The "Genki" Yankee

Kombanwa Friends: If ever you embark upon a trip to Japan, the first thing you need to do is to walk up to one of the millions of vending machines on the street, in the buildings, on a deserted farm or in a ditch and spend 110 Yen ($1.35) and buy yourself a cold coffee in a can. Even if you despise the country of Japan, you will be happy you spent $1500 on a plane ticket to get there when the sweet addictive substance hits your lips. There are many brands to choose from, but my personal favorite is Boss. You can easily recognize it by 1) The pictures of Tommy Lee Jones who is the spokesperson for it or 2) The silly little man on the can who looks remarkably like a certain infamous German dictator whose name rhymes with Smadolf. Beyond Boss Coffee, there are many wonders in Okinawa, I am sure, but as I have been confined to base and Girl Scout camp, I cannot really tell you about any of them, but you can google them, because that is what I do. Yesterday, knowing that they were going to revoke my ID today further imprisoning me next to the Macaroni Grill in the West Pac Lodge (A very nice place to be imprisoned if I might add) I decided to brave the Okinawan world and go to the 100 Yen store in Ginowan City. After hours of buying armloads of hello kitty chopsticks, snake repellent, gorilla boogers, and other such necessities, I walked outside to hail a cab back to my hotel. Unfortunately, not only was it pouring, but I realized that in Okinawa hailing a cab is not so easy as it would seem and once one is able to hail a cab, she could infact be politely rejected by the cabby and left in the rain. Speaking a little bit of Japanese probably would have been beneficial, but I am American bonehead so I went out expecting the entire island to cater to me. Luckily, my sponsor had let me borrow a cell phone with her number on it and I was able to arrange to get the hotel to send me a cab to take me back to safety. It is one thing to be lost in New York or even Europe where even if you do not speak the language you can translate the signs....here I am illiterate. There are three different scripts--Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana. So even if I knew one, I would be in trouble. It is going to take a while before I can recognize something as simple as a restroom or an exit sign. In the meantime, I will be wearing diapers and getting stuck inside buildings. Did I mention that I love the Japanese? Never in my life have I met such friendly and polite people. In fact, the only signs of rudeness I have seen have come from my fellow Americans and accidently from myself not understanding a situation--both on and off the bases. I am in the midst of two completely foreign worlds (Japan and the military). I have met wonderful people from both sides, but am much more intimidated by the military side. To me, it seems like the Japanese will forgive my ignorance and accept me as long as I try to learn and be respectful. With the military, I feel that I will always be looked at as an outsider. I am here to do a certain job and I won't be able to do that well until I am accepted by both cultures here. I am doing my best to learn the lingo of the different branches and to understand their lifestyles--I just hope that is enough. I have seen two cockroaches (one at camp and one that crawled out of my computer at work), I have seen many of these huge and I mean HUGE fox bats, a centipede, a dead snake, and a bunch of cats. I have humiliated myself a bunch of times which being me is to be expected. However, the worst thing I have done so far is to not notice it was 8AM on base and to walk outside and be talking loudly on my phone and not stand at attention and close my big fat mouth during colors. Granted there was a very serious GS emergency on the phone, but if looks could kill I would be one dead civilian. My job is pretty awesome so far. Never a dull moment and quite challenging, but I have amazing volunteers and am so greatful for all of those who mentored me to get here. Cross your fingers and hope for a more compelling post next time- I miss you all!