if you find yourself in osaka, then you must spend one evening in the namba (なんば or 難波) area at a spot called dotombori (道頓堀).

Read More >>

there’s no denying there are cultural differences between western and asian cultures.  however, the basic things seem to be the same.

for example, boys will always be boys.  i caught this group in the midst of their shenanigans in dotombori (道頓堀) on the famous nanpa hashi, which is a play on the actual name, namba hashi.  nanpa means flirting or trying to catch a girl.

so these blocks had the following ingenious idea.   they would wait for two or more cute girls to walk in their direction.  just before the girls would reach them, one guy (blue jacket in this case), would walk in front of the girls and “drop” his bag (bottom of photo).  the rest of the group would then try to “help” the girls maneuver around whilst making fun of their friend.  fantastic!  they got a bunch of laughs and some short conversation out of it.  notice the smiling girls on the right of the photograph.

i was laughing pretty hard.

it was a cute idea.  hopefully at least one of them got a phone number.  ;)

built to oversee the northern reaches of the ryukyuan kingdom, zakimi castle (座喜味城) was designed by famed militarist gosamaru.  with regards to its design, there were a couple of first at zakimi castle.  first, a keystone was used in the arched entrances.  secondly, the first inner court was mostly surrounded by encircling high walls, thus rendering this first inner court as a death trap for any intruders who managed to get past the first gate.

Read More >>

katsuren castle (勝連城) had a lot of power within okinawa due to its wealth and extensive trade with other nations.  the most famous ruler, or aji, at katsuren castle was amawari, who ruled during the 15th century.  amawari was successful in gaining control over nakagusuku castle during his uprising.  however, a later attempt on shuri castle failed and proved fatal for amawari.  this pivotal moment lead to further unification of okinawa island under the ryukyuan kingdom centered in shuri castle.

Read More >>

自動販売機 (jido hanbai ki) is what they call them around here.  or more simply put, a vending machine.  they are scattered throughout the land, north to south, urban and rural.  always noble, always dependable.  time is irrelevant to this guard of cravings on perpetual watch.  weather it’s tea, corn soup, cigarrettes, or beer – as long as the electron juice is flowing you’ll never go unsatisfied.

with spectacular views of the pacific ocean and east china sea, perched atop a hill, it is easy to understand why a castle was built on this location. nakagusuku-jo (中城城), or nakagusuku castle, was principally built to protect shuri castle and the core of the ryukyuan kingdom from attacks from the east. these attacks originated from katsuren castle and lord amawari, which was a separate kingdom before the unification of okinawa. though it was heavily bombed during WWII, nakagusuku-jo has some of the best preserved walls.

Read More >>

the most sacred site in okinawa is seifa-utaki (斎場御嶽), a shrine located in the south east of the island. the natural ceremonial altars at seifa-utaki are named after rooms in shuri castle. due to its strong connections to the ryukyuan royal family, entrance to seifa-utaki was limited to royal officials.

seifa-utaki is composed of two significant words. the first word, seifa, refers to a place holding divine power. while utaki refers to sacred places in the ryukyuan language. therefore this word is specific to japan’s southwest islands. this UNESCO world heritage site is one of seven sacred places in okinawa.

Read More >>