mylittlehearts

I know I haven't updated this blog in ages. I didn't stop drawing though, I started a new, better looking blog (without those damn advertisements!) with drawings and other creative things I do in my spare time.
Please visit me there:
http://maaikehartjes.blogspot.com/

I update it almost everyday so keep on coming back! :-)

1. Today we're meeting Yuki, Mark's Okinawan penfriend, and her American husband Timothy,
who works at the military base here on Okinawa (as aircontroller).
2. The fighting was fierce here during WWII. Okinawa was the first part of Japan the Americans attacked.
Mark:"That mountain has been shot to almost half its size."
3. Mark:"Mothers with children jumped from these cliffs to escape the Americans."
(they believed the Americans would treat them cruelly)
4. Japan was conquered, and the US occupied Okinawa.
Okinawa had to become independent, so the Americans changed the (Japanese!) name
into RyuKyus Islands (the name of the kingdom before Okinawa became Japanese in 1879).

5. But the islanders protested; They'd rather belong to Japan!
In 1972 Japan and the US made an agreement; Okinawa again belonged to Japan but the US kept a
large military base on the island.
6. Maaike:"Do you feel you're being treated differently by the Okinawans because you're American?"
Timothy:"Me? Not at all!"




1. But Timothy is no regular American. He and Yuki talk in Japanese with eachother!
2. Maaike:"You've learned that fast!"
Timothy:"Wel, actually I was an anime and manga fan for a long time.
I learned myself Japanese before I came to work here."
3. Maaike:"Does that make you an exception?"
Timothy:"Yes, for many Americans on the base this is a strange and scary world."
4: "Some never leave the base!"

5. Mark:"We were already wondering about how little english there is to be found."
Maaike:"Yes, everything is targeted at JAPANESE tourists. And hardly anyone speaks english!"
Timothy:"But there aren't that many Americans here, we're still a minority."
-You can find the American influences back in food:
6. A well known Okinawan dish is 'taco rice' (rice with salad, meat sauce and cheese)
and this sushi variation: rice roll with meatloaf/cheese/salad filling.
7. Timothy:"I always buy milk and cheese at the base. It's 4 times as cheap!"
8. Maaike:"You could start your own shop!"
Timothy:"That's illegal. But sure, it happens."

It's nice to arrive by boat in Okinawa. It feels more 'real' than by plane.
This is the 2nd time we are here. The first time I still expected a romantic
tropical island with happy villagers, welcoming us in front of their cottages.
Now I know better. Naha, the city where we'll be staying, is mini Hong Kong.


It's extremely hot. No better place for lunch than a Chinese garden
(gift of China to Okinawa).

We stay for three hours.


Under a leaf we suddenly spot a lot of bugs.
It's both creepy and beautiful.

There's a gameroom (3 out of 4 games are broken), a snackcorner with four vendingmachines
(2 for beer, 1 for other drinks, 1 for hot onigiri) a bookcase with only books in Japanese, a restaurant
(open only at 7:30, 11:30 and 17:30, and you'd better not be late!), a tearoom (closed) and a little
shop that sells some chips and toothpaste.
And that's ALL!

....WONDERFUL!



The sea was rough last night, but the moving ship rocked me to sleep.
The next morning we expected to be in the middle of a typhoon....
But....

-Akiko:"Le typhoon a disparu!" (the typhoon has disappeared) / "Ah!"
-Maaike:"That's a shame, I was hoping to experience a typhoon!"
Akiko:"Well, I'm happy that it's so quiet, my family was worried about me!"
- We already missed an earthquake in Japan (1 day before we arrived)
-And a typhoon in Hong Kong (1 day after we left)
-"My mother wrote me that she would send us a guardian angel.
That angel is taking her job TOO seriously!"

'All signs in our cabin are Japanese!'
-So this sign says in giant characters that you should close the curtains at night!
-We don't dare to use the trashcan at the left
-The safety instructions are the only english there is (with little mistakes)

-We meet one of the passengers; Akiko, a bright old lady, who, surprisingly, speaks FRENCH!
-'mangaka desu'/'ehm...l'histoire d'Okinawa'/'ah, vraiment!'
Her voice is rrrrrrrreally soft, but with my french and 10 words of Japanese, we can have a conversation.
-She's going to Okinawa because a relative of hers died a year ago, and then a lot of ceremonies are being held.

