After 9 months of reading my blog you should all be familiar with the Okinawan Shisa, guardian of hearth and home. There is a shisa on the steps of the Mihama American Village (uh, yeah there's a place here called the "American Village". It has a mall, a ferris-wheel, a cineplex, 2 Starbucks right across from each other, a horrendous array of shops selling wares that Okinawans consider to be American, and various restaurants promising -- yet never quite delivering -- "the comforts of home".) There is some graffiti on one of the shisa's paws. What a poignant mix of Okinawan and American culture this graffiti presents.This is what it says:
I can't decide whether to think this Engrish is adorable and cute or just odd. It's sure funny, whatever else it might be. Was the perpetrator trying to send a message to the Americans that swarm Mihama by writing this in English... make a cultural connect? Did someone slave long hours over this translation, writing draft after draft until it was finally perfect? OR, is this just one good example of how Okinawans relate to the American presence and culture on their island?I'm inclined to go with the second option. People here have a bizarre relationship with English that comes across in slang, signs, menus, and especially the wonderful, wonderful world of T-shirts. Instead of trying to explain, let me just show you a few photos of T-shirts that I snapped walking through the mall at the American Village yesterday. The last one is actually very poetic, as you will see. Basically everyone walking the streets here is wearing a shirt of equal or even more fantastic Engrish.
what would life be without tshirts?
2 comments:
while i admit that these are fascinating, there is a dark undercurrent to the trend. this happens in spain too where people where shirts with words written on them that they don't understand. but what i saw visiting you in okinawa and what i've seen a lot in europe is 8 year old girls wearing sparkling shirts that say "beautiful cherry" or "sexy hot young" or equally disturbing things that you know their parents wouldn't let them wear if they knew what they meant.
Just got back from Oki 2 days ago.
Back in my day, we didn't have no new-fangled Chatan. We had Goya Jujiro street mall and we were happy.
Actually, I'd say Chatan is *mostly* geared towards mainlanders staying at the new hotels in the area.
Chatan definitely has that "commercial shopping district" feel that's different from the Okinawa I remembered.
Mihama (and even Plaza House) remind me more of Hawaii than actually gearing specifically to Americans; mostly coz the places geared to Americans actually took dollars back in the day.
AmmoBox & places like that are hold overs from long ago; while Starbucks is about as popular among Japanese in mainland as it is in the US.
Tourism in general is a lot bigger business in Okinawa now than it was before- really selling the image of Eisa, Goya (chanpuru), shi-sa, awamori, taco rice, pineapples, and pork - hence the little babies dressed up as all of the above.
It's kinda nice to see the Okinawans makin money off of the mainlanders for once, but 10 years ago a lot of the places that are all built up were mostly wild. There was a lot more jungle before.
The whole place has changed a lot.
Especially the attitudes of the people- w/respect to the whole base thing.
I have a hard time blaming either side though, coz I can see where both are coming from, & neither side really does itself any favors.
The fact that the mainlanders sit in the middle of the 2, muddying the waters and preventing direct communication/compensation doesn't help either.
About the shirts- I notice young girls wearing disturbing messages here in the States as well. I have to wonder about the companies that consider such things ethical.
errr sorry for takin up so much of your comment space.
hope you had fun in Yaeyama. Yaeyama classical music is awesome, one of the best examples of Ryukyuan culture.
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