外人住宅

It sounds a bit pretentious but sometimes you just feel better (than everyone else) when you eat at a local restaurant versus a chain.  Exceptions include Yoshinoya, Sukiya and Coco Curry because they're freaking delicious, stumbling distance from my new apartment, and open 24 hours.  That combo is, without any hyperbole, more amazing than the birth of your first child.  

Well I just had lunch in an old western style house that was converted into a restaurant, Sans Souchi. Pretty cool idea, no? They are scattered all over Okinawa and called Gaijin Juutaku (Foreigner Housing).  In this restaurant, the living room was a lounge area, where you pay, and where the food is cooked. Most people are seated in one of the bedrooms, which is where we ate.  

This particular restaurant specialized in Udon and Oyako, but had some good looking dessert too.  I got the udon with plum (ume).

Iphone 5S camera is pretty good, no?

Navigating the residential roads to find this place was a challenge, but kind of cool and rewarding.  I'll definitely be going back.  

Nuts to Driving Here

I've been driving for about a month in Okinawa and let me tell you, screw this noise.  For one, it takes longer to get places than it really should.  Stateside, you can usually estimate about a mile per minute, because you'll be going about 70mph on the highway.  Here in Okinawa you have to estimate 2-3 minutes per kilometer due to traffic and lights and other nonsense.  There is an expressway but it is roughly $10 to drive to cities 40 miles apart.  I may need to just stop being cheap and drive it but the exits/entrances still get backed up during rush hour.

Luckily some of the roads here in Okinawa are a bit bigger than mainland Japan, but it just means more space for scooters/motorcycles to pass you while you sit in traffic.  I've heard that Okinawa just isn't conducive to have a subway, but I'm thinking it is largely the American influence of 'not giving a crap about the environment or convenience, or railroads'.  Would a monorail running throughout Okinawa be so hard?  They have one in downtown Naha so I know it can be done.  Sure the typhoons and constant wind would shut down the rail, but isn't being able to get trashed and not drive worth it?  The answer is DUH, of course it is worth it.

Seriously though, if mainland Japan took away trains it would take 3 days to get to work.  Why does Okinawa think it can go without a good rail system??  Whatever gets people off the road will improve things.

On a positive note, I love how old drivers and young drivers have a sticker they put on their car to let others know to just stay away (yellow and orange tear drop for old peeps, yellow and green chevron for the young kids).  That is a great idea!  Anyone with only 1 year of experience or 1 year left on this earth is just a vehicular manslaughter case waiting to happen, so keep your distance when you see these folks.  They should make those stickers bigger and glow in the dark too, and mandatory across the globe.  

Much like the prison face tattoo, the tear drop means death.

Waste

Holy crap America is wasteful. It is just another one of those things you can't quite comprehend until you take a step back (or in my case take 8200 miles worth of steps away) and see from an outsiders perspective.

I walk into a bathroom, even in an office building or restaurant, and usually see the lights off. That's what you're supposed to do when you leave a room, turn off the lights. I actually feel kind of bad when I see the lights on now. My office has a "1 hour no power" program on top of that" where for 1 hour every day, usually lunch time, all the lights are turned off. It's a great excuse to go out and eat, chill outside, or work by just sunlight.

I've stayed in apartments and houses that require you to turn on/off the water heater before and after using the shower. Japanese tubs have a sweet control panel that lets you turn on/off the water heater and control your bath water temperature. It actually maintains the temperature too instead of going from scalding hot to arctic ocean like american style tubs.

Man are there 50-125cc bikes and scooters everywhere. 76% of the time you american folks drive alone to work - so you rarely need a car and nobody needs a truck. Quit being homophobic, sell your ridiculous truck and custom truck nuts and get a manly ass scooter...or don't and just stay out of the way while I lane split yo ass on my bike while you sit in traffic. I only spent 3 days driving (read "idling car while being pissed off'") downtown before pulling the trigger on buying a bike. Traffic is bad here due to the lack of any real public transportation. A bike will save you hours of time per week.

250ccs of raw power baby! 250s don't have to do the vehicle inspections, 車検, either

Speaking of vehicles, Japan gives specific license plates and charges more tax for larger cars. I initially wanted to get a Kei Car (the smallest class with 660cc engine or less - think Smart car) but they have no room for Scuba gear or really anything except 2-4 people. So I ended up getting a Honda fit which is a mid-size here and gets 57mpg suckas. What classifies as a large car? A Prius. A Civic. Or anything else you might buy in the states and think you're saving the world...

Curry

Dude, I love me some curry.  Japanese curry on these cold 60 degree winter nights just hits the spot.  What better place to get it than Curry House Coco Ichibanya...

Well the thing about that is I've grown cheaper in my years and discovered that Coco Curry is expensive when compared to other quick Japanese restaurants like Yoshinoya/Sukiya.  Some good spicy curry at Coco Ichibanya will run you about 800 yen (add another couple hundred yen if you want some nan bread with that).  Well worth it, but I'll let you in on some insider secrets.

Roam the grocery stores, like San-A, at off hours like 3 or 8 pm and you can find all kinds of cheap crap.  The deli section usually has a hodgepodge of Japanese food like curry, sushi, onigiri, donburi, etc.  All that fresh food won't last more than a few hours, so after the lunch/dinner rush stuff get's marked down 10-50%.  Any money saved on food is more money put towards fake beer, and I like that kind of math.

Is Coco Curry better?  Yeah, probably.  Is 800 yen for curry, a tall beer, and some KFC a better deal? You better believe it!