February 19, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
February 19 is called Usui or rainwater, which is one of 24 solar terms in the traditional East Asian lunisolar calendars, and the time the coldness eases and farming starts.
Ueda ugan is an annual event held on February 18 at Ukinjuhainju,Tamagusuku Nakandakari, Nanjo, where rice cultivation started in the Ryukyus. The community held the event to pray for a good harvest on the same day this year. The event is held annually on the first Ox day in...
February 9, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
Parents at the Tabaru Aiji Preschool in Tabaru, Naha City, held a snow-play party for the children on February 6. Three-hundred children and their parents attended the event to play with white snow sent from Hokkaido.
The event was held by the parents’...
February 9, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
On February 8, the date of the Lunar New Year, the first prayer of the year, “Hachi ugan”, was offered at a hallowed ground, “Shirumichu”, in Katsuren Higa in Uruma City. It is said that an ancestral god of Ryukyu, Amamichu, and Shirumichu are enshrined...
January 28, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
On January 27, Okinawa’s historic cold weather eased away and a tulip fair started at the Tropical Dream Center in Okinawa Expo Park, Motobu. Visitors enjoyed about 80,000 tulips in 48 varieties.
Naoko Yashiki, who visited the park from Saitama with her...
January 19, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
Ishigaki rangers’ office has set free a male Kanmuriwashi, or crested serpent eagle, that was injured in a traffic accident on the highway in Hoshino district, Ishigaki last October.
When a ranger found the eagle on the highway, its internal...
January 11, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
On January 2 and 3, a New Year’s Festival was held at the Okinawa Zoo & Museum in the Goya district of Okinawa City. Along with her daughter Rubi, who was born in 2015, popular Indian elephant Ryuka appeared in public and performed kakizome, or the first...
January 7, 2015 Ryukyu Shimpo
By Yoshiki Nagahama
New Zealander Jesse Whitehead, 25, recently published a photography book depicting the people, nature, and culture of Okinawa as he experienced them during his three-year stay in Tomigusuku City, which ended in December. Captions for...
January 1, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
Pretty squirrel monkeys cheerfully played and jumped up on peoples’ shoulders on Ishigaki Island for the beginning of the year of the monkey. The 59 monkeys met the visitors at the Risuzaru no mori (squirrel monkeys’ forest), Yaima Village in Nakura, Ishigaki...
December 25, 2015 Hirokazu Otsubo Correspondent of Ryukyu Shimpo
On December 21, fishermen reported to the Zamami Whale Watching Association the appearance of two humpback whales. Association staff started looking from an observation point for signs of spray from a whale’s blowhole and successfully...
December 19, 2015 Ryukyu Shimpo
Tomigusuku Tourism Association started an event called the Illuminated Garden of Lights at Toyosaki Kaihin Park on December 12. The garden is illuminated from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. The entrance fee for adults is 300 yen and it is free for junior high school students...
December 16, 2015 Ryukyu Shimpo
A stork was observed in Nakijin village on December 14. The bird is known as a special national treasure. According to a 53-year-old manager of the Yagaji national game reserve, Yutaka Toguchi, it is not common to see the species on Okinawa Island although the...
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