Last time I talked about the Ainu, the original inhabitants of the Japanese islands going back to the stone age. There’s one “other” ethnic group in Japan, the residents of the Ryukyu Islands, also known as Okinawa, where a big chunk of the U.S. military in Japan is stationed. A separate island kingdom until 1609 when it was annexed by the Satsuma Clan (present-day Kagoshima), Okinawa has a fascinating culture that’s completely different from that of the mainland, with a unique language, social identity and architecture. (The Ghibli film Spirited Away makes use of architectural motifs from Okinawa to create a mysterious supernatural world inhabited by spirits.) Like all regions of Japan, Okinawa is famous for various foods, including goya, a bitter gourd which is fried with other vegetables, and awamori, a very strong rice wine. Residents of Okinawa seem to have gotten very good at “slow living” and are very much outside the pressures of normal Japanese urban life, which is no doubt part of the reason they have the longest lifespans in the world. I’ve only known a small number of Okinawans, but the few I’ve met have been extremely open to other cultures, speaking languages like Spanish and French that almost no one in the homogenized mainland ever masters. In much the same way that black popular culture influences overall American culture, Okinawa’s “otherness” provides much-needed flavor to the rest of Japan, and many of the country’s singers hail from there, like superstar Amuro Namie and Gackt. There’s a whole class of eerily beautiful Okinawa-influenced Japanese songs (iTunes link) like the recent hit song Nada Sousou, one of the most popular songs on iTunes Japan, which you can purchase using our popular iTunes Japan Prepaid Cards.
