Okinawa has a very different climate and culture from mainland Japan, and even Japanese people consider a trip to Okinawa to be the next best thing to actually going to a different country. Okinawa’s past relations with various Asian countries are reflected in its music, art, architecture, food, textiles, traditions, etc. This + the indigenous culture + influences from mainland Japan and America = a really strange cultural environment.
Okinawa suffered a lot of damage during World War 2, but since most of the aid and help with clean-up after the war came from the Americans, Okinawa ended up grateful to America and resentful of Japan. As a result, Okinawa is now a strange cultural mish-mash that works well for tourism. I was quite happy to revel in the old and the new, learning about the little kingdom’s history and culture while enjoying as much “American food” as possible.
I had a blast, visiting castles, seeing traditional theater, and shopping on Kokusai-dori(International Street), the biggest, brightest, most life-sized-cartoon-character infested tourist trap I have ever seen. It was warm. There were palm trees. I ate tacos and rode a monorail. Even the fact that it rained almost the whole time couldn’t spoil my fun.
In retrospect, I’m not sure that I could have visited two places within Japan that were more different. Kyoto is the center of Japanese culture, and Okinawa is the least Japanese of all the prefectures. Seeing them a week apart made the differences seem even greater, so I suppose it’s no wonder I was a bit dazed after I got back. And broke.
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