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Fantastic Okinawa

Okinawa Industry Fair

Halloween is season for witches, goblins and trick-or-treaters

Athree-day Industrial Fair high-lighting the very best ofeverything Okinawa makes,

grows or processes begins tomorrowat Onoyama Park in Naha City.

The 38th annual OkinawaIndustrial Festival is set in thesprawling park, where nearly 500firms and organizations will stageexhibits at the martial arts OkinawaPrefecture Budokan, around thefountain, along the river, nearby thevarious athletic venues, and alongwinding paths. A total of 2,800 prod-

ucts will be exhibited.This year’s focus in healthy liv-

ing and lifestyles has organizersexcited by prospects of local foodstalls, companies’ recommendedproducts, regional goodies, plants,clothing, craftworks like pottery andRyukyu glass all in a single venue.Many will be featuring interestingnatural foods, and others even moreexotic items. Okinawa is widelyknown for producing wild healthyproducts from nature, but that does

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By Bill Charles

Halloween: a time forplaying pranks andtricks, conjuring upwitches, goblins and

haunted houses, and of course,kids looking for candy.

But really! Where’d thiscome from? What, exactly, isHalloween? Ask a dozen peopleand you’re likely to get a dozendifferent answers, because it is to

different folks exactly whatthey’ve been taught through theages. Let’s see if we can fill inthe blanks and dispel myths andwrong notions about whatHalloween is, and isn’t.

Halloween dates back toabout 1745, originating inScotland as a Christian event ororigin. Halloween means hal-lowed evening, or holy evening,from the Scottish for All Hallows’Eve. It’s traditionally celebrated

around the world on Oct. 31st, theeve of the western Christian feastof All Hallows’ Day.

Through the ages, Halloweenhas evolved into many participa-tory activities beginning with thechurch services and lighting can-dles on graves of the dead to payhomage, and on to dozens ofmore exciting things like guising,or trick or treating, dressing up incostumes for parties, finding cre-ative ways to transform pumpkins

into works of art, designing andgoing to haunted houses, playingtricks on people, and of course,gathering copious amounts ofcandy.

Those customs began inCeltic countries, many frompagan origins that have beentalked and passed on to peoplearound the world. Ireland claimscredit, as does Scotland, but thenagain, so do the Romans. Allagree that prayers for the harvest

are and were an integral reasonfor the festivals and prayers. Therituals included bonfires believedto have mystical powers in thesmoke and ashes to protect andscare away the darkness of theimpending winters.

Mumming, or guising, is theprecursor to today’s trick-or-treat-ing. They were the practices dat-ing back to the 16th centurywhere people in costumes or dis-

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Industrial Fair shares the best Okinawa produces

Halloween is the season for ghouls and goblins, with one of the largest contingency of them gathering at Koza Music Town Pumpkin Panic event on Saturday for some fun times.

Weekend Okinawa Industrial Fair expects tosee over 200,000 visitors over three days.

You have variety of Yoga classes available in Okinawa

By David Higgins

If yoga is an important part ofyour life, and if you’re any-thing like me, the first thingyou do before traveling any-

where is check out yoga opportu-nities at your destination. You

may think Okinawa would nothave a lot of yoga prospects but,surprisingly, it has quite a few.From beginners to intermediate,to yoga practiced by the seaside,on the beach, or even yoga prac-ticed on a stand-up paddle (SUP)board, if you look hard enough

you can definitely find a yogaclass on Okinawa that is the rightfit for you.

In order to find the type ofyoga that appeals to you, yousometimes need to try a variety ofclasses first. Sometimes the veryfirst yoga class you take ends upbeing the style you enjoy themost. Some basic yoga types areHatha, Hot, Vinyasa, Ashtanga,and Restorative. Depending onyour needs, any one of thesecould work for you.

Hatha Yoga is slow andgentle. This is usually the classthat most beginners try first.

Although Hot Yoga can bephysically demanding due to thefact that the class is practiced in105°F heat with 40% humidity,the class focuses on alignmentand moves quite slowly, withposes held for one minute ormore. This also can be good forbeginners.

