The town of Haebaru has mainly 2 family names T & O. The first question most people will ask you is "O"? or "T"?
Rewind to 2003 (pre-blog), we were fortunate to re-connect with some of my family. At the time, while we were searching for leads, no one knew about my family, but after word travelled, my relatives were found. It was neat because when we met them, they had photos of my relatives in Hawaii (proof that we were really related).Fast forward to this trip to Okinawa, we visited with my relatives. It was nice spending the day with them. Visiting the graves of my ancestors and listening to them chat in Okinawan. The Okinawan language is similar to Chinese (well, it sounds like