Teaching in Okinawa

After arriving in Okinawa I was shocked at its culture vs. the culture of mainland Japan. Since they originally had stronger bonds with China than Japan even knowing Japanese hasn't helped me understand the native language. Luckily, since the Japanese government has encouraged the use of standard Japanese, all of the other teachers speak the language of the mainland instead of Okinawas dialect. Something that I have seen around town are Ishiganto. Magical stones that are supposed to ward off evil spirits. I have heard that in two long periods during its history there was a weapons ban on the area and I am still trying to find out how this has effected their culture today. I have to go teach so I must end this post here. I miss you all but Japan is an amazing culture and I will hate to leave it behind.

The native food here is much stronger and spicier than normal Japanese food so I like it very much. They use a lot of pork and use every part of the animal from the hindquarters to the ears. It is very alike to East Asian food because the Okinawian empire was taken

over relatively recently and had stranger ties to China and Tiwan than Japan

School lunches are very different here in Okinawa. The children set up the tables and serve lunch to their fellow classmates so that they can learn to work together. This apparently helps them learn to work together to accomplish a goal.

Another strange occurrence is that these Japanese textbooks only stress history where Japan is the protagonist or victim of the occurrence. Our textbooks teach our children about the bombing of Japan and how we killed many people but they seem to be worried that the children will see Japan as a bad country even though it was just the rulers who were evil.