Beauty of Randomness - Deep Conversations in An Izakaya, Traditional Okinawan Culture Show

So I finally made it to the Yaeyama Islands, a cluster of islands (Ishigaki, Taketomi, and Iriomote are furthest south and west in the long chain of islands making up the Okinawa prefecture). The flight from Naha to Ishigaki was short but rough.  The pilot seemed to really struggle with the crosswinds on landing and it was prob one of the most shaky ones I`ve experienced.  If we were in the US, passengers would`ve applauded the pilot but here in Japan the quiet lack of emotion prevailed.
 
Ishigaki is the main island and population center and you can easily get a feel for the surfer/beach bum culture but for the weather and the fact it was low season. I actually felt it was sort of like a more Japanese version of one of the lesser populated islands of Hawaii (definitely enough of a japanese population in both areas).   The after affects of the typhoon were still being felt here - not rain but high winds and rough seas.  I wonder how it must be like during high season and when the weather is incredibly hot - perhaps it really is like Hawaii then
 
I was sort of debating this - the pluses of low season is that things are cheaper, no waiting in lines, easy to get accomodations (and prob at a discount), and the locals have time to chat (well, those that spoke english anyway). The down side is that one doesn`t meet too many fellow travellers (particularly here in Japan), which have always been a highlight of my trips... I was thinking that it would be lacking in this trip but I was pleasantly surprised later on ;)
 
So the city of Ishigaki is pretty small - one can pretty much walk anywhere you`d want to go within 5-10 minutes. During my stay there I hit every sight to see in the city mentioned in the Lonely Planet guide with one exception. combined that took mainly 1.5 hrs. yeah, pretty small city. There were a couple of shrines (but those paled in comparision to Nara, of course) and 1 samurai house which was a bit lame (I think the old guy collecting the 200 yen entrance fee has a bit of a racket going on).
 
But the highlight of my time there in Ishi was 2 things, both of which were results of spontaneity/luck. 
 
First, I wound up going to an izakaya that lonely planet recommended to sample the local cuisine. what started out with me being hungry ended with long talks with the izakaya owner, his staff, a local salaryman, and a random university student passing through. actually, he had just finished spending 2 months in ishigaki studying tropical fruit/vegetation, incl mangoes (he claimed the mangoes here are the best).  with the university student especially , I talked about everything from the rise of Japanese nationalism vs the pacificism that has dominated since WW2 to Japanese youth vs their parents generation to the attitude of Okinawans to mainland Japanese.
 
My thought was that Japan had already about 2 generations of atoning for its expansionism/agression in WW2 and now with the rise of China and North Korea going nuclear, Japan had already `atoned for the sins of the past` and needs to have a more aggressive foreign policy, including military one. Especially since the American hegemony appears to be waning and it`s protector role is diminishing compared to post WW2.   The student disagreed - his grandfather was a soldier in WW2 and has seen the horrors of war. The attitude of the grandfather and consequently the student himself is that war is so horrific that it must be avoided at any and all cost. Do I subscribe to realpolitik and is he a liberal? hard to say
 
I`ve noticed from my past travels to Japan and talking with ex-pat Japanese that the younger generation simply does not want to work as hard as their parents. They see the salaryman hours and the less than ideal home life and decide they want to become singers and dancers (it`s not as prevalent now but in 2001 there were lots of kids breakdancing or practicing some other dance form in the train stations) or go abroad (lots of females go to NYC) where they feel unrestrained by Japanese society.   The student pretty much agreed and said that in the future, the character of Japan may change from that of business/economic success to one of art and aesthetics. To be fair, though, laziness was the biggest characteristic that the older generations ascribed to GenX and GenX wound up being the driving force behind the internet entrepreneurial spirit
 
The mentality of the Okinawans (and I mean the entire ryukyu kingdom, not just okinawa island) is one of a lot of solidarity and love for their islands. There are a lot of former tokyo people who eschew the intense/hurried lifestyle of tokyo for a quieter life. And they are pretty proud of that, it seems.  Even though he`s from Tokyo, he doesn`t want to head back there after finishing. He said he wouldn`t mind marrying a nice island girls and settling here.  The owner of the izakaya is also from Tokyo and he said he just needed a break from　that kind of life.
 
we also talked about a number of other things and some musing on Japanese girls were gleaned from my conversation with the locals
 
And besides the conversation, the food was delicious. fortunately, the owner spoke a bit of english and assisted me in sampling ishigaki/okinawan cusine. I had ishigaki pork, cooked for 11 hrs and was a thick slab of bacon somewhat akin to the bacon at Mark Joseph in Manhattan. it was quite delicious. he also made me a bitter melon dish (bitter melon, pork, tofu, and egg) which is a staple of the ishigaki diet. finally, he gave me some of the local brew of sake, on the house. I drank it okinawan style, which is with water, and it was pretty strong stuff.  I felt it hit me like a wall about an hour later in an internet cafe. adding water is a bit deceptive bc you actually don`t drink a watered down amount - you drink a full serving with additional water on top of that. so it just tastes a bit lighter but it`s deceiving because the original strength is still there.
 
The second random thing I did was wander into some kind of cultural dance/arts show. As I was walking around the park area looking for food (I was pretty hungry bc I didn`t have lunch and missed the hotel`s breakfast and Japan is not a `go outside to a deli/store and get breakfast` kind of crounty), I saw all these people lining up. So I figured I`d line up also and find out what`s going on. turns out it was a culture/dance performance from the traditions of the island people. it was really awesome to soak up the history and since it was almost all dancing it was okay that I didn`t understand japanese (well sorta).  the costumes were quite elaborate - there was a drum dance that was really good and this one dance where several dancers with adornments of plants, a bird, a turtle, and a flower.
 
I had some help from talking with the girl sitting behind me, but even she couldn`t explain to me this long skit one of the performance companies put on.  Here`s what I gathered -
1) 2 friends go out drinking check out their waitresses
2) one gets really drunk (will call him drunk one) and he goes to some kind of woman for `entertainment purposes` but the woman is so incredibly unattractive (and she was since she was really a somewhat obese man dressed in a kimono - will call her obese courtesan) that he can`t go through with it and even throws up
3) the obese courtesan is annoyed and decides to tie the drunk one up with one rope on his ankle
4) the friend of the drunk one (will call him the friend) discovers the drunk one`s plight and comes up with this idea to disguise (or maybe transform?) the drunk one into a goat. now I guess there`s a reason why the rope can`t be untied normally?
5) obese courtesan is amazed that the drunk one is now/looks like a goat (has a goat head mask on) and tries to sell him to a goat herder ( a real goat in a diaper is brought on stage at this point)
6) the sale does not go through (through the intervention of the friend I guess) and somehow drunk guy gets transformed back to a man/loses his disguise (by the help of the friend who is there with them　I guess)
7) obese courtesan and the drunk one fall in love and have a baby - but the baby turns out to be a deer. there is actually a scene where the obese courtesan pushes out a plastic blow up deer
8) then all the actors get back on stage and dance (including a reluctant young goat in diapers)
 
enteraining - the locals were laughing a lot. I was just fascinated
 
so after that I get some really good ishigaki beef and fresh sushi and call it a night