I Think I'm Turning Japanese...

So, you may be asking, what's happening on the other side of the planet? Well I'll tell you... Things are getting curiouser and curiouser as Alice in Wonderland would say. Let's see here are the latest things I've found in Okinawa that either amuse or confuse me: Japanese men like to get drunk. Now I'm not talking "American style" drunk, I'm talking cross eyed, hair askew, spinning, sloppy, barely able to stand DRUNK. Often late at night in the big city (Naha) you will find a fair number of men stumbling drunkenly down the street. Two steps forward, one step to the left, a slight swaying, a step backward and a near collapse, then two steps forward and a desperate grab for a light post before near collision between his face and the sidewalk. Bars have no set "last call" laws, so some stay open until 11 am the next morning (though generally those don't open until around 11pm - since the employees have to catch up on their sleep sometime). You know how they sell tequila with a worm in it in Mexico? Well the Japanese take it to a level waaaayyyy beyond that. They sell Sake with an intact poisonous snake (Habu) coiled and with fangs bared seemingly ready to strike at the bottom of the jar of alcohol. Don't worry, the snake is dead but you might be too if you finish off the bottle full of snake venom and Sake. There are all sizes of these jars of Habu Sake with the snake proportional to the jar and sometimes costing over a thousand dollars (with prices generally running around $500 for a medium jar). One of the nice things about restaurants out in town is the fact that they display much of their menu by using realistic looking plastic food. You will see window displays of gyoza, taco rice (yes, it's just what it sounds like - taco meat on top of a bed of rice), pigs feet (oh how they seem to love their pig feet), noodle dishes, etc. In this way you can get a good idea of what they serve and if communication is impossible (because you forgot your handy little Japanese/English dictionary) then you can just point at what you want. Some of the places here in Okinawa are sort of a throwback to the 50's way of thinking when it comes to discrimination. There are places in town that you may wander into where you are definitely NOT welcome and the only reason for this is because you are not Japanese. There are no laws keeping this from happening and all business owners have the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason. Finally, the Japanese LOVE little cute bobbles. They have everything from little cartoon characters to plastic fruit to the playboy bunny symbol on a string that they attach to their cell phones to personalize them. This applies to both men AND women. Everyone seems to embrace the "cuteness factor" of it all. Sometimes you'll see someone with 8 different charms all attached to their phone at once. I must admit it does seem sort of fun to go out in search of the perfect little plastic representation of your personality so that you can make a statement before even turning your phone on. Mine is little colorful plastic pieces of tropical fruit and came with my phone (I bought it from someone about to leave the island) but it's cute enough that I'll keep it until I find something that expresses my "true" personality (until then I guess I'm just tropical and a bit fruity). Until next time.... Siagnara!