Okinawa trends

So, I have noticed several trends in Okinawa that I was completely unprepared for. Brace yourselves for the top three strange Okinawan trends, in no particular order:

1. Random large figurines used to advertise or just as 'lawn' decorations outside of homes or businesses. Take the one to right, for example. This is a sign outside of the base that we live at. It advertises Eisa, an Okinawan drumming dance. I am told that it was created because Okinawans were forbidden from practicing martial arts after they were taken over, so they created a dance that kept them active and used many of the same motions that were used in martial arts.


2. Nail art. Mostly I've noticed this on Americans, which is extremely odd, since generally the women that I knew in the states didn't have flowers on their toenails. However, this seems to be a pretty common trend here in Okinawa. I rarely see nail art on fingernails, but I have seen many a lady with brightly painted toenails with flowers dotted over at least the big toe toenail, if not all the subsequent toenails as well. So, in efforts to be less of an oddity around here, I too have joined in the trend. Here we go, trying to be feminine. I foresee this trend lasting no more than a couple weeks for me. But we shall see.

3. GIGANTIC ice cream shops. We went to this ice cream shop a couple days ago and it is enormous. Think of a normal sized steak-and-shake, and that's about the same size as this place. But it's really all about the ice cream. No joke. And there's TONS of them like this, some of them bigger. Blue Seal ice cream is big, as is Big Dip ice cream. It is a far cry from the small shops in Georgetown where there's barely enough room for the line, let alone an entire seating area with booths and tables and partitions.

So there we have it. Three of the more surprising aspects of Okinawa that I have discovered thus far.