Happy New Year!
It’s a tradition among the young and the hardy in Japan to celebrate New Year’s Day by watching the first sunrise of the year. Okinawa is as far south and west as you can get and still be in Japan. This means that their sun rises a little later than in the rest of Japan.
Lucky! Not only can people in Okinawa take their time getting to a beach-side vantage point, but they can also feel a little warmer as they watch the sun rise.
Japan’s earliest sunrise is in Hokkaido, the most northeasterly territory in Japan. The weather forecast says northeast Hokkaido can expect some sunshine on New Year’s Day and a high of 0 degrees centigrade, but Okinawa will be getting their sunshine warmed to 19 degrees C.
Warm or cold, the first sunrise of the year is a special time of new beginnings. Here’s wishing you all a happy day!
Okinawa Looks Like This
Peaceful: a beautiful place for a walk
自己紹介
- Chura
- Born and raised in the USA (NJ), I’ve spent most of my adult life in Japan. One of my favorite places in Japan is Okinawa. To me, Okinawa is a land of stories and an island of music, magic and mystery. The music is shima-uta, songs sung to the rhythm of a three-stringed lute called a sanshin. The magic is in the colors of land, sea and sky. The mystery? Mystery begins where the line between legend and verifiable human memories begins to blur. I am a member of the Archaeological Institute of America, chapter chief of a sanshin study society, and a founding member of the Marine Culture Research Association of Okinawa.