1. Tokyo Big Sight seen from the 'sky deck'
We can get on board while waiting for all the containers to be loaded into the ship.
2.----
3. --- Mark: "Oh, window?"
4. "---- Night" / "Oh, at night the windows should be closed? Wakarimas'ta! (I understand) "
5. "I didn't even know we could open them!"
6. "Are we supposed to go inside now?" / "But that other passenger is staying here as well"
7. "And I want to enjoy the view some more!"


1. "Again?"
2. ----- ?
3. "Oh, he means the CURTAINS! Now?" ----
4. ------ "Ah, hai hai (yes yes)" "Close the curtains for the light shining out, gomennasai! (sorry) "
5. "Those Japanse are TOO subtile for us!"
6. "If I only imagine how that must have been for them..."
7. "Why is the light still on?!" "I asked them really politely! Now what?!"
8. "You go give them a hint now!"

The waitingroom at the harbour is a bit more simple than we hoped for, and we have
to wait there for two hours! There are only vendingmachines with drinks and cigarettes,
so we eat the dutch cookies we keep for emergencies.
It's very quiet. Who else is stupid enough to travel by boat when there's a typhoon coming?!

Forget 'the Love Boat' (*tv series about cruise ship) Our ship is filled with a lot of containers,
five (!) passengers (those two silly westerners included) and some crew.

1. Maaike:"But if you see someone kicking a pumpkin in a western movie?"
Michiko:"Then I hope that person will be punished for it!"
2. Revenge of the pumpkin! It's alive!
3. Maaike:"But if you're REALLY angry, can't you kick anything out of frustration?"
Michiko:"Maybe an empty can? That has been used...."
4. Michiko:"I would kick a wall. It does feel it, but it's solid, he can take it!"
5. This is a character from the manga/movie 'Gegege no Kitaro'
I first thought it was a piece of tofu, but it turned out to be a WALL!




Tomorrow we'll go on a three day boattrip to Okinawa, a subtropical island, way underneath Japan.
But a typhoon wants to take the exact same route the other way.
(CNN news, deadly typhoon lashes Taiwan)

2. The ship calls, if we still want to board. We might sail a different route and the trip could take longer.
We say we want to board.
Mark:"This is typhoon season, there's one typhoon after the other, they have more experience with big storms than in Holland!"

3. Michiko:"Hmm... I think scary experience for you!"
Mark:"So you think it's no good idea to go?"

4. Michiko:"Hmmm...."
Michiko gives us medicine against seasickness.

1. Every object has a task in its life. Like this tissue.
2. But if I throw it away without using it...
3. ...the tissue gets angry at me!
4. Michiko:"Didn't your parents tell you not to place things on books?"
Mark:"Ehm... because the book gets dirty?"
Maaike:"Because the food gets dirty from the printing ink?"
5. Michiko:"No, a book is important. You shouldn't just drop stuff on it!"
Maaike (thinking):"Wow, you even have to show respect to THINGS here!" (book:"yo, respect man!')
6. Mark:"But you do place that book on the table!"
Maaike:"Yes, but that's what the table is made for!"
Michiko:"You get it!"


No wonder that the Japanese give so many things faces.
For them they're not lifeless objects.

I was offline for a few days, back to the updates and translations!


Household goods from the 100 yen shop.

Everything here is alive!




Mark and our Japanese friend are working on a story for Mark's comic.
His main character is a Japanese woman, named Tomoyo.

1. -...So then Tomoyo kicks the pumpkin!
- Oh no! A Japanse woman would never do that!
2. -Tomoyo would, it's funny!
-Noooo, you don't kick food!
3. -All things have a 'soul'. That pumpkin has feelings too!
4. -I never understood vegetarians. They don't eat fish or meat but they do eat vegetables? Those are in pain as well!
5. -But kicking or eating, it both hurts!
-yes, but that's the pumpkin's 'job' to be food.
6. -'itadakimas' ('bon appetit/have a nice meal') actually means 'thank you'.
-Thank you, cook..... and thank you FOOD!

No wonder that the Japanese give everything faces.
For them they're not lifeless objects!