Who says nothing interesting happens in Yanbaru?
Friday night, I was coming home from karate, and as I was leaving the north end of Nago, traffic started seriously slowing down, and then eventually came to a halt. The bridge I needed to cross was blocked and they were redirecting traffic to a serious of smaller streets. In northern Okinawa, there is practically one main road, the 58, and the fact that this was blocked was a huge inconvenience. Police had barricade about a kilometer of the highway, and it took about 30 minutes just to make it through that bit.
When I got to the end of the detour, there was a field on my left fenced off, and a police officer between every post blocking entrance. Inside the field there were huge spot lights lighting up the area like a football field. There were cops everywhere! I've never seen what a bomb threat response would look like, but this is what I imagined it to be. There was an electronic sign that said, "road closed, traffic accident".
The next morning, I headed back into Nago. This time, the road was open, but the field was still blocked. There were military people walking around and lots of news vans on the side of the road. Turns out a plane with military on board crashed. Everybody on board lived, with only one having some serious injuries. Across the street, there is a Family Mart, and apparently after the crash, one of the uninjured ran inside to call for help.
It may just be me, but I find it a little humorous imaging that foreigner using gestures to try to explain that he just crashed his plane across the street to the Family Mart employee.
US airman injured in Japan plane accident
Putting the 大 in 大宜味.
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Sunday, October 26, 2008
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4 comments:
you find it humorous imagining that foreigner using gestures. How do you know he doesnt speak japanese? (hint: he does)
I'd say he's just going off of experience, like most of us do. Not having met many that can handle the language, it is an assumption, but mostly holds true.
But gratz to the dude for it. That shows more effort than I normally see.
sorry, i wasnt implying fluency, but a few japanese words were mixed with a gesture or two, so i can see your point. looking back i probably was a bit humorous due to the high adrenaline...
It isn't the gestures itself that I find funny, but I think they add to it. Given the uneventful, bucolic life of northern Okinawa, and given the unlikely, extraordinary event of a plane crash, I do think there is something humorous in the anti-climatic act of crossing the street to make an emergency call at Family Mart.
The fact that it was a foreigner just adds to it. I imagined him with his arms out making a whistling sound decreasing in pitch to convey the information.
Since everyone came out alive, I think it's okay to find it funny. I can't even imagine what it was like. I'm sure it was scary as hell, though.
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