Okinawa Trip Day 2 - Peace Memorial, Okinawa World, and Glass Making

This day was pretty much like being caught up in scary monsoon like rainy weather. We drove around once again in the tour bus our coordinator booked but the streets in many of the areas are very narrow which makes it that much more concerning. There were several occasions when we nearly crashed into other tour busses while trying to avoid the lakes that were forming on the flooded roads. Even so, we set out to have a fun day of historical and cultural excitement.


10:15 – We arrived at the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum which commemorates the tragedies that occurred during the Battle of Okinawa in World War II. It was a very solemn and sad walk through the museum; just seeing the horrific acts done to the Okinawan civilians really brought us back down to earth. Having never personally witnessed the likes of any war and only having a mild interaction with the wars occurring in present times, I was once again humbled by what I saw there much like when I visited the Hiroshima Peace Museum three years ago. And yet, even though the content of the event was very sad, I felt a great sense of beauty just being there and having the opportunity to learn more about the Okinawan people’s struggles at that time. I especially loved the fact that when going through the museum and reading the facts and figures they did not seem to be inhibited by the fact that Okinawa technically belongs to Japan. There did not appear to be any particular bias or sugar coating used to explain what happened in Okinawa, which I greatly appreciated.  I later took a stroll through the gravestones erected to commit to memory the extensive loss of life after the Battle of Okinawa which was just as humbling as the museum itself.

11:45 – Still fighting the rain, we made our way to Okinawa World. Initially I believed this place to be some sort of theme park and was very much ready to be the first one in line for a rollercoaster. That being said, I was quickly made aware of the fact that this place was actually a cultural theme park, no rides included. Despite this slightly misguided thought, we were treated to an amazing traditional Eisa dance performance. It involves drummers and sanshin players who dance around doing flips and kicks with their instruments, as well as, dancers who gracefully move around the room. There was also a short acting bit in which two of the performers wore masks with the faces of an elderly man and woman trying to outsmart a giant shisa (Okinawan guard creature crossed between a lion and a dog – an important figure/decoration seen all around Okinawa). Shortly after we feasted at an amazing buffet style lunch and were given time to do a bit of shopping in the overwhelmingly assorted gift shops downstairs. There were so many omiyage [お土産｜おみやげ] or souvenirs that I could not even fathom trying to leave there without something to remember the place by. Luckily, there was a pretty nice deal going on for the food souvenirs that offered a discount for the varying sizes of each product. So of course I bought a ton of the cookies and other pastries that Okinawa is famous for in order to share with all of our e-pals and to take back home. I even saw a sanshin and was terribly tempted to buy it but I just could not shell out $200+ when I only gave myself that much as an overall allowance while in Okinawa. Either way, I left there happy and with many things to share with my family when I get home.

14:50 – I have to say this next activity was the most exciting and the most anxiety inducing part of the trip – glass blowing at the Ryukyu Glass company. I have never once in my life blown glass and believe me, as cool as it looks, it was also rather scary. Not only are you handling severely hot glass that could potentially leave you with terrifying burns should you mishandle it but you have to use both of your hands to do so. By virtue of my last name starting with an A I was the first to go and I was really nervous but very eager to do it. The first step was to arm ourselves with the proper gloves and forearm cuffs so as not to burn ourselves when near the furnaces and working the glass. They gave us what looked like the paper wrapper that goes on the bottom of waffle cones to put over the mouth piece of the blowing device because they put their mouths directly on them. The man helping me prompted me to blow into the mouth piece and at first nothing happened but then I exhaled harder and faster and the glass began to rise through the mold that it was being held in. Next, I came around into glass blower’s communal work station where I was instructed on how to form the mouth of the glass cup we were to make. This process, which included using the left hand to roll the pole holding the glass back and forth while the right hand held the clamp that would widen the mouth of the glass as you sat in a chair, was probably the scariest part. The furnace was about 3 feet from me and my heart leapt when the man brought the pole from the furnace over to the chair I sat in. I even had a close call while trying to take pictures of the other students and I was standing so close to the chair that when the man swung the pole around the however many degree hot glass on the end of it moved inches away from my ankle. After that cool little to do, I took a look at the rather expensive souvenirs in the gift shop. I understand that these items (jewelry, home goods, etc.) were all made by hand thus the value of them is possibly greater than something machine-made but I could not honestly afford anything worth buying if I really wanted it. I did leave there with a really cute necklace and the ticket to receive my own glass once the company sends it to us at the IES Abroad Center. Just before we left we saw some cute little figurines around the base of trees outside the building.