Collaborative Post: The Story Behind the Cube

"Have you guys gotten a car yet?" 

Is a first question we have gotten numerous times from new acquaintances here.  Lydia's automatic retort usually goes something like, "Naw, our bicycles are on the way!"  or  "What about the bus?  Doesn't anyone here ride the city bus here?"  

At the "newcomers briefing" anyone with a current US license had the opportunity to get their SOFA (Status Of Forces Agreement, so military members and their dependents with a US drivers' license don't have to get a Japanese license) license.  A surprisingly easy process.  We sat through a 60 min lesson on road rules, road signs, and driving hazards on the island, took a 20 question test, and now, along with the 60 other people at the briefing, are licensed to drive.  Which brings us back to the original question,  "have you guys gotten a car yet?" 

No.

Thus began our search.  We looked at a place known as the "lemon lot," officially called the "Auto Resale Lot."  The cars there all seemed to be way outside our price range.  Our next resource was a site called bookoo.com which is like an Okinawa specific form of Craigslist.  This resulted in some promising leads but we wanted to check some other options as well.  We then took a city bus a ways away from base, got off at a random stop, and started walking.  We stopped at every dealership we passed.   Walking from dealership to dealership looking in vain for cars in our price range and/or English speaking salespersons.  That adventure did afford us the opportunity to sample several new beverages from the abundant vending machines along the way (which saved us both from dehydration),

Lydia demonstrating the her first beverage pick of the day "Apple Tea"

 but lead us to the conclusion that our best option would be one of the cars from bookoo.com.  We sent  out numerous messages to potential sellers but unfortunately most of the answers were "sorry, just sold it."  Then we saw... The Cube! It was a listing that had been up a few days and from the sound of her reply it seemed that the seller hadn't received much interest.  So, after arranging a time to meet, Daniel taking it on a short but harrowing test-drive on the left side of the road from a right-side steering vehicle we decided it was a good option.  Later that day, after our other option was sold before we could even see it, we decided to make a low-ball offer and to our happiness and amazement it was accepted!  A few days later we took possession of our white 2001 Nissan Cube.  :-)

Now our answer will be; "Yes, and we'll only have to use it until our bikes arrive!"

Collaborative Post:  History

Photo of marines in Okinawa during WWII

On Wednesday, we were required to attend a military “newcomers briefing” to the island.   Overall it provided us with helpful information for getting settled.  We especially appreciated the message from the General that encouraged empathy and understanding by explaining some of Okinawa’s history and the history behind the military’s presence here.

 Okinawa was the main island in the Ryukyu Kingdom from around 1400 to 1800 during which the closest trading partner and largest influence on the culture was China.  During the early 1800s Japan started to exert more influence over the Ryukyu Kingdom and made it part of Japan.  During WWII the people of Okinawa felt that they were not given adequate support from Japan and were treated like a “speed bump” for the invasion of Japan by America.  During the battle of Okinawa nearly 1/3 (200,000) of the population was killed.  After World War II the US government was in charge of Okinawa.   Twenty-seven years later in 1972, rule of the Island was returned to Japan however, the US military continues to be a strong presence on the island.  Seventy-five percent of US military occupation in all of Japan is found on the island of Okinawa.  To put this in perspective, if the United States were Okinawa, Japanese military would occupy the state of Texas, North Dakota, South Carolina, and two other states.  On top of that, in 1997 and 2012 one of the Japanese military members would have gone into Oklahoma and raped a young American girl (referring to 2 cases in ’97 & ’12 where an American marine raped an Okinawan woman).  As a result, it is typical to see Okinawans holding protests against US military presence on the island one to two times per month. 

Protest against military aircraft after crash in Okinawa, 2012

All of this history was explained to express the need for positive American ambassadors in every exchange on and off-base and to help military members and their families better understand the Okinawan culture and the dislike of American occupation.