I Bought a Car

Also: 9th Annual Uchinaanchu Student Summit, OIST, one of the largest aquariums in the world, and saying goodbye to a family friend

Yes, you read that right. I purchased a vehicle – a Blue 2013 Suzuki Spacia to be exact. It’s such a cute car, and I’m happy to have more freedom to explore Okinawa! I’m realizing that this is a big milestone in adulthood – buying a car in my own name with my own money is something that I thought I wouldn’t do for many years. So far, driving on the other side of the road has not been as difficult as I thought it would be, although it does take a bit more focus when turning.

Me and my car. What should I name it? I’m thinking Mabel…comment down below with suggestions

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On Saturday, I went to the 9th annual World Uchinaanchu Student Summit. Uchinaanchu means “Okinawan person” in the Okinawan language. The yearly summit at Meio University brings together young adults with Okinawan hertiage from around the world. I met people from Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Hawaii, Maryland, California, and Florida. The aim of the summit was to connect young Uchinaanchu in the diaspora with Okinawans living in Okinawa, as well as promote the preservation of Okinawan culture. As I mentioned in my history email last week, the island of Okinawa was the independent Ryukyu Kingdom until 1879. For hundreds of years prior, Okinawa had its own language, culture, customs, and practices, and as a result, Okinawan culture and identity is distinct from the rest of Japan.

For our activity, we were given post-it notes to write down different aspects of Okinawan culture. We then grouped them into categories: Music & Dance, Traditional Crafts, Food & Drink, Festivals, American Influence, General Lifestyle & Culture, Spiritual Traditions, and Nature. Some of the items we put up were goya champuru (an Okinawan dish), sanshin (the traditional Okinawan string instrument), being laid back, importance of family and community, Orion beer, needing a car, shisa (Okinawan lion-dog guards that protect homes), and tōtōme shrines (ancestral shrines in Okinawan homes).

We then had to brainstorm ways to help preserve aspects of Okinawan culture in the future. We suggested having cultural centers to teach traditional arts, learning Uchinaaguchi (the Okinawan language), nature conservation, having more forums and events to practice these traditions, and rebuilding Shuri Castle, the Ryukyuan palace which burned down in 2019. It is currently scheduled to be rebuilt by the end of 2025 – my cousin Makiko, who is an artist, is doing the pearl inlay for the throne and sketching the dragons for the pillars!

On the left is the culture activity where we put aspects of Okinawan culture on the board; on the right is a group photo with other Americans that I met at the event!

The Okinawan communities in South America are particularly connected to their Ryukyuan heritage. Okinawa suffered many years of economic hardship and cultural suppression following annexation, and during this time, many Okinawans moved to Brazil to become sugar cane farmers. For the immigrant communities that left Okinawa in the 1800s, their Ryukyuan identity was frozen in time and passed down to their descendants; meanwhile, the culture in Okinawa itself continued to change and evolve, becoming more connected to Japan and adding American influences. As a result, the Okinawan language, Uchinaaguchi, has survived in pockets of South America more than in Okinawa itself.

My great-grandmother was born in 1888 and died in 1990 (yes, she lived to be 102!) It is almost unfathomable to conceive of how much change she saw in her lifetime. Her parents and grandparents were born and raised in the Ryukyu Kingdom; she never spoke Japanese; and she had traditional hajichi tattoos, which were banned by the Japanese government in 1899. She had seven children and survived the Battle of Okinawa. She lived in Okinawa under American governance for nearly three decades, and then lived another two decades in Okinawa after it became a Japanese prefecture again.

During the century of her lifetime, Okinawa changed immensely – culturally, politically, nationally, socially, technologically, architecturally, and linguistically. I can’t imagine how strange it must have felt to live your whole life in the same small village, and yet see the world around it completely change.

My great-grandma, who was born Niye Oshiro in 1888. You can see the first few markings of traditional hajichi tattoos on her hands.

