6. Early Exploration
In 1979 we three kids were largely uncorrupted by american society. Sure, we had gotten into our share of trouble, but, we were still pure and clean for the most part. In our new circle of friends, mostly from Makiminato Housing Area, we learned about the skating rink. The skating rink quickly became “the” in place where all us kids could hang on Friday and Saturday nights. There were a bunch of us that all made the pilgrimage. Some of the names: Clarice, Brenda, Ron, Danny, Steve, Me, Mike, Cheryl, Michelle, all having a good time skating around in circles on Friday and Saturday nights to songs like “I was made for loving you” and “Don’t stop ’til you get enough”. The “real” beauty of the island was really starting to creep its way into my life. I met this really nice young lady – Rieko Mirahira. She was an Okinawan high school student and she lived very close to the skating rink. There was a significant language gap, but, I tried really hard to learn to communicate. After skating was over I would walk her home. We started to become pretty good friends. Then, I was invited by her to come to her house. I guess that her parents were not particularly keen finding out that their daughter was hanging out with an American boy. They were nice while I was at the house, but, this would be the last time I would ever see her. I would go again to the house when she first quit coming to the rink, (Rieko imasu ka?) but her mother simply shooed me away with no explanation at all. Ou relationship only lasted about 6 weeks. I will wonder forever what actually happened.
Shortly after this little innocent relationship came to an end I met two more nice ladies. Kyomi Gushi and Chieko Yamaguchi. I was immediately smitten with Kyomi. They were attending Okinawa Christian School and studying English. Communicating was much easier with the two of them. We really built a good friendship quickly. Since Okinawa Christian School was only about a mile from our house we saw each other often. They built a good report with my parents and opened up the door for our further exploration of the island.
During the early days of our existance on Okinawa, we did exhaustively explore the areas close to the house. We lived up on a peninsular hill overlooking the ocean. There was a seawall on all three sides except for a little gap for a white sand beach about 100 feet wide. The flat earth between the seawall and the hill was growing wild. There was an old mission building that was filled floor to ceiling with those farming hats made from rice leaves, I believe. We rummaged through that little building quite often, but never found anything of any value. I di, however, take one of those hats and hang it on the wall in my little bedroom.
At the very end of the peninsula there was a cave. It only went about 20 to 25 feet into the hill, but there were rock chairs and steps. This cave was a really cool place to haul the boom box accoustics were awesome. Quite often Marines from the base next door would find their way into our little neighborhood and more importantly to the cave. There were many, many really good parties there. Loud music, beer, liquor, kids and marines mix really well. Right outside the cave and right about 50 paces was a small beach. Saturdays at the little beach were really cool. We learned to break open sea urchins and eat the meat raw from the Okinawans that were there tide pooling every Saturday. All along the seawall there were fishermen at high tide and tide poolers at low tide. One could easily walk out 100 or so yards toward the ocean from the seawall when the tide was low. The coral shelf went forever. In the tidal pools there were sea urchins and fish and seaweed, all of which we learned were good to eat. At the end of the coral shelf is where the white capped breakers were. The waves were really loud at the end of the coral shelf.
W e had a leg up on our American counterparts that lived on bases in that we became immersed in the culture of the island. We had to learn to communicate with the locals quickly in order to just say “hello” to the neighbors, something we take for granted in the united states was a struggle.
Our next door neighbor was some sort of political figure in Japan. I don’t remember his name as he was not often in town, but his wife’s name was Kazuko. Their house was unbelievable. It overlooked and had stairs that led to the beach. From the living room one could watch the larger planes take off from Kadena Air Base. In the house were all sorts of trinkets from around the world. Elephant Tusks, Tiger Skin Rug, Pictures of Yassir Arafat, and other less recognizable world leaders adorned the walls and the floors. Once, when he was in town, he took our family out for dinner. He took us to this really nice restaurant and insisted we ate the eel. He pulled his Lincoln Continental out of the garage and we went in style.
School days continued. As the school year progressed, the group of kids that got off the Maki bus and went to the smoking area increased. The smoking area continued to attact more and more kids. The smoking area doubled as the student parking lot, but, since you had to be 18 to get a license there weren’t very many kids driving to school. The kids in school were very different that any kids in any other school I had ever been around. They were actually very nice. Even though I was a military brat, we never really lived around bases and I had always gone to civilian schools. Civilian kids aren’t particularly nice to the “new kids”. These military kids were all new constantly and had gotten used to being the “new kids” so the outlook they had was much better than I had ever experienced. I was a very reclusive and withdrawn person as a result of the experiences I had earlier in life. I don’t think I met more than 10 kids that first year I was in high school. I certainly was not “Mr. Popular”. Most of the kids I did meet were on my bus and came up daily from Maki.
I did meet a few kids from other areas at the smoking area. There was Steve and Chris, Mary, Keith we started skipping school from time to time and have some really good stories from some of those days. I was headed straight down a path of getting to know Mr Weldon (The Principal) really well.
I lived on Okinawa for 5 1/2 years (Jan. 1968 to June 1973) and miss it soooo much! Before the reversion date, we didn’t have to convert our money to yen and we used to find all kinds of bargains at the local stores. When we first arrived on Okinawa in 1968, I was enrolled at Kubasaki 7-8 (next to K-9). I was the only one at my bus stop for the school, my sister and others were enrolled at Naha Middle School. We never did figure out how that happened. My first day of school the bus never came. The second day of school the bus arrived, no problem – so we thought. The third day, no bus again. My dad took me to school that day and went to the school bus depot to try to straighten out the mess. Unfortunately, the trip home was another matter. The bus driver didn’t take me home but made me get off at the last stop on Makinato Base. I didn’t know my way home from there so I walked back the way the bus driver came. It was a very long walk on a very lonely road but, fortunately, a Colonel stopped and gave me a ride home. My poor parents were so worried when I didn’t get home until after 5pm. After that incident, never had a problem with the school bus.
