How are things in Okinawa?

[blamebrampton]

Anyone on my flist in or near Okinawa? I may need to trek off for a week for work, which is on the one hand fab, YAY Japan! And on the other hand, I have limited money at the moment, am completely behind on everything, and really want to get back to the UK for a month and this is not helpful.

Meet-up would definitely sweeten the situation!

Comments

[takarai-karin.livejournal.com]

Exciting, never been that South of Japan. Sorry I can't be much help, but have a safe and fun trip!

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It's still up in the air. I have a vague suspicion the Asian ad manager is just trying to get me out of the country for a week so that he can do something evil ;-)

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Nearest I get to Japan is that my home town was the birthplace of Anjin Sama (aka William Adams- founder of the Japanese navy) and we're twinned with Yokusaka!

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

No small things!

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Reading the subject line made me worry that some sort of major natural disaster had befallen Okinawa and you were asking the sub set of your friends list in Japan to report in that they were alright. (This because you tend to know about major news items and mention them in LJ long before I hear of them from elsewhere.) I was quite relieved to find out you are only contemplating some travel...

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I think they had a small typhoon the other day, but 1. it's that time of year for that part of the world, and 2. So did we!

All good! I will try to get up to speed with life so that I can get back to new services (and parodies and writing)! XX

PS Just realised that I should have told you the title comes from a song from Brigadoon called How are Things in Glocca Morra. It's actually a very catchy tune, which is my only excuse for knowing it because the film has the worst Scottish accents known to humankind and is tremendously silly. But for any four syllable place name with vowels at the end, that's where my brain goes. Even for Oklahoma, which has it's own bloody song!

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Oh, I remember loving Brigadoon when I saw it (on stage, once, back in high school). Sadly I don't remember any songs from it, so missed the reference. (Of course I never saw the movie version--I see perhaps three films a year, most years, which means that I haven't seen most of them.)

[winnett.livejournal.com]

Oh cool. I've always wanted to go there. have fun!

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I hope so! I'm rather hoping it can be early next year – I will be a bit caught up with my life by then! Plus it will be lovely and cool without monsoons :-) And I hope they give us time to wander around someone natural, it's going to be driven by the tourism dept, so those sorts of trips are very often 'Glossy thing! Glossy thing! Have you seen our glossy things!' while I like to write about 'Normal people! Native landscapes and animals! Arty and crafty crap!'

But Japanese tourist boards have a reputation for being reasonably cool, so it should be OK. I think it's just the timing: six months ago I would have jumped at the chance!

[geinahop]

The only thing I know about Okinawa is that my dad was stationed there when he was in the Air Force in the early 1960s. Maybe I should dig up that box of airmail letters he sent my mom and read them. They were dating/engaged at the time, so I've always been afraid of what he might have said in them. lol

I have a cousin whom I think lives somewhere in Japan, but I'm not in close contact with him.

I know, that was entirely unhelpful. :)

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

HEE! No it wasn't, it was INTERESTING! And I think you should read the letters, it;s good to realise how nomal your parents were :-)

[geinahop]

I will eventually. The letters are in storage right now. We moved into a much smaller house, and lots of things are stored away for a while.

You don't realize how much you don't know about people until it's too late. I know a lot about my parents, but there are so many more things I wish I'd thought to ask them while I still could.

Another interesting tidbit about my dad's time in Okinawa. They held something like a Top Gun competition, and my dad was part of one of the teams. He was an electronics engineer, though I don't know exactly what he did on that team. It was on the ground, though. I want to say he told me his team won, but I'm not sure I remember that part right.