today i got up and showered late because i could. we're going to the opening ceremony of the festival and it doesn't start for awhile and we're not trying to cram anything in the morning. just take our time, nice and slow. island time. the neighbor lady brought us a gift of chilled white dragonfruit and boy was it a lot of dragonfruit! twiddle thumbs should've waited to buy some 'cos all this is free. wow, the dragonfruit is so sweet when it's chilled. it's not overwhelmingly sweet, just sweet enough. how would humans have ever known this before the invention of the refrigerator?! the neighbor lady gave my aunt keiko a ride to the convention center where the festival is being held as she has to sit with her kenjinkai. the neighbor lady also said we can use the computer at her house but after she left we went next door and the door was locked and no one answered. the neighbor lady has been sweet on the family for years apparently. my mother said that the neighbor lady didn't have any younger sisters and treated my mother and her siblings ike they were her own sibling.

my mom went to my uncle's house to unload her pics from her camera as her memory card is full. my uncle has a card reader on his computer that he doesn't know what it's for. my mom swears it will work and i knew it wouldn't work but you can't tell her that. we waited for her to come back. surprise surprise, it didn't work. her camera is full and now she has to go through and delete some photos before she can take any more. we took the bus to ginowan and walked to the convention center. the opening ceremony was indoors and the place was packed! no locals allowed, only people coming back home to okinawa plus special guests can enter the opening ceremony.

uchinanchu taikai opening ceremony

the opening ceremony started off with traditional dance and music. the musicians were close to where we were sitting and i saw a couple instruments that surprised me. i don't think they are traditionally used in okinawan music as they look more chinese but okinawa was heavily influenced by china so perhaps they were used back in the day but not so much anymore. then came the march of the flags. when the flag of your country was presented, you were supposed to stand. some countries had very few people in attendance so you had to look hard to find them, (where's watanabe?--a joke, a play on "where's waldo?" as no okinawans are named watanabe!). i think there was only 1 person from new zealand. people like that, where there is only 1 or 2 from a country, deserve special applause for attending the festival. for those that are living in poorer counties, i wondered how they got together enough money to return for the festival. (yes, i'm talking about cuba.)

uchinanchu taikai opening ceremony

there are 4 official languages of the festival. there were 2 hosts, an american male who took care of the japanese and english portions and an argentinian women who took care of the spanish and portuguese portions. (i just have to say that seeing an asian woman in a japanese kimono speak spanish was hot!) whenever a guest would go up to the podium to speak, the other 3 languages would display on a screen behind them. then there was another song and dance, followed by a few words said by kurara chibana, miss japan who made it to #2 for miss universe this year, who happens to be from okinawa. my mom got very excited when she came to the stage because she thinks she might be a relative (same last name) and is trying to figure out a connection.

we started to leave the opening ceremony before it finished because it was just going on for too long. we were heading towards the exit when the last speaker was on. he finished his speech before we made it to the doors so actually we were there for the whole thing. we went out front to exchange our coupon for the gift being given out to participants. the coupon was part of the name badge/bus pass package we received and we've been curious as to what gift they are giving out ever since. i thought it would be something small like a keychain that i wouldn't even like. oh no, they went all out. everyone received a textile bag with an okinawan print on it made just for the taikai and inside was a cd with several versions of the theme song of this year's festival, an assortment of awamori bottles (the local alcoholic brew), a bookmark, plus some papers. twiddle thumbs's bag had a festival pin with the bookmark but i could not find my pin. :( there was a coupon for a discount to either shuri castle or churaumi aquarium. great, now they give it to us! next time we go to okinawa for the festival, we won't visit the major tourist attractions until after the opening ceremony!

goods for sale at world bazaar

we then headed to the area behind the convention center to browse what was going on at the world bazaar. i have been really curious about this one. there are supposed to be food and goods vendors from all over the world (or at least where okinawans live and are participating) as well as musical performances on the stage. i really didn't pay attention as to what was going on on the stage and most of the food for sale had meat in it. i'd rather buy a souvenir from a foreign country when i visit it. it really doesn't mean much to buy a keychain of the nazca lines in okinawa. it was time to eat so we went around and bought several things: fried noodles, corn, andagi (okinawan donuts) and a fruit turnover thing. i bought some shikwasa and sanpincha (a local tea) drinks for us to have. they came in decorative bottles with okinawan dialect written on it. drink and learn okinawan! as we were walking around, there was a vendor selling tofu. i noticed that they are based in chinen village so i told the girl working there that i used to live in an apartment above a supermarket called chinen so i will try some of your tofu. she was kinda laughing that fate brought me to try the tofu. it was cheap and good.

we left my mom at the festival because she ran into a friend and they could sit there and talk forever. we walked to the bus stop which was far away. i was walking towards the bus stop we had exited at, just across the street to return home. the bus stops are usually right across from each other like that. it turns out this bus stop was not setup that way. we completely missed it and ended up walking to the next bus stop. along the way we passed an internet cafe and decided to check email there. internet cafes are not cheap and convenient like they were in new zealand (how i miss the cheap internet of the cafes in auckland). but if you want a luxury and privacy, then the internet cafes of japan are for you. if you are familiar with karaoke boxes, this is like internet boxes! you get your own little enclosed area with a nice big comfy chair. in addition to the internet, there are also games on the computer and you can borrow movies and read comic books. there are also all you can drink beverages. plus, you are allowed to smoke. smoke really bothers me so i couldn't stay there long and i couldn't afford to stay there too long either. you have to pre-pay so we picked the shortest amount of time: 1 hour. we had to pay to become members of the cafe too. yeah, this is a membership card i am going to use often!

street lamp in kadena with dragon decor

we took the bus back home but on the way stopped in chatan so that i could shop at book box while the sisters went to mcdonald's so twiddle thumbs's sister could get a quick bite. the cd/dvd selection at book box totally sucked!!! not a single thing i was interested in. they didn't even carry the relatively new releases i was hoping to purchase. i went down to look at the magazines and books for 2 seconds because i was just so disappointed with the cds/dvds that i was hoping at least there would be a book i wanted. no... after we got home, twiddle thumbs and i did laundry again. as we were sitting on the sidewalk waiting for the clothes to finish, i noticed the street lamp had a dragon design so i snapped a photo of it.

today's expenses in yen:
¥500 fried noodles
¥400 corn
¥440 donuts and fruit turnover
¥100 drink
¥100 tofu
¥560 internet cafe
¥550 laundry