2007 HUOA Leadership Study
Tour
By Troy Sakihara, Hui
Okinawa
This fall, I had
the honor to participate in the 2007 HUOA Leadership Study Tour to Okinawa. Fourteen other tour members and I along
with three tour leaders spent eleven days and nights completely immersed in
Okinawan culture and lifestyle, meeting so many wonderful people, learning their
history and most of all, learning what it means to be “uchinanchu”.
Over the course of
the tour, I have learned so much about Okinawa and its people and gained a much
greater sense of appreciation for my Okinawan heritage. We visited many cultural
and historical sites such as Shuri Castle, Gyokusendo Cultural Park, Churaumi
Aquarium, Nakijin Castle Ruins, Katsuren Castle Ruins, Murasaki Mura, where we
learned to cook Okinawan home-style cuisine, Okinawa Peace Memorial Park,
Himeyuri no To and the Haebaru underground hospital ruins among other places. I
had the chance to stay with my relatives, the Azamas, for a weekend and spent
time getting to know them and experienced Okinawan lifestyle first hand. A few
days later I had the opportunity to meet the Vice Mayor of my ancestral
hometown, Vice Mayor Chomei Genka, and was also given a tour of my ancestral
hometown of Chatan by Mr. Yoshimi Nakasone and Eriko Kotani. Our leadership tour
group had the honor of meeting Governor Hirokazu Nakaima, Vice Governor Katsuko
Asato, Vice Governor Zenki Nakazato, Naha Mayor Takeshi Onaga and many other
officials. We were also lucky enough to meet the multi-talented Daiichi Hirata
and his students, who treated us to a special eisa drumming workshop. On another
night, Mr. Kokuba of Kokuba-Gumi Co., Ltd, treated us to dinner at his hotel in
Naha, after which he treated us to a few drinks at a bar with live Okinawan
music, where I had a chance to play the sanshin and taiko. The sensei at the bar
was also gracious enough to give me a few sanshin lessons. I’ve had so many other wonderful
experiences on the tour that I’d have to write a book to talk about them all.
There were so many highlights, wonderful memories and experiences that I
brought back from the tour, but the one thing that was most memorable of the
tour was the people. Everyone I met
and interacted with were so warm and generous. My relatives, although I’ve only met
them once, treated me as if they knew me for years. People that I just met treated me like
an old friend and total strangers were always gracious and greeted me with a
smile. It was a perfect example of
a famous expression in Okinawa, “Ichariba Chode” which means “Once we meet, we
are brothers”. The way the people
of Okinawa take pride in their culture and lifestyle and the way they perpetuate
it through their overall outlook on life, their music, arts, crafts and food is
something to really admire. This
was really evident during the eisa workshop with Daiichi Hirata and his young
students, who performed with so much enthusiasm, that it gave me chills. It was very heartwarming to see the
Uchinanchu Spirit thriving, especially in the younger generations, and sharing
this spirit is the one thing that I believe is foremost when it comes to
preserving and perpetuating the Okinawan culture within our own
communities.
I would like to send my heartfelt gratitude and appreciation to Hui
Okinawa for the honor of sponsoring me to participate in this tour, to HUOA
for the 1/3 sponsorship and for coordinating the tour, to Jane Serikaku, David
Arakawa and Laverne Higa Nance for being great tour leaders and for all their
support, to the Okinawan Prefectural Government, officials and staff for all
of their efforts to make our tour so interesting, educational and fun, to
Seiko and Chiyoko Azama and the rest of the family for hosting me and making
me feel so welcome, to Mr. Kokuba for the fabulous dinner and hospitality,
to Sensei Kameya Tomiko for the sanshin lessons, to Sumie and Naka’s Travel
for preparing all of our travel and hotel arrangements, and to all the members
of the leadership tour group with whom I truly enjoyed sharing this experience
with. Ippee Nifee Deebiru!!