Two of the girls at the summit, Meghan and Mika, both recently got hajichi tattoos. They are from the U.S., and both of their grandmas are Okinawan. There has been a recent movement to revitalize hajichi, although most of the people who are getting it are descendants of Ryukyuan people who live in the United States or South America. Tattoos are still heavily stigmatized in Japan – you can’t go into an onsen if you have them – and I have yet to see a young Okinawan woman of this generation who has hajichi. However, there is clearly still a lot of connection to Ryukyu heritage both in Okinawa and abroad in diasporic communities.

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On the way up to the student summit, we stopped at the Okinawa Institute for Science and Technology (OIST), a beautiful, science PhD-only university in Okinawa. It is relatively new – it opened in 2011 – and it feels like a different world. All of the classes are in English, and most of the students are from Europe or other places in Asia (mainland Japan, Singapore, India, etc.). It was established by the Japanese government to bring more technological industry and economic development to Okinawa, as well as establish a world-class research university in Japan.

To enter the university, you have to drive up a steep, winding driveway; the university isn’t visible from the road. The sprawling campus is perched on a bluff above the ocean, and the water is turquoise blue. The campus itself is a blend of modern architecture and traditional Ryukyu style architecture, with red-tiled clay roofs on the dorms and gusuku-inspired masonry in the academic buildings.

When we first entered the campus, we went through an underground tunnel that had a modern art display. We then took a glass elevator that lifted us up through a massive concrete structure that resembled a nuclear cooling tower; the elevator then rose above ground to reveal a vast landscape of lush vegetation, powdery clouds, electric sky, and brilliant clear ocean water. We then strolled through the academic buildings where the labs are – the modernist architecture with suspension bridges connecting the buildings over ravines feels almost out of a movie.

The OIST campus

The university is really its own little bubble. Almost no one studying or teaching at the school is Okinawan, and the campus itself is isolated on a hill. As we were walking around, I remarked how Okinawa seems to have so many different worlds – the locals, the military, the tourists, and OIST are completely separate ecosystems – and yet, all of these communities bump up against one another. Melissa, the teacher at my school, laughed and said, “champuru” – an Okinawan word meaning “to mix together.” In many ways, Okinawa has always been a mix, being at the center of two regional powers (China and Japan), formerly a trading nation connected to Southeast Asia and Korea, and an island that has hosted thousands of American troops over the years. Aspects of these various cultures have each influenced Okinawan culture in their own way, and it’s very interesting to see how these vastly different peoples and communities both intersect and remain distinct on the island.

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On Monday, we had a school field trip to the Churaumi Aquarium in Motobu, which is about 2 hours north of Naha. When we arrived in the aquarium, I was blown away by the beauty of the setting. The park surrounding the aquarium overlooks the island of Ie, which is ringed by coral reefs and stripes of blue water.

View from the aquarium

At one point, the aquarium was the largest in the world; the large central tank even has a whale shark! I remember coming here in 2008 with my family, and it’s incredible to think that this same whale shark is the one I saw as a kid.

However, right when I arrived at the aquarium, my mom called me to tell me some terrible news. Mari Inagami Krishnamurthy, one of our oldest family friends, suddenly passed away.

The Krishnamurthys lived on our street in Westport, and their three daughters were the same ages as me and my sisters. Growing up, we would do everything together; we skiied together, we travelled together, and we made movies together.

As a kid, the Krishnamurthys were the only family I knew who also had Japanese heritage; their mom’s family was from Kyoto. Mari was on the recipient list for this newsletter, and just two weeks ago, she left a comment on my Tokyo post. I was so touched that she took the time to leave such a thoughtful note:

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Substack lists her as one of my “most frequent and engaged readers,” and I was so happy to see how much she enjoyed reading about my travels. I was really looking forward to seeing her and talking to her about my time in Japan, and it is just so sad to lose someone that suddenly and so young. She was such a thoughtful, intelligent, kind, and compassionate person, and I feel so lucky to have had her be a big part of my childhood.

On Wednesday, I went to the Naminoue Shrine in Naha to honor her memory. I left two ema plaques with prayers for her and for her family, as well as said a prayer at the altar.

Visiting the Naminoue Shrine in memory of Mari

My heart breaks for her daughters and her family. I hope that you can find time this week to spend with your loved ones and tell the people in your life how much they mean to you.

Love,

Alexandra ❤️