I was there when The Hilton was built and had their grand opening! My sister, her friend, and I went to the grand opening and saw the rooms. It was a big event at the time.
I had nothing but great memories of my time at Kubasaki High! I never did skip school because I enjoyed every day there. I remember when I had a class in the Social Studies/Science building and my next class was in the English/Foreign Language area and running to get from one to the other – still not able to make it before the tardy bell! The teachers we had were very understanding. Back then, the teachers had a talent show and I remember how packed the auditorium was when they performed their show in the evening!
I remember in 1972 when Okinawa reverted back to the Japanese and the driving age changed from 16 to 21 years old. A group of us contacted our congressman to try to get it changed, especially those who already had their driver’s license. They managed to get a compromise – those who already had their license before the reversion date could keep their license and drive anywhere on the island, but those who got their license after the reversion date could only drive “On-Base Only”. Unfortunately, I was one of those who got their license after the reversion date. It was fine if you lived on Kadena or Naha Base housing since they had the PX, Commissary, movie theater, gas station, etc. on the base. I lived in the housing area that Kubasaki High School is located (I don’t remember the name of the housing) so my sister and I could only drive to and from school. The PX, Commissary, movie theater, gas station, etc. was across the highway and they wouldn’t let us drive over to the PX since it would be going from on-base to off-base and back on-base. That was a bummer. I also remember having to wait to take Drivers Ed (a requirement before you can obtain a driver’s license) and not being able to take it when I turned 16 because of the class filling up so quickly. I had to wait until the fall of my Senior year before I could take the course and get my driver’s license which happened to be after the reversion date. I guess the Japanese government must have changed the driving age after I left Okinawa.
When we were leaving Okinawa one week after graduation, the Okinawans were in the process of changing all the speed limit signs to KM and turning the signs around for left side driving. The funny thing was after driving 30mph at most and returning to the States where the speed limit was 75mph! Needless to say, we held onto our seats when we took a taxi from the airport to a car dealership to pick up our new car!!
Comment by gabbers307 — January 19, 2008 @ 12:22 pm
Thank you for your thoughtful comments. The housing area where kubasaki is located is Kishaba, just thought you might like to know. I had one of those “on post only” licenses and lived off post. (Lotta good it did me, eh?) Check the other sites in the upper right hand corner of the blog area. And I added more pictures to this site over the weekend. Next chapter, next week. Again, thank you, it is a lot of fun to remember.
Comment by admin — January 20, 2008 @ 9:55 pm
I too obtained one of the coveted “On Base Only” driver’s licenses in 1980. What a major blessing that was. I drove all over Kadena on every paved road they had. I always obeyed the rules of the road, and never got stopped by the Police, on base or off. Americans living on Okinawa are required to obey both U.S. and Japanese laws. I knew a kid who’s older brother was mildly speeding off base, and got scared and didn’t stop when the Japanese Police tried to pull him over. He lived in Kishaba. He made it back to his house, with the JP’s right on his tail. He had an on base only license. He got thrown off the island, and had to live with an Aunt and Uncle back in the States. His Dad trusted him to go to the Camp Butler gas station to put gas in the car and check the air pressure in the tires. The kid did that, and then cruised to a friend’s house in Futenma housing for a few minutes. When he came back, he went out the Futenma housing gate, which is by Frank’s toy store and the house of 66 cents. His Dad instructed him to enter and exit Camp Butler through the gate by the gas station, which was the closest to the Kubasaki gate leading to Kishaba. His Dad was not cited for his son driving over the speed limit or for him driving off base with an on base only license. He was almost cited for another infraction, albeit a strange one. Their car, a ‘72 Ford Galaxie station wagon, (which pretty much freewheels at closed throttle faster than the 31 mph speed limit) had ‘33′ series license plates, which all American cars and any Japanese cars with engines larger than 2 liters have. The full size American station wagons are required to have a four inch high platform between the rear seat and the tailgate. These are made by measuring the rear floor area and cutting a piece of plywood to match the dimensions. Then the plywood is attached to a couple of 4″ by 4″ wood blocks to form a table that fits in the rear of the car, thus decreasing the cargo height by four inches. Without the platform installed, these station wagons would require commercial plates, ‘11′ series, which cost more for the yearly registration fees. The kid’s Dad had just washed and waxed the car, and cleaned and detailed the interior before sending his son for gas. He had removed this rear platform from the inside while cleaning the car, and had not yet placed it back inside. He showed the Okinawan Policeman the platform leaning on the side of their house, and then promptly put it back in the car so the Policeman saw that it fit properly inside. They let him off the hook, but not his son. They have interesting speed traps off base. The Police will sometimes hide a radar gun in a Farmer’s cart on the side of a road. They park further down the road, usually around a blind curve, and then motion for the offending driver to pull over. Sometimes they do roadside inspections, where they pick people out at random, both Okinawans and Americans, to make sure you have current registration and insurance papers, as well as a current driver’s license.
Comment by daveh5o — February 5, 2008 @ 4:03 pm