８月３日（月）

This afternoon I met Emma at Naha Main Place near Omoromachi Station. Later, she had a meeting with a lawyer who had been involved with cases related to forced land leasing of Okinawan land for use by the US military, and Okinawan land-owners requesting damages. We wandered the mall together, ate lunch, and snacked on some gelato while brainstorming questions for the lawyer a little. Soon Emma's friend Manako came to pick us up.

We went to 沖縄県憲法普及協議会 (okinawa-ken kenpou fukyuu kyougikai, -no official English title listed so 'Okinawa Prefectural Conference on the Popularization of the Constitution' may be a fair translation-) and met with a few colleagues at the conference center, and also with the lawyer. The meeting was conducted entirely in Japanese and I had quite a bit of trouble understanding the language since it was law Japanese, and many laws themselves were cited. Thankfully I was able to pick out bits and pieces and the general flow of the conversation, but Emma had to rehash it to me later in English.

One situation we focused on was that in 1945 on into the 50s, American seizure of land in Okinawa was against the Hague Convention of 1907. The US was at fault for that, but since Japan was under military occupation the Japanese government was not responsible for Okinawa's land at the time. Upon reversion to Japan in 1972, however, Okinawa's land became Japanese, and the Japanese government's responsibility. The allowance of land for use by already established bases then is still a matter of debate.

Post-meeting Emma and I and some of the colleagues from the conference center went to dinner together. On the way I saw a cat cafe. These are a great way for cat lovers who can't keep cats themselves to still get time to socialize with them. I always want to go!

めんそーれ (mensoore) is Okinawan dialect, 

meaning "welcome"

にゃん (nyan) is like "meow" in Japanese

So nyansoore... just ridiculous.

At dinner I got to speak with a law professor who had taught the lawyer we spoke with at the conference center. He was very interesting. When he asked about what I had done at school in Osaka I mentioned practicing judo. I asked about him and he replied that he taught kenpo. I thought he was connecting my experience to his and talking about martial arts with me. It took me a few confused exchanges to catch that he taught 憲法 (kenpou, constitutional law) not 拳法 (kenpou, kenpo -martial arts-). It was a good laugh and since his English was really great we got to speak bilingually about his time growing up in Okinawa and about changes that came with reversion to Japan like traffic laws and currency.

After dinner I treated myself to another beer. It was actually pretty good. I was impressed because I normally don't like Asahi so well.

not bad, Asahi

another style of taste indicator

(All names used in this blog are pseudonyms.)