Discover Okinawa
Whale Watching, diving
Okinawa is best known as a marine resort. Marine activities like diving, snorkeling, fishing, jet ski, wake boarding, parasailing or, lately, kite surfing are the main attractions. The ocean is full of life, teeming with breathtaking corals, tropical fish, colorful sea slugs and more. The sea-slugs and dogtooth tuna, roving the sea between Kume and Kerama are often visited by whales, making it a prime whale-watching spot from January to March. Sometimes whale sharks and hammer heads come up from the deeper waters. Around Ishigaki, manta's are easily spotted at Manta Scramble the whole year through. On a flood-tide night at the end of May, most of the corals around Okinawa begin spawning, filling the sea with red clouds of eggs, a breathtaking sight. The coral reefs around Okinawa are among the most varied and easily accessible of the world. At Akajima (Kerama) only a few steps into the water brings you amid a world of coral and fish, making that blue world, mostly reserved for divers easily available for snorkeling too.
Sightseeing
Okinawa is the place for whale watching, snorkeling and diving. People who would rather not get their feet wet may go to Churaumi Aquarium, a world-class aquarium and marine science centre which features one of the largest acrylic aquarium walls (60cm thick, 8.5 ms high, 22.5 ms large) and hosts several whale sharks and manta-rays. It has also a coral breeding program that successfully saw coral spawning, a world-first.Besides water sports, Okinawa caters to other sports too as most of Japanese baseball-clubs have their winter camps on the island. Ishigaki even constructed a soccer park where Japanese clubs come to train. Miyako hosts the first triathlon of the international season while runners struggle in the Naha Marathon, Okinawa Marathon and Sho Hashi half-marathon or the Moonlight marathon on Iheya, a unique running festival on Iheya. The Tour de Okinawa, lately, is also getting more popular with bicycle riders abroad.
The "gusuku" and related sites are the main cultural sightseeing spots with the rebuilt Shuri-castle as the largest tourist trap. Zakimi, Nakijin, Nakagusuku, Katsuren, Chinen and Sashiki are but a few of over 135 gusuku in Okinawa. The Kanna Thalasso is a new spa, one of the first attempts to promote Okinawa as a "health island". Okinawa's longevity is said to be related to the healthy food and lifestyle. Sanpincha (jasmine-tea) and Ukon-tea are said to be healthy, helping digestion and soothing hangovers. Okinawan food like champru, so-ki soba or Okinawa-soba is mostly easily digested and often uses pork, of which most fat has been cooked out. Supplements "made in Okinawa" like mineral-rich salt and coral calcium are increasingly popular and some factories are opening up to visits. The massive military presence on Okinawa is a result of W.W.II and is both a blessing and a burden. Kadena, the largest airbase outside the US represents 50% of combat capability in the Pacific. The bases have brought forth a peculiar culture around the bases, with Koza being home to several bars where rock'n'roll never died. Veterans often revisit the sites where they fought and remember their comrades in the Peace Prayer Memorial Park.
History
Research on Okinawa's history is troubled by lack of sources and a certain bias of scholars. Fact is that Okinawa, as the Ryukyu Kingdom, has been the only independent nation on what is now Japanese territory. Ryukyu's past has been recognized by UNESCO when the "Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu" were added to the list of World Cultural Heritage Sites proclaiming that "...these sites and monuments... are evidence for the social structure... while the sacred sites provide mute testimony to the rare survival of an ancient form of religion into the modern age. The wide- ranging economic and cultural contacts of the Ryukyu Islands...gave rise to a unique culture". The oldest human remains on Okinawa are dated at 32.000 years ago, but history really starts only in the 12th century with the Gusuku-era. Gusuku, mostly walled sanctuaries that eventually double as castles, were built by Aji, local chieftains who managed to enlarge their fiefs by battling their neighbors. 3 kingdoms emerged: Hokuzan in the north, Chuzan, the most powerful in the middle, and Nanzan, in the south. Okinawa was first unified by Sho Hashi, who started the first Sho-dynasty when he installed his father as first King of Ryukyu (15th Century). Okinawa had it's Golden Age under Sho Shin, of the second Sho-dynasty. From the 14th century, Okinawan vessels traded from Ayutaya, Annam, Java, Korea, Japan and China as Ryukyu took full advantage of the trade granted to nations who paid tribute to China. Ryukyu supplied local sulphur and horses to China while trading goods like spices, camphor from Southeast Asia for Japanese fans, armor and weapons. The Portuguese where the first to hear rumors on the noble Lequios or Gores in Malacca and other East-Asian ports, prompting a search which eventually led Europe to Japan.In 1609, Satsuma, a Japanese fief invaded the Kingdom yet took care to keep up the appearance of a sovereign Ryukyu as it sought to reap profit from the trade and prestige of controlling a foreign nation. Okinawa was eventually annexed by Japan but it feels it has never been regarded as fully Japanese. Japan tried to split the islands with China, it left Okinawa under US-occupation after the war, an insult older Okinawans refer to as "severing the lizard's tail". Discrimination against the islanders was obvious, even institutionalized as the modernization of the Meiji-revolution was delayed in Okinawa. Islanders where regarded as lazy, nonchalant, unreliable, and every attempt to prove their "japaneseness" as in the suicides during W.W.II which were regarded as "beastly obedience" were in vain. Few know that before Perry steamed on to knock Japan's door, his fleet gave rendezvous in Okinawa, Lew-chew or Loo-Choo as the islands were known, already frequently visited by western ships from the 16th Century on. During 18th and 19th century western visitors like Hall, Goncharow and Bettelheim reported on Okinawa, one more positive than the other.
