I Get Out at Okinawa: Architecture in Naha
Let's take a look at the architecture in Naha, Okinawa, during my trip to Japan in October 2024
These are all my pictures from Naha, the capital city of Okinawa, Japan! As you can see, there are canals that run through the city and the architecture is frozen in time, which makes sense as Okinawa was nearly razed to the ground by the Americans during WW2 (Okinawa is still occupied by the US to this day).
Something that struck me is that it is common for the building to be colourful! Blue, or pink, not just plain grey concrete.
I saw these bottles lining this garden bed one day and was puzzled at the purpose of the (full) water bottles at the perimeter. I realized, many months later, that the purpose was to keep cats from using this garden bed as a litter box! I learned this after watching The Cats of Gokogu Shrine at DOXA this year. Though I didn't see many cats in Naha, there are many feral cats in Japan, which I'll do a separate entry on some day.
I was very excited to see the canals in Naha because I have a recurring dream where I'm in a city with canals running through it. Alas, upon seeing it live and spending much time walking through Naha, I determined this was not the city in my dreams. I'm still unsure of which city it is, though I was hoping it would be Naha because of my family roots in Okinawa.
I noticed throughout Okinawa that it is very common to have a series of potted plants outside of houses rather than garden beds or grassy areas with individual trees like we have in Vancouver.
Okinawa generally is quite tropical, like Hawaii. It is humid, hot, and you can expect a rainy period at least once a day. In many instances, you can see the changing skies in these pictures and just know they were often taken in the same day/over the course of a few hours as I walked about!
About this series
In October 2024, I went to Japan for the first time ever with my cousin/best friend, Kyle. We went to Okinawa only/did not visit mainland Japan. This little series is about my experiences there. All photos were taken by myself or my cousin.
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