Okinawa’s Imperfect Weather

Okinawa’s Imperfect Weather

Island fever is settling in on John and me. I want the grey skies, rain and winds to go away. We arrived on Okinawa in early February and the weather was so consistently glorious that I hoped for the occasional cloudy or drizzly day to decompress. We seem to have now entered a new weather pattern for March and rain is predicted to continue for the next week.

My last journal entry was Sunday, a gloriously sunny day spent inside at a Karate and Kobudo exhibition. Late Sunday night as I drift in and out of sleep, I hear rain pelting the balcony outside our bedroom door. It is rhythmical and comforting and I sleep especially well.

On Monday morning the storm subsides but the perpetual drizzle continues and I walk alone down to the fish market for fresh sashimi. My umbrella catches a gust of wind and turns itself inside out. I return with sashimi and the skeleton of a broken umbrella. Art leaves for the day to meet with Byron who is well know in Okinawa as a Gaijin practitioner of the Sanshin. The son of an American Marine, Byron lived on Okinawa during high school and continued his fascination with Okinawa receiving his master’s degree in Okinawan culture. Byron has a Ryukyu Style video project that he hopes to promote. Art and Byron want their liaison to be mutually beneficial and hope that serendipity happens. John and I spend the day warm and cozy in our tiny apartment and I carve waxes while John does homework.

It is now Tuesday and another grey and wet day unfolds. John is completely bored and homesick. John is an athletic, gregarious 14 year old and has been relatively content to be with just his parents up until this point; but after one month in Okinawa he is missing his friends intently.

Art’s has his morning kanji lesson with Narumi and leaves in the afternoon with Byron to go to the Visitors Bureau to promote Okinawa.com. I work on a new dragon ear cuff wax design, but the day hangs heavily on John and to his credit he pulls a chair up beside me and works on his own wax project. He designs a Salamander Ring asking me endless questions to the point of my distraction; but he is making the ring for me and he wants to every detail to be perfect. John has done wax projects before but today he is more focused than ever before.

Art has been disciplined in going to Karate class every Tuesday and Thursday night since we arrived on Okinawa but John has been resisting. Last Thursday we insisted that John go with Art and tonight we tell John again that he has no choice in the matter. They bicycle off to the Makishi Dojo together, leaving me alone to catch up on this blog.