The beginning of the 20th Century witnessed the emigration of many Okinawans to Hawaii and south-America as they tried to escape economic disaster, dubbed "Sotetsu hell" after the poisonous cycad-tree people ate to avoid starvation.
After world war and the following US-occupation, Okinawa was reversed to Japan in 1972 but many people still regard the US military bases as a token of American and Japanese occupation.
Culture
Okinawa, the Keystone of the Pacific, has always been a crossroads at the edge of the Asian continent. Influenced by China, South-East Asia, it's culture, music and language are rather different from mainland Japan. Okinawa itself has 3 culture spheres; the north with Amami strongly influenced by Japan, the south with Yaeyama/Miyako with apparently continental, if not Malaysian influence and a more original mixed culture on Okinawa itself. The body of above mentioned sanshin used to be made of a python species native only to Malaysia, while the sanshin itself has its roots in Central Asia and traveled further to become the Japanese Samisen.In general, Okinawans are warm and welcoming, a characteristic very much appreciated by 18,19th century visitors who called Okinawa, a lost paradise. One of Okinawa's favorite phrases is " いちゃりば、ちょうでえIchariba Cho-de-" -once we meet, (we're like) brothers-, reflecting the gentle and warm character of the islanders. That humane character was reflected in art and crafts, not in military prowess. Lacquer ware, weaving and dying techniques reached a high level, and are sought after items.
Lately, the culture and history of Okinawa are popular subjects with researchers and scholars who see Okinawa as an important factor in the South-Asian region.
Battle ground Okinawa
Okinawa is the only place where World War II raged on Japanese territory and the Battle for Okinawa was the largest campaign of the Pacific War; More people died during the "Typhoon of Steel" than during the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Over 12.000 Americans were killed or missing, more than 90.000 Japanese and Okinawan conscripts killed, and at more than 100.000 casualties, one third of the Okinawan civilians. The battle was brutal, and for some the wounds haven't healed yet. Ever since, US military bases occupy over 10% of prefectural land, totaling 70% of all US bases on Japan. The bases are considered economically a blessing, but also a human burden. Okinawa tries to come to peace with that past in the solemn Peace Memorial Park, built near the last Japanese stronghold in the south, Mabuni Hill where the Cornerstone of Peace lists the names of all those fallen, whatever they nationality or faith.Karate-Kobudo
Okinawa stands at the cradle of Karate. The earliest stages of the martial art known as "karate 空手" were developed in Okinawa and called ティーTeè, or 'hand'. Further refinement came with the influence of Chinese martial arts brought back by nobles and trade merchants from their visits to China. Hence the name " 空手kara-te", where "kara" is the Japanese reading for the character "唐To", referring to the T'ang dynasty of China. Eventually the character for the T'ang ("to 唐" or "kara")was replaced by the character for " 空empty", also pronounced "kara". In the Okinawan language Karate used to be called "トゥーティーTu-ti", from the characters "To (or Kara)" for China and "te", hand. Several styles like Shuri-ti, Naha-ti and Tomari-ti were developed probably from the 17th century. Nowadays, Goju-ryu, Shorin-ryu and Uechi-ryu are still taught in the many dojo on the islands and every two years a world tournament of Karate-Kobudo is held at the Naha Budokan, a modern building resembling an UFO.Music
Within Japan, and lately also in the West, Okinawa is known as the island of songs. The past ten years, Okinawan musicians, singers and groups like Amuro Namie, Max, Speed, Da Pump, Natsukawa Rimi, Chitose Hajime, Kina Shokichi and Begin have scored monster hits in Japan, prompting an "Okinawa boom". Nenes, Kina Shokichi, Ganeko Yoriko and Koja Misako have successfully toured abroad, with , Kina Shokichi, "Asia's Bob Marley", once storming the British Pop-charts with "Jing-jing", playing at the opening ceremony of the Atlanta Olympic Games. The success of these musicians mirrors the deeply rooted musical culture of Okinawa. Songs were part of daily life until very recently. The 島唄"shima-uta" or "island songs" are still a source of inspiration for modern musicians and are enjoying kind of a renaissance. Ry Cooder, Bob Brozman, Michael Nyman and Talvin Singh are but some of the "western" musicians to show interest in Okinawan music.Every island has its own slightly different styles and Yaeyama, brought, and still brings forth most of the songs and singers. Bolero-like ballads sung by women, or the upbeat katcharsee, the staple ending of every Okinawan party, Okinawan music is unthinkable without the 三線 sanshin, a three-stringed lute with a snakeskin body, reflecting the trading past of Okinawa. The musical scale is different from the Japanese one, sounding more South-Asian and much more easily accessible than the Japanese scale.
