i-O Blog

My Okinawa haikus

Colorful Eisa
dance below my balcony
Beating taiko drums

Art painted seawall
where lovers and couples play
waves wash worries away

Broken stone shisa
Protect me from all evil
It is not welcome

Okinawa day
Fan in an open window
A refreshing breeze

-Travis J. Morgan

Okinawa Pictures

Hey everyone, its been a long time since I've contributed. Here is something for you. Check out the Okinawa Gallery at my personal website - www.travisjmorgan.com

Ryukyu Kingdom

I registered http://www.ryukyukingdom.com yesterday. Now I just have to decide what I'm going to do with it. Any ideas?

Ryukyu Stamps

Here are many Ryukyu stamps to satisfy your Okinawa fetish for the day!

Okinawa Music back Online!

The Okinawa Jukebox is back online! It was down for a while but I put it back online. My favorite tracks are, "Shiman chu nu takara" and "Haisai Ojisan" and " Oji Jiman no orion beer."

Going to Okinawa

I will be going to Okinawa early this February, I will be taking my new digital video camera (camcorder) and taking some videos of Okinawa. I will be visiting there for about a week. Its not long, but at least I can go. I can't wait!!!

What is it about Okinawa?

"What is it about Okinawa that I love so much? Well, I can say its just about everything. I love the Atmosphere, I love the people, I love the roads, the buildings, the trees, the flowers, the warm weather, the language, the hospitality, the culture, the beach, the island, the stores, the nightlife...There is something about Okinawa that just gives me this warm, comfortable, happy, free feeling. I love Okinawa. When I am there I am happy and carefree. I can feel it in my heart....To experience Okinawa, hearing the sounds of Okinawa, the smell, the touch, to see it in front of you, you can feel it. It can't compare to reading about it and seeing its pictures. The pictures represent a moment in time, that we try to capture and remember again when we view it, but to actually FEEL it and experience Okinawa, is incredible.

Until I live in Okinawa again, I will keep it in my heart and keep dreaming."

New York Okinawa Kenjinkai

I just recently finished the English version of the New York Okinawa Kenjinkai website. If you are in or around the New York area, you may be interested in joining.

Chicago Okinawa Kenjinkai

The Chicago Okinawa Kenjinkai website has launched. Anyone interested in becoming members and want to know more about the Chicago Okinawa Kenjinkai should visit the site.

Webmaster - out of town

I will be out of the country from Friday, May 16 through Sunday, June 1 on a business trip. The rest of Team i-O will still be available, so please direct your questions, suggestions, comments, or kudos to Co-Founder and my partner in crime, Richie Yamashiroya.

Okinawa Kabegami

Looking for Okinawan pictures to decorate your Mac or PC desktop? Here are two sites that have excellent kabegami (wallpaper) for your downloading pleasure.

Churashima.net

Internet Uruma

How about i-O ones? We're working on them. ;)

Okinawan Food Fair

Marukai Dillingham (Honolulu, Hawaii) will be holding an Okinawan Food Fair from May 20th to the 26th. There will also be an Okinawan "Cooking Sale" from the 24th to the 26th from 10 am to 2 pm with foods like: andâgi, gôya champuru bento, Okinawa soba, rafute, and sôki soba. This will be a good chance to stock up on sanpin-cha and shîkwasâ lemon drinks, as well as snacks like kokuto and chinsukou. Yum.

Marukai (Hawaii) will also be opening a new store in Kaneohe (it'll be located on the 2nd floor of Windward Mall) on Saturday, May 24th. As part of their grand opening event, Ryukyukoku Matsuri Daiko of Hawaii will be performing there.

Listen to Okinawa Music

If you like these songs, then you may be interested in Okinawa Jukebox for your convenience. They are not available for download, they are for your listening pleasure only, you can choose 11 different full track inspirational Okinawa songs.
href="http://www.cafeshops.com/okinawagoods" target="_blank">Jaymorgan.com's Okinawa Store. At the Okinawa Store there are several Okinawan Books and CD's available for purchase. I will be adding more Okinawan goodies to the site available for purchase soon.

Another great Okinawan store is Okinawa.com's bookstore, there are several Okinawa books and music available there for purchase also.

Aggregators

The i-O Blog can be syndicated (we're using the RSS 2.0 template created by Mark Pilgrim for use with MT) and here's a link that features a list of aggregators that support RSS 2.0:

Backend.Userland.Com : Aggregators

Personally, I use Ranchero's NetNewsWire which is made for Mac OS X.

Goya Can Dance!

Team i-O Member, Myron Akana, just came back from Okinawa recently and dropped off some cool omiyage items for me. Among them are these nifty Goya-man in a Bingata and Hanagasa pens and key chains.

This is the first time that I'm seeing Goya-man dressed in something other than his yellow hat and red cape. I think he looks awfully cute in the traditional dance attire.

I hear that Goya-man is all the rage, thanks to the Chura-san series which made it famous. I find it amusing that although the Goya-man character was a total flop in the drama, it is finding such popularity in real life.

Now who would have thought that a character fashioned after a bittermelon would be so suteki?