Fun How did you guys enjoy the 4 day holiday

[island cyclist]

Here people were out shopping, every store was jammed packed. Even McDonald's drive through was extended into the street. I do think though, the trains in this area were not busy at all.
For me, well the liquor store enjoyed my money. Rained mostly for 4 days here. I thought the rainy season was over with. My concern now is typhoon season. If it is going to be as bad as the rains we've had for the last 30 days, expect a heck of a lot more damage.

 

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[chris]

Here people were out shopping, every store was jammed packed. Even McDonald's drive through was extended into the street. I do think though, the trains in this area were not busy at all.
For me, well the liquor store enjoyed my money. Rained mostly for 4 days here. I thought the rainy season was over with. My concern now is typhoon season. If it is going to be as bad as the rains we've had for the last 30 days, expect a heck of a lot more damage.

There was a holiday LMAO? Could have fooled me i worked mostly so it was business as usual.

 

[island cyclist]

There was a holiday LMAO? Could have fooled me i worked mostly so it was business as usual.

I always got the impression you were retired and enjoying the good life.

 

[chris]

I always got the impression you were retired and enjoying the good life.

unfortunately i don't have the luxury of retirement and plus i will work till the day i die and thats a fact as i love to work and never can imagine stop doing it so one day someone will find me dead on a desk somewhere when the day comes

 

[island cyclist]

unfortunately i don't have the luxury of retirement and plus i will work till the day i die and thats a fact as i love to work and never can imagine stop doing it so one day someone will find me dead on a desk somewhere when the day comes

Its true that here in Japan one works till they drop. My Japanese pension is roughly 30000 yen ever 2 months. So even the wife says something silly about working till she can't. Problem is I don't think what she has been saying is silly at all.
At least you live in a warm/hot climate. Although Okinawa is small, really Japanese people are really not known for their travels in their country, well, the young people are, but the elderly I never got that impression, they just liked to work, work and work.

 

[chris]

Its true that here in Japan one works till they drop. My Japanese pension is roughly 30000 yen ever 2 months. So even the wife says something silly about working till she can't. Problem is I don't think what she has been saying is silly at all.
At least you live in a warm/hot climate. Although Okinawa is small, really Japanese people are really not known for their travels in their country, well, the young people are, but the elderly I never got that impression, they just liked to work, work and work.

LOL ain't nothing wrong with working

 

[island cyclist]

LOL ain't nothing wrong with working

The hell there ain't... if your wife says "we don't pay family members". Oh, well, that's life in Japan.

 

[David]

Not much open, as far as the tourist spots go, to enjoy much of anything, even Kokusai Street should be renamed to Ghost Street. All the other tourist places were pretty dead from their peaks that were visible from the outside at least.

As far as other places, such as essentials, they were still packed.

 

[chris]

Not much open, as far as the tourist spots go, to enjoy much of anything, even Kokusai Street should be renamed to Ghost Street. All the other tourist places were pretty dead from their peaks that were visible from the outside at least.

As far as other places, such as essentials, they were still packed.

SAD BUT TRUE! Kokusai is a ghost town went there on Sunday well we drove threw there about 7:30 pm and it was dark and gloomy very few restaurants open only a handful of tourist shops but thats it. I think a lot of businesses went under when the closures happened and Kokusai can't rebuild because theres no money to do it. Just like Gate 2 in that are is a ghost town so has become Kokusai

 

[David]

I was surprised driving down Kokusai Street at around 1100 yesterday. A store that has been here forever, Island Brothers (where I got a lot of my beach gear), has been closed with the iconic sign already down with the remnant of the outline remaining.

Their site cites the permanent closure of that location to be of two factors: An initial 2-year lease entered in 1993, is wholly over the contractual window, to being finally forced to extend while at the peak of coronavirus in April, or to close.

As the renewal was coming up in November 2020 with sales already in decline, they decided it was best to just walk away from the Kokusai location.

There appear to be two other locations still open, while the owner focuses on e-commerce now, but it was a staple to Kokusai Street for as long as I can remember (2006).

 

[island cyclist]

I was surprised driving down Kokusai Street at around 1100 yesterday. A store that has been here forever, Island Brothers (where I got a lot of my beach gear), has been closed with the iconic sign already down with the remnant of the outline remaining.

Their site cites the permanent closure of that location to be of two factors: An initial 2-year lease entered in 1993, is wholly over the contractual window, to being finally forced to extend while at the peak of coronavirus in April, or to close.

As the renewal was coming up in November 2020 with sales already in decline, they decided it was best to just walk away from the Kokusai location.

There appear to be two other locations still open, while the owner focuses on e-commerce now, but it was a staple to Kokusai Street for as long as I can remember (2006).

So it sounds like Okinawa now is in a true "depression", like most of Japan these days.

 

[chris]

I was surprised driving down Kokusai Street at around 1100 yesterday. A store that has been here forever, Island Brothers (where I got a lot of my beach gear), has been closed with the iconic sign already down with the remnant of the outline remaining.

Their site cites the permanent closure of that location to be of two factors: An initial 2-year lease entered in 1993, is wholly over the contractual window, to being finally forced to extend while at the peak of coronavirus in April, or to close.

As the renewal was coming up in November 2020 with sales already in decline, they decided it was best to just walk away from the Kokusai location.

There appear to be two other locations still open, while the owner focuses on e-commerce now, but it was a staple to Kokusai Street for as long as I can remember (2006).

Again sad but true! As people watch the world especially America and how business closures are happening today with retail and shopping malls etc are closing due to the fear that governments had put upon people to stay at home and order everything online making homemade couch potatoes a true fact in life now and made online retailers very rich. The same thing is happening in Japan as street shopping and retailers are now going to try their hand at saving Rycom, Parco city, and Depot Island as i have seen many retailer leave stores and head to these places hoping for a turn around in profits. That leaves places like Kokusai and other prefectures that had really good street markets hanging out to dry and turning those prefectures into ghost towns.
There is another true fact i just found yesterday and that's the numbers of how many military personnel are on Island and the numbers are shocking but the Okinawan people wanted lease military and Gov. Tamaki as well and it seems their getting it. As of today there is only 25,000 troops and family members but cannot get exact number of families so the US troop count has dramatically declined and so has their tourist money to spend as well. It's really sad but i'm sorry to say Kokusai street is just another street now and will never be the same and it seems that Okinawa is turning into a corporate island and a shipping hub than a little Hawaii Resort Island that Tamaki thought he could make but failed like every other governor because they are to busy spending Okinawa's revenue on stopping Futenma and Schwab. By spending Okinawa's cash flow for many years from many governors the toll has finally caught up with the fact that Okinawa is broke and the money that governors loved so much having to fight Futenma and Schwab is finally coming to an end because there is no cash flow.

 

[David]

So it sounds like Okinawa now is in a true "depression", like most of Japan these days.

I wouldn't say that it's a true depression. Okinawa can, and will recover. However, we need to do more as a local governing body to ensure more money stays here.

Take hotels for example. Sure, they bring guests here, which in turn allows for those guests to spend in the local economy, boosting it. Though, they're only boosting the tourism of here.

If you look at who owns the hotels, it's surely not Okinawa businesses. So where does that money go?

Back to Mainland and even China in some instances.

Okinawa could impose a tax on hotels so that more money stays here and creates more government jobs as a temporary solution as well as provide funding for grants to re-open closed businesses. Thus, more money would remain in Okinawa and businesses focused outside of tourism will have a second chance to flourish again.

It's doubtful anything like that would ever happen though...