Fellow blogger and BT Moderator, Zen, sent me this story on Corinn. She is new to the Japan scene but I found her post on vacationing in Okinawa interesting. My first tour on The Rock (Okinawa) was  in 1981 and my last tour in  1991. It seems like some things just haven't changed!

Over the break I decided to take a mini-vacation to Okinawa. I was excited to be able to speak “normal” English, eat some good ol’ fashion processed American food, and hang out with an old friend. I must admit, Okinawa was not what I expected. Just through casual conversation, I envisioned a tropical island surrounded by sandy beaches and luscious greenery. What I saw and found was a tiny island, a little bit over-populate, a tad-bit Americanized.As I was decsending, the first thing I notice was the abundance of buildings sprawled all over the island, i.e. Naha. I was a little taken a back by the urbanized view. I also notice the closer we got to the American military bases, the more run down the buildings got. Don’t get me wrong, the area was kept up but the buildings look liked they had a story to tell. Once upon the base, I would have never realized I was actually IN Japan. Everything any American needed or wanted to do could be found on the base. Some days I DID forget I was in Japan lol. I also noticed the eagerness of local businesses to take USD as payment, probably due to the high yen rate. I also notice the ignorance many Americans had when it came to paying with the dollar instead of the yen even though they were getting riped off. For example, on NYE, we decided to head out to Naha instead of celebrating at the local club on the base. I normally carry yen on me but since I was under the impression we were staying on base, I left it behind. The cover at the club in  Naha was 2,500 in yen or $37. Now, I almost about choked to death on my gasp of air when I was told the cover. However, my guy friends did not even blink twice. Was I the only one who noticed the unfairness in cover, probably not, but apparently I was the only one who cared. Now, being the good friend I am, I gave a crash course in currency conversion, but the response I got was “we don’t go off the base much so we really don’t feel like carrying yen on us.” Go figure, silly Americans. Another thing I noticed was the differences between the Japanese people in Okinawa (or as I should say Okinawans) the mainlanders (those that reside on the main part of Japan). Besides facial features, I noticed the women were a bit more forward and the guys a bit more urban. The younger generation kind of reminded me of the Japanese friends and people I have met in America.; they are more accepting of foreigners and English. I didn’t have to speak much Japanese because 90% of the time they spoke English, well enough English to where no Japanese need to be involved. It was refreshing, yet a little disappointing.You can read more about her adventures here. Photo credit.