts or on the doors to restaurants. From experience this does not mean that you have to be a Japanese person to enter, what this means is that Japanese Language is the only thing that you are going to find behind this door, chances are they do not have any English speaking staff and please know that before proceeding. This is especially important when you go to various restaurants because once you sit down to that table you may receive a menu that does not have a lick of English on it or even photos. This not only turns out embarrassing for you who is sitting there without a clue (if you don't speak or read Japanese) but it is uncomfortable for the staff who are not prepped to handle English speaking customers.

There is another commonly used example "racism" in Japan is the denial of getting an apartment here in Japan. (DISCLAIMER: If you are one of my readers who is in the US Armed Forces what I am about to describe does not apply to you because there are agencies who are here in Okinawa and elsewhere I am sure designed to work directly with you because of your Military affiliation.) There are many people out there who have discussed this but I wanted to add in my experience with this topic. When I was looking for an apartment I was denied the ability to to rent from various places here on island. In most cases the agencies were very open with us, not in a disrespectful way, but in an informative way because we had inquired about it and they were openly honest. Every agency that I spoke with explained to us that it is risky to have (non military) foreigners live in their houses and apartments. Keep in mind that many of the apartments and houses here are owned by private parties and not big corporations there fore when foreigners don't properly understand how to take care of tatami or do not follow rules such as how to put out trash the price often has to be paid by the landowner. There is also a problem here in Japan of foreigners picking up and leaving without following the proper processes or paying bills and then disappearing. The person who then has to pay for this is the landowner. Of course it is important to look at this from the eyes of a business owner rather than immediately feel as if you are being singled out. After all would you take that type of risk?

You may even find yourself denied service from certain companies, usually high end, which might require you to sign paperwork. If this paperwork is all in Japanese the company will be hesitant to work with you because the documents that they you to protect themselves and you as the customer won't be understood. This is one that I had experienced in the past with a jeweler. I wanted to get a ring resized and I knew that it was something many people are hesitant doing because of the design. Unfortunately I was told that they could not do it, although I was aware that they could from referrals. It wasn't because of my race/culture or otherwise but rather because they most likely didn't know how to communicate what was required and the risks and likewise I didn't know how to communicate that I understood that there would be risks and it was ok. Thusly both parties respectfully withdrew from the situation. No hard feelings, no problems.

The last thing that I want to touch on in the "misunderstood" category is being stared at. This is another one that I hear a lot about. The fact of the matter is that yes there are people out there who are going to stare at you but to be honest in my opinion that is not without good reason. If you are of European decent in any way you need to consider that your chances of being a giant over here are pretty good. I'm 5'7" and I can easily see above a crowd and that's if I am not wearing heels or anything that brings me closer to sky scraper status. Then there is the matter of if you are very overweight or if you just simply have curves you are going to be looked at because you are different. People all over the world do the same thing and in fact I can say for sure that in the US if you saw someone like Dita Von Tease walking down the street as if she came out of a 1950's magazine you would give a second glance too. It's something you are not used to seeing and likewise it is something that the people here are not used to see and you stand out. The truth of the matter is that you can make this better or worse for yourself based on how you choose to alter your appearance. For example if you are of African American descent and you choose to wear blond hair I imagine you are going to get a lot of looks just as someone like myself who chooses to die their hair a dramatic red is going to get looks. You are outside of the norm. Does dealing with these situations ever get uncomfortable? Maybe. I think that it honestly depends on  your personality. If you are the type of person who is not used to standing out in a crowd this is going to be difficult for you. Of course there are things that you can do to prevent the number of looks you get but that is part of adapting to your new environment. More about this later.

The 9%: Jerks Without Boundaries

Japanese people are just people like anyone else on the planet and that being said there are jerks who are out there just like you would find anywhere else. Although we like to think sometimes that the culture of Japan prevents people from being out right rude and disrespectful to human kind they are out there. I have encountered some of these people in various situations such as at the airport recently when I was standing out of the way and yet still run into by about 5 to 6 people who just simply did not want to deviate from their path. Of course the first reaction might be "wow this person is picking on me in particular" for some people but as I looked at that person continuing down the lobby I noticed that they were ramming into other people as well. Racism? No just a jerk. There have been other situations when I have noticed this type of thing as well where a particular person simply treats others with disrespect regardless of race. It's rare but it's out there.

The 1%: Actually Racist

Truth is I can not say that I have ever encountered anyone who is just for no reason whatsoever racist towards myself or others I have been with. Being that as I said above Japanese people are just people I can guarantee that there is racism out there but I just do not feel that it is something that is in any way widespread.

The Conclusion

The fact of the matter is that your perception of how people are treating you is the biggest factor in whether or not you consider yourself a victim of racism. From most of the stories that I have heard and researched it seems that this idea of racism was almost created to somehow explain something that wasn't fully understood in the first place. The unfortunate part about this in my opinion is that people continue on the path of creating these bad situations for themselves which gives them a bad attitude and the way they most likely act fuels the stereotypes that may have been created causing this problem in the first place. This is what I mean when I describe this situation as a vicious cycle.

My opinion is that the first thing to do is take a step back and self reflect before making and judgements. Do you speak enough Japanese to explain to that waiter that you don't need a fork and that chopsticks are just fine? Is the way you are dressing going to cause you to catch the eye of some who might think it's out of the ordinary? Is the group of people you are with being loud and disruptive or making the people around you uncomfortable? And the most important in my opinion: Am I creating an image of foreigners that others may not want to be portrayed as?

There are so many other things that I would like to comment on but I feel that this has gone on long enough for one entry and to be completely honest I think it's time for me to head out to the grocery store and get some food so I can eat breakfast. Thank you so much for reading and considering what I have said above. I hope that what I have said allows those of you who might be experiencing something like this to take a look at the situation in a different light and hopefully make your experiences more enjoyable.