Okinawa, Day 1

Jen, my wonderful, great friend Jen, really, really was convinced that when we came to Okinawa, we'd be disappointed at how we'd really, really be staying in America. In fact, she hates it because on the base, it is SO American, and she's exactly right.

But I assured Jen that Rachel and I really, really wouldn't mind, and that no matter how much she forced us to eat A&W's and Macaroni Grill, we'd really, really be ok with that.

So, none of us were surprised that our first stop, lunch, was at Chili's. Yum. I mean, I would have just been happy with the diet Coke, but cheese dip too? And loads of single army boys? It was heaven right in front of me.

Of all of the firsts that I saw, though, nothing struck me as funny as seeing military license plates, which are the EXACT same to our license plates except for one small but significant difference: the letter 'Y'.

On the mainland, all license plates are four numbers proceeded by one of the 45 or so Japanese Hiragana phonemes. Mine is the Hiragana letter 'te'. Here on the base, though, in an effort to make military personnel stand out even more than they already do, all cars that are owned privately by military people instead have the letter 'Y'.

What does the 'Y' stand for?

Yankee.











This is wrong on so many levels...