as part of my 'while i still live here' effort (to do things i've never done in the area), i had dinner at aoi, a japanese restaurant that i have not been to before. the food was authentic minus 1 point. it was the japanese who moved to america trying to cater to americans sort of thing. one of the first things i noticed about the place was that there was a hanging decoration that was from okinawa. it looks like the sort of thing sold at tourist shops. then i noticed at the table i was dining at was a little booklet from asahi beer which just happened to be turned to the page that has the kanji for "ken" (health), my brother's japanese name. later on, i noticed one of the decorations was the kanji for "ma" (truth) in my name. this can only mean one thing: all signs point toward okinawa. i must attend the uchinanchu taikai in 2005!

before i left, i asked the waitress about the decoration with okinawa on it. quickly i learned she couldn't read japanese because she didn't see okinawa anywhere. at that moment, i guess it was her mother/owner came out and saw what i was pointing to. i said this says okinawa, is your family from okinawa? she said her sister went on honeymoon in okinawa. then i said in japanese that my mother is from okinawa. she nodded along and experienced a fcc 6 second delay--once i stopped speaking, she realized what language i had used and her face was that of utter shock. i just walked out right there, not giving her a chance to recover. that sort of thing always amuses me.