Restorative Yoga is anotherclass great for beginners as it onlyinvolves a small number of poses.You will hold these poses for an

extended period of time (some-times up to 5 minutes) and focuson breathing. Restorative yoga isbest practiced at night.

Vinyasa Yoga is sometimescalled Flow Yoga. Poses runtogether in a smooth way butthere is not as much rest betweenposes as in Hatha or Restorative.

Ashtanga Yoga is definitelya more challenging yoga class. Itis sometimes called Power Yogaand focuses on strength and isquite physically demanding.

There are a variety of classesheld on Okinawa:

Yoga Instructor RebeccaCohen offers classes at the RisnerFitness Center and SportsComplex on Kadena AB. Classesare also open to non-SOFA statusindividuals. Rebecca offersbeginner to intermediate levelclasses as well as private instruc-tion. She also has started SUPyoga, which is a combination ofyoga practiced on a Stand-UpPaddle board.

Shanbio, located along theSunabe Seawall in the same

building as Bella Napoli Pizza, isa combined spa and yoga studio.The yoga studio is located on the5th floor with stunning view ofthe East China Sea.

Yoga by the seaside class isoffered on Sundays at 7 p.m. byYoga Instructor Marujun (JunkoNakazono). Classes are conduct-ed at Uminchi Seaside Park atMaezato 1931, Itoman City.

Ryukyu Therapy YogaStudio gives opportunities topractice many types of yogaincluding Vinyasa yoga,Sivananda yoga, Basic Pilates,Morning “ Kikou” yoga, andPelvic yoga. The studio is locatedon the third floor of 10, Shuri,Ikehatacho, Naha-shi, which isapproximately a 10-minute walkfrom Monorail Shuri Station, infront of "Ryutan Ike (Pond)".

Whichever yoga class youend up choosing, know that youare choosing one of the best waysto stretch and relax your body,and also taking some time tobuild and enhance your mind-body connection.

HalloweenContinued from page 1guises went house-to-house uttering songsor reciting verses in exchange for food.Youths picked up on the concept, addingthe threats of pranks if their demandsweren’t met.

We noted All Hallows Eve as beingHalloween, taken from All Hallows’ Dayon November 1st. It was for centuries amajor Christian day, ranking alongsideChristmas, Easter and Pentecost. It’s notnew; All Hallows’ Day’s been around sinceat least 609 that we know of. Through theyears, praying for the dead was a primarypart of the day’s activities, with many peo-ple dressing up and burning candles toguide the dead back to visit early homes.That happens today in Europe and otherparts of the world, including Obon here inOkinawa.

The New York Halloween Parade wasinstituted in 1974, spreading the popularityof the day through the media, 60,000 partici-

pants and two million in-person spectatorsand a worldwide television audience of morethan 100 million. From there, the commer-cial aspects of making a buck off Halloweenbegan in earnest. Popular were the witches,headstones, ghosts and skeletons, as well asintriguingly designed, scary haunted housesto set visitors hearts palpitating.

Halloween enthusiasts have a loveaffair going with the pumpkin, although heoriginal veggie for carving in Ireland andScotland was the turnip. In NorthAmerica, the pumpkin was deemed easierto carve, and thus more fun, and from 1837has been a large part of the celebration.Scarecrows, cornhusks and other autumnsymbols have cropped up, with black andorange somehow becoming the traditionalHalloween colors.

The Halloween costumes are everythingfrom ghosts and gremlins to vampires anddevils. The costume industry has become amega-millions industry, and kids withoutcostumes are somehow feeling left out.

The religious aspects of Halloween

today are mixed. Many ProtestantChristians celebrate All Hallows’ Eve asReformation Day, while other Christianorganizations such as the American TractSociety use the occasion to distributegospel tracts. There are some, however,that frown upon Halloween. Jews andMuslims, as well as many protestant

denominations, have taken their ownstances.

One of Okinawa’s threemain festivals is set tobegin on Friday, Oct.31st, on the grounds of

Shuri Castle.The Shuri Castle Festival

runs from Friday throughMonday, Nov. 3rd, focusing onthe castle’s centuries of history.The Shuri Castle Festival’s finalday is a Japanese national holi-day, ‘Culture Day’. This is theday that the Japanese Constitutionwas promulgated in 1946, and forthe purpose of promoting culture,arts, peace and freedom, whichare the fundamental principles ofthe Japanese Constitution, thou-sands of events will be heldeverywhere in Japan.

