My Okinawa
by banoI was stationed on Okinawa for 2 years the first time and 5 years the last time, I really miss okinawa for one big reason. How beautiful a place and people can be! I never really hung out with other service members because all the ever did was disrepect the the people and culture, so I learned the Japanese language and made friends with my neighbors and others that I’d meet while out and about. They taught me alot about the culture and history of the island, we’d go out and have lots of fun with no violence in site. I even began to learn some of the Okinawan language from the elders that I’d sit and talk with. Imagine being the only American allowed in a place were no other americans could go because you understood the culture and truly respected the people. I was an honor. The serenity of Okinawa cannot be explained and you cannot understand if you are on base all the time. My wife Masayo, who I met in okinawa wants to return there upon my retirement from the military and I am praying that we do!! I hope to live away from the bases in one of the smaller villages, but close enough to her family so that my daughter is not deprived of her heritage!!
August 18th, 2006 at 9:47 am
Bano, I had a similar experience, once I met my future wife I was able to go to places other Marines could not, like all the nice clubs in Naha. Yes I also disliked the drunken disrespect many Marines and others showed to the Okinawans, but they were mostly limited to certain “seedy” areas, like Koza, I believe it’s called Okinawa City now, that was a wild place back in the day!
August 18th, 2006 at 2:28 pm
We still refer to Okinawa city as Koza, us old folk and my daughter is currently vacationing in Nago and Ginowan with her aunt and grandmother for the summer and she says she can’t wait to go back. She said she’s very happy to have american friends, but misses the friends she had in Okinawa and the school was more challenging in the Japan school systems. She would like to attend collge in Japan one day.
August 21st, 2006 at 4:57 pm
I heard they “tamed” BC street, is it true? Hard to imagine!
August 24th, 2006 at 1:43 pm
Bano - I’m going to Okinawa on the 31st. I cant wait. I work for a charter company transporting troops back to the states. Unfortunatley, I only have two days there. Can u tell me what would be a must see,an a must do in Okinawa. Im looking at other posts here and I see Koza is one place. Not sure where we’re staying but departing out of Kadena so most likely around the base there. Any info would be awesome….Thanx…..C
August 25th, 2006 at 2:06 pm
Koza (Okinawa City)would be a good start, it’s too bad you only get two days because there is quite a bit to see. Try to get with a person with some time on the in country and ask if they’ll take you around to some of the sites. It is actually quite impressive.
Gambattai !
August 25th, 2006 at 2:10 pm
Tamed BC street as compared to when I was a “young teenage trouble making boy” visiting my uncle in the 70’s and early 80’s, yeah it’s pretty tame if you remember the 70’s and the early 80’s same for the Phillipanges in Olongapo City. Write back soon you and I my have some funny stories!
August 30th, 2006 at 12:53 pm
BC…it was like the wild west when I was there, 79-81, really nuts…but oh so much fun, in a disgusting sort of way! I guess I can’t blame the locals wanting to clean it up, but maybe they should have let KAFB just annex it!
August 31st, 2006 at 12:36 pm
Hey JohnS remember B Street USA in Henoko (by Camp Schawb up North)
August 31st, 2006 at 9:53 pm
B street? Nope, never really got up that way. I was at Futenma. One time I hopped the fence in the middle of a typhoon and walked to BC…everything was open!
September 3rd, 2006 at 1:15 am
Yeah, that was me in the late 70’s/early 80’s, my apologies I meet Bar Street USA. You should have seen old Henoko back then. My wife calls me a bad kid for that. She didn’t leave Nago back then, laughed at my pictures of Henoko saying; she could tell that was my first time on Okinawa, I didn’t look like a military kid at all, just a 14y/o bad boy.
October 8th, 2006 at 1:14 pm
As a young man in 1981 and thousands of miles away from home, BC Street was the most fasinating thing I had ever experienced in my life. At 44 years old I still fondly reflect to those exciting days of my life.
December 23rd, 2006 at 3:52 am
Bano, I was in the same situation. Stationed at Kadena from 84-87, I got tired of my fellow servicemen dogging the culture and not enjoying Okinawa. I took a converstional japanese class through the USO, and hit the town. I met my wife to be, Masami and got to see areas of Okinawa that most Americans could not, and enjoyed every minute of it. Masami and I have been married since ‘86, are now retired military living in Colorado and are planning a trip next summer to Okinawa. We were just reminiscing how much we missed the SCUBA diving, partying on BC street at the Cannon club, Moto’s, and on Moromi street at the Island Bar. But, most of all, we miss chowing down on Charlie’s Tacos and wish we could replicate the recipie.