Now this is what Okinawa’s all about, glorious sunshine! It was a fantastic morning so I got all my work done as quickly as possible ( it’s funny being on the phone to Hokkaido when I’m down here!), then hopped on the bus to today’s hotel. And very nice it is too, with a great sea view (see left). I popped down to the beach for lunch, nice white sands and translucent waters. Then a bit of work, then I spent the rest of the afternoon lounging by the pool. This is the life!

Then at 6:30 one of the guys from our Okinawa distributors came to pick me up for dinner, after all in Japan the work isn’t done in the day, it’s all done over beers on a night. But it was so cool.
First we popped off to see the Kadena Air Force base, that is just massive! Everyone was taking photos, but I figured it’s probably not such a good idea to be going through US customs next week with pictures of air force bases in my phone!

So then we went to a cafe where they have a display of Okinawan Shaminsen ( the 3 stringed guitar type instrument ) ,called SanShin. And as luck would have it ( although I think it might have been planned as the guy knew the owner!), they were having a gig. That was really cool, Sanshin, okoto and flute ( playing the shakuhachi part), brilliant stuff. They had full on genki dance style stuff, and some cool chilled out music, nice. That’s something I really miss in Japan: music! Your average Japanese person has hardly any musical sense, even the GE songs present challenges for some people! Of course there’s a reason for it, it’s the the record companies who realise that if songs are tricky to sing, they won’t make any money on karaoke! So over the decades the music awareness in Japan has really declined. But here in Okinawa there’s still a scene that’s alive and kicking, and it’s great music!

Then after, we went for dinner and there was another live band! So in the space of 2 days I’ve seen more live music than I have all year. This time it was a girl group called Tink Tink, who have a brilliant set of Okinawa songs. They wear beautiful Okinawa outfits and sing songs that are modern, but still traditional. They’ve got a great image and great music, so I’m sure they’re going to go far. It was good chatting to the girls afterwards, having the GE songs on TV really helps people open up and start chatting.

So a really, really great night. It’s so cool to have something that’s cultural but still real, and different. Plus the weather and beaches, Okinawa has turned out to be a really great place! I’m sure I’ll be back.