Construction of Shuri Castle

first started at the beginning of the15th century in the RyukyuKingdom era, and it was the seatof the Kingdom’s administrationas well as the residence of theKing and his family. In addition,the castle played an important roleas the center of ritual ceremonies.

Various cultural performingarts and renditions were played inthe castle and around the areathroughout the centuries, so theCastle was also the center of cul-tural and artistic activities untilthe Kingdom was abolished in1879. In other words, Shuri Castlewas the stage when the RyukyuKingdom was at the height of itsprosperity for 450 years.

The castle was completelydestroyed in the Okinawa war, but

its full reconstruction started in1986. In 2000, Shuri Castle wasenrolled in the UNESCO WorldCultural Heritage list. In such ahistoric site, a number of eventsare held. The historic ceremoniesand traditional performing arts areattractive and very interestingeven to people of the modern era!The festival offers an excellentchance to enjoy the history andculture of Ryukyu Kingdom eraboth at the same time.

Many cultural activities willplay at Shuri Castle during thefestival. Performing arts showstake place 10 a.m. ~ 4:30 p.m. onthe 31st, and 10 a.m. ~ 8:30 p.m.on Nov. 1st and 2nd. Admissionis free at Shichanu-una, a free-of-charge open space outside thecenter yard of the castle.

The parade and ceremony ofChinese Imperial envoys was theRyukyu Kingdom's greatest cere-mony, centered on the coronationceremony of the Ryukyu King bythe Chinese Imperial envoy. Itwill be reenacted Nov. 1st with aparade at 11:40 a.m. at Shureimon~ Shichanu-una, a free zone. Theceremonies follow at 12:10 p.m.at the center yard, the Una area,for which there is an admissioncharge of ¥820 for adults, ¥620for high school students, and¥310 for junior high school andelementary school students. Kidsunder six years old are admittedfree.

The Great Parade of theKingdom’s King and Queen, thePageantry parade and traditionalperforming arts will be recreatedNov. 2nd starting 12:30 p.m. onKokusai Street in Naha City.Some 700 people in gorgeouscostumes will attract the crowd.Admission is free.

The lighting of candles willtake place both Nov. 1st and 2ndstarting at 5 p.m. through 9 p.m.Both the Castle and Ryu-tan Pondwill be lighted by thousands ofcandles. People can enjoy walk-ing and taking in the night viewof the castle. Admission is free.

The Ancient Rite Parade isone of the important ceremoniesthat took place on the 3rd day ofthe new-year. It was the first out-

ing ceremony of the year for theKing, when he visited templesnear the Castle in order to prayfor the peace and security of theKingdom and for abundant pro-duction of grain.

In addition to the King andQueen, people can see severalhundred executives, warrior classpeople and high-class femaleshamans who were an essentialpart of the King’s entourage. Theparade takes place Nov. 3rd from12:50 through 3:30 p.m. at Una,the center yard of Shuri Castle.Admission to Una is ¥820 foradults, ¥620 for high school stu-dents, and ¥310 for junior highschool and elementary school stu-dents. Kids under six years oldare admitted free.

There are many ways to practice yoga - even on a stand-up paddle board.

Shuri Castle Festival walks visitors through history

Gate 2 Street area has several Halloweenevents going on this weekend.

Kings don't walk, they're carried in style by lesser mortals.

The coronation ceremony is enacted on the center yard of the castle.

2Japan Update Classifieds Oct. 23, 2014 - Oct. 29, 2014

President Editor/PublisherSales Staff Accountant

Jun IkemuraJames WilliamsYuma SunakawaJunko Yamada Yuka Arata

Published weekly by (株) Ryukyu PressAddress. 2-6-10 Mashiki, Ginowan city, Okinawa 901-2224Tel: 098-943-6180Fax: 098-943-6181Also visit: www.japanupdate.com広告の御用命はこちらまでご連絡下さい。Tel: 098-943-6180 Fax: 098-943-6181Mail: info@japanupdate.com

写真：首里城祭実行委員会

写真：首里城祭実行委員会