My friend Karen's house

My friend Karen lives in Kitanakagusuku on top of a hill, overlooking the town and ocean, she has a big yard and the houses on her little street have a big yard, there are only about 10 houses. I tease her and tell her working for the American Consulate, she is living in the rich part of town! She has a large house with three bedrooms. Her house is a typical Japanese house, it has raised floors, wooden, all the kitchen cabinets are low, like my mom's used to be. The bath tub is a soaking tub, very deep, you step down into it, but it is not long enough to stretch out. She has the fancy toilets, they have heated seat, you push a button and it basically gives you a sitz bath with warm water that can flow in a straight stream or shower. She has offered to let anyone stay with her that wants to visit. I sure wish I had some takers! She would even let you use her daughter's surf board!

They have a lot of parks here because they don't have any yards. There is no grass at the houses, just concrete yards. Cuts down on the mowing and yard work sometimes I wish that is what we had. There are a few houses that have a little patch of grass; they are usually at American style houses. But they have beautiful potted plants sitting around the yards and houses. I wonder how those plants look in the heat of the summer. (They probably actually take time to water them.) Most houses have what my grandparents in Nady had, big rain barrel things to catch the rain water, theirs is located on the top of their house. They use this water to water the plants and other things in the summertime.

The streets in Okinawa

They have one freeway they call expressway. It doesn't even go the entire length of the island. The picture shows exactly how narrow the streets are here. Some streets seem one way, because you can hardly fit two cars down them. But actually I have only seen one or two one way streets. The maps don't have all the roads on it either. I would say that 95% of the roads/streets do not have street signs or names on the street. They give directions like turn next to the McDonalds. It is like once you turn off a main road, you are in a maze of little narrow roads, with houses sitting right on the road. And Dydo machines (vending machine that has water and coffee and juice too) along the side of the streets everywhere. And people literally stop in the road, put their hazard lights on, and get out and get a drink from the machine or run into the store. They pull to the side of the street, but remember the street is so narrow it seems like they are in the middle of the road.

Is Okinawa like Hawaii - Part II

The big hotels came in and bought the beach front areas up and tried to make them private for guests only, but the government made them open the beaches up for public use, so now they charge like 500 yen - about $5 to go to the beach. There are a few nice public beaches. It is not like Hawaii in that is doesn't have that paradise/resort type feel here. There are a lot of flowers but it doesn't smell wonderful like Hawaii. It doesn't smell bad, just not like Hawaii. There are a lot of big rocks/boulders/rock cliffs, etc, here. Some of the beaches are not sand, they are just broken pieces of coral and shells instead, then of course some of the beaches are just coral, like hard coral, like concrete. My friend Karen called it volcano lava beaches, but there are no volcano's here. The island is only 64 miles long and at the narrowest about 2 miles across at the widest about 18 miles across.

They have a lot of parks here because they don't have any yards. There is no grass at the houses, just concrete yards. Cuts down on the mowing and yard work sometimes I wish that is what we had. There are a few houses that have a little patch of grass; they are usually at American style houses. But they have beautiful potted plants sitting around the yards and houses. I wonder how those plants look in the heat of the summer. (They probably actually take time to water them.) Most houses have what my grandparents in Nady had, big rain barrel things to catch the rain water, theirs is located on the top of their house. They use this water to water the plants and other things in the summertime. My friend Karen lives in Kitanakagusuku on top of a hill, overlooking the town and ocean, she has a big yard and the houses on her little street have a big yard, there are only about 10 houses. I tease her and tell her working for the American Consulate, she is living in the rich part of town! She has a large house with three bedrooms. Her house is a typical Japanese house, it has raised floors, wooden, all the kitchen cabinets are low, like my mom's used to be. The bath tub is a soaking tub, very deep, you step down into it, but it is not long enough to stretch out. She has the fancy toilets, they have heated seat, you push a button and it basically gives you a sitz bath with warm water that can flow in a straight stream or shower. She has offered to let anyone stay with her that wants to visit. I sure wish I had some takers! She would even let you use her daughter's surf board!

They have one freeway they call expressway. It doesn't even go the entire length of the island. The picture shows exactly how narrow the streets are here. Some streets seem one way, because you can hardly fit two cars down them. But actually I have only seen one or two one way streets. The maps don't have all the roads on it either. I would say that 95% of the roads/streets do not have street signs or names on the street. They give directions like turn next to the McDonalds. It is like once you turn off a main road, you are in a maze of little narrow roads, with houses sitting right on the road. And Dydo machines (vending machine that has water and coffee and juice too) along the side of the streets everywhere. And people literally stop in the road, put their hazard lights on, and get out and get a drink from the machine or run into the store. They pull to the side of the street, but remember the street is so narrow it seems like they are in the middle of the road.

More on Okinawa landscape

The big hotels came in and bought the beach front areas up and tried to make them private for guests only, but the government made them open the beaches up for public use, so now they charge like 500 yen - about $5 to go to the beach. There are a few nice public beaches. It is not like Hawaii in that is doesn't have that paradise/resort type feel here. There are a lot of flowers but it doesn't smell wonderful like Hawaii. It doesn't smell bad, just not great. There are a lot of big rocks/boulders/rock cliffs, etc, here. Some of the beaches are not sand, they are just broken pieces of coral and shells instead, then of course some of the beaches are just coral, like hard coral, like concrete. My friend Karen called it volcano lava beaches, but there are no volcano's here. The island is only 64 miles long and at the narrowest about 2 miles across at the widest about 18 miles across.