I realize its been a long time since I've posted anything- but the outraged cyber community has contacted me and I agreed to reconnect with the world wide web. I am in Okinawa now and it is quite incredible. There is something really special about the way the air smells and sun shines. I spent the night in Kagoshima and went out to a really fantastic jazz performance on Friday night and then took a 26 hour ferry to Naha city. If Naha were a recipe it would go like this, one part California, one part Hawaii, and two parts Japan. It is nothing like Kyushu. The locals eat taco rice and glide around a dreamy monorail that plays the most cute-sy music imaginable. I met some other English teachers and yesterday we went to the Peace Memorial about an hour outside of Naha and to some historical caves that some teenage girls used to fix up wounded soldiers in.
We then ate Christmas dinner in a giant tree.
Ohh yeah, and on Christmas eve the hostel I am staying at, which is probably the best hostel I've ever been to, had a Christmas party and we ate fondue, nabe (a traditional Japanese dish) and Christmas cake (Ku-ri-su-ma-su Kee-ki). It was fun.
At the height of the excitement a Japanese man and I tried to figure out who sang this really horrible 90's song for about three hours and then someone randomly tried to teach me how to play Okinawa style drums. After a few beers me and this other Japanese girl who spoke really good English promised to take me to play pachinko the next day but we never got around to it. Luckily. On Christmas night, me and the other two English teachers went to a salsa club and meandered around the brightly lit streets. It was strange because Christmas eve is kind of a big thing here, but nobody cares about Christmas day, everyone goes to work and goes about their typical business. Today I went to the Shuri Castle which I can't really say anything that the pictures can't.