Starbucks Japan Geography Series City Mug - Okinawa

Monday, January 9, 2017

Starbucks Japan Geography Series City Mug - Okinawa

Starbucks Japan released new Starbucks City Mugs, Starbucks Japan Geography Series, in October last year. When my husband was on his business trip in Japan in November, he bought some new Starbucks city mugs there. Today, I'm going to share this Starbucks Japan Geography Series Okinawa Mug with you.

New Starbucks Japan City Mugs are named Starbucks Japan Geography Series "Our daily story." As its name, typical life in Okinawa is pictured on this mug. Okinawa is the southernmost prefecture in Japan. When we lived in Japan, we traveled in Okinawa prefecture. In addition, my brother-in-law got married to a woman from Okinawa. Before he got married, my parents-in-law flew to Okinawa and met her families, who hosted pre-wedding party there, and hundreds of people including her relatives and neighbors participated. My parents-in-law told me that it looked like a big local festival and some people played Okinawa taiko, which are Okinawa drums, and all people danced at the party. It was a very interesting story to me. I thought that a bond between people in Okinawa is very strong. :)

Starbucks Japan Geography Series

"Haisai" is greeting in Okinawa dialect. It means "Hello," "Hi," and "How are you?" Even though I am Japanese, I've never heard of that. Okinawa has many special words indeed. In this picture, the woman is enjoying local Okinawa dance, which is called eisa.

Starbucks Japan Geography Series City Mug - Okinawa

Shell ginger is local plant in Okinawa. It's called getto in Japanese and specifically called sannin in Okinawa. This plant is edible and used in some local Okinawa foods.

Starbucks Japan Geography Series City Mug - Okinawa

When you go to Okinawa, you will notice that many roofs of local houses are made of red-orange earthenware roof tiles. There are a pair of Shisa, which a traditional Okinawa decor, placed on the rooftop. People believe that Shisa protect us from some evils. The red flowers are hibiscus, grow in Okinawa, where is a subtropical prefecture.

Starbucks Japan Geography Series City Mug - Okinawa

The man is playing local Okinawa taiko during Eisa dance.

Starbucks Japan Geography Series City Mug - Okinawa

The woman is playing a sanshin, which is an Okinawan musical instrument. "Nankuru Naisa～" is another Okinawa dialect and means "It will work out." or "It's going to be okay."

Starbucks Japan Geography Series City Mug - Okinawa

The black bird pictured in this mug is Okinawa rail, which is endemic to Okinawa and called yanbaru kuina in Japanese. "Jira～" is casual Okinawa dialect and means, "face" or "look like".