May 8th in Okinawa is designated “Goya no Hi” (ゴーヤーの日) or “Goya Day” which celebrates the vegetable (gouyaa, bitter melon) popular in Okinawa and after which Goyaboy and Goyablog takes their names. It’s May 8th because of the homonym for the word for “5″ (go) and “8″ (ya) (5.8 = May 8th). This is, of [...]

You may have recently noticed the “Now on Radio 5558!” in the sidebar. It shows the band, song, and album art of whatever is streaming on Radio Go Go Goya! from my Mac mini. It’ll mostly be Okinawa Pop on any given day, but when I put up another playlist to listen to at home, [...]

Today the Base Realignment and Closure Committee (BRAC) voted on base closures around the United States. When I listened to the news (NPR) it was cast as party time for those states and municipalities who were “spared” base closures and catastrophe for areas voted to “suffer” closures. The party atmosphere demonstrated in Texas in particular [...]

It’s “Shichigwachi Eisa” (7th month Eisa) time in Okinawa right now. Eisa (dances for the ancestors) is the spirited (so to speak) festival song/music/dance in Okinawa that corresponds with Obon practices on mainland Japan. It usually takes place from the night of July 15th, so it’s later next week, but it’s been touristified and commodified [...]

While reading Irei no Hi news online I came across this nice archive of articles that one of the two dailies in Okinawa, Okinawa Times has digitized and posted in their “60 year since end of war web” special. It has all Irei no Hi articles they published since 1962, when it was first formally [...]

June 23 is Irei no Hi (Memorial Day) in Okinawa. This was the day in 1945 when organized resistence against U.S. forces ended in the Battle of Okinawa following the ritual suicides of Lt. Generals Ushijima Mitsuru and Cho Isamu on Mabuni Hill on the southernmost tip of the island. Some Okinawans reject this day [...]

I thought I’d point out Christopher Luna’s bit on the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (MCMAP). Since he’s in Okinawa, putative birthplace of karate, is seems fitting that he pursue certificates for higher belts. The above is the MCMAP logo. Sounds like a take on the “Army of One” slogan the Army put out a [...]

No, not the New York Yankees (for whom the title here would be: “Yankees Go to Hell”), but rather the U.S. Marines (20,000 +) stationed in Okinawa. Their concentrated presence there has been an issue since the end of WWII, and Okinawans have protested against their presence with varying degrees of intensity over the years. [...]