"So this is the New Year...and I don't feel any different." - Death Cab for Cutie
So it's 2011 now. I just returned from a week in Naha, Okinawa which is a completely different part of Okinawa from the part that I live in. I did enjoy my time in the "big city" (Naha), which in comparison to NYC is really a small city (it's probably about the size of Tampa, Florida condensed into a smaller region). I feel like I need to escape my island more often. I love realizing that I am indeed on an extended working holiday, and taking vacations away from my island enables me to reconnect to this. Plus, in mainland Okinawa there are many things there that are just not here on my island (ie, I can shop for clothing that fits me, I can shop for books without having them shipped, I could go see movies in English at the theater -- there's no theater on this island). Yes, I know that's all stuff that isn't very interesting in terms of experiencing a new culture. True. But, sometimes you need to be able to go to a foreigner bar and order a rich, Western style cocktail (not a chu-hai) and feel overwhelmed by the military dudes that have come in to party hard (or maybe you don't need that at all...) Actually, I probably could do without the latter, but it was still part of the whole Okinawa experience.
