Okinawa Music

    Other than the beautiful ocean Okinawa is known for, I think the traditional music that originated from Okinawa is unique and nice. To be honest, I hated it when I first heard it, but as I repeated playing their music, I noticed how relaxed it made me. The san-shin (a type of instrument, commonly used in traditional okinawa music) matches the image of the sea, making me feel the warm breeze against my body.
   I wanted to learn how to play the san-shin but I was too young to learn it, since they only accepted students who were over the age 16. Now I am over 16, so I should sign myself up for a lesson.
   Going back to talk about music from Okinawa, I really like this song from 'Begin'. The song is called 島人ぬ宝. Here is the song on YouTube! Please check it out!
Thank you for reading!

History of Okinawa

     Although I love Okinawa, I don't know anything about the history of it. To be honest, I only know that it was America's territory. That is all i really know. So, for this post, I would like to learn Okinawa's history with you. Please feel free to comment fun facts, state my mistakes and anything you feel like writing! So let's begin our history class!
History Fact 1: Human habitation can be traced to around 4000years ago.
History Fact 2: The last dynasty of Okinawa was replaced with governors.
History Fact 3: From 1945-1972, Okinawa was ruled under the US military government.

Reference: http://www.okinawan-shorinryu.com/okinawa/history.html

That's three easy facts I found on the web. I better remember them!
Have you ever visited Okinawa? If so, where? What kind of activities/tours did you do?
 Thank you for reading!

Taken from:http://www.insatsu-honpo.com/blog/台風２号-1.jpg

This lion looking dog looking creature is called a Shi-sa-. They are usually placed on top of the rooftops of homes in Okinawa. Especially on rooftops of the traditional houses (Photo of house in previous post).  Shi-sa-'s are placed to protect households from evil spirits from coming in. Shi-sa- fact: They are usually placed in pairs and the one with the open mouth is a female and the closed one is a male! So the Shi-sa- in the photo is a female!

Okinawa Fascinates Me

     It's been 3 years since I last visited Okinawa and I can clearly remember the things I've done.  In total, I've visited Okinawa four times. During my Okinawa epoch, I have visited several islands that are located in Okinawa; they are Miyako-jima, Ishigaki-jima, Irabu-jima, Kohama-jima and Taketomi-jima.  I would have to say that all of the islands I have visited were beautiful, with clear blue skies, clear blue oceans, sandy beaches, green mountains, clean air, yummy food stalls, colorful sea creatures and the amazing people. When people ask me which island I liked visiting, I answer by saying Taketomi-jima.

Image ONE taken from: http://www.shimanavi.com/spot/data/upfile/39-1.jpg

Image TWO from: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2523/4026473334_b876b2821c.jpg

     I've only been to Taketomi-jima for a few hours, but I knew from the moment I set foot on the ground, that I would want to live here someday. Taketomi-jima is a very small island, with a population of approximately 350 people (the population of cows double).  The island is very traditional. When I was there 3 years ago, I did not see any traffic lights and people with cellphones, and basically most things people have in the urban cities. There were no buildings higher than two stories and the buildings were all structured the same way. Surfing through the web on houses built in Taketomi-jima, I found out that when building a house, you absolutely have to build a specific type of structured house, using red bricks for the rooftop. Image One is a photo of the traditional houses built all over Taketomi-jima (I would love to live in that one day). Another thing I really liked about Taketomi-jima is that you can go searching for star shaped sands. You may think, 'star-shaped sand?', but I'm 100% sure you can get it if you go there! I'll post an image for those of you who still thinks i'm lying (you can also purchase the star sand in a small jar for about 300yen). I was still in middle school when I visited Taketomi-jima and I appreciate my mom and dad for taking me there . I get really passionate when I talk about Okinawa, but I really love Okinawa. I don't think there is another topic I can really get into talking about.

There are numerous things I haven't told you yet, which I would love to tell you!
Following this first blog on Taketomi-jima, I would like to talk about other beauties of Okinawa I want to share with you.
Thank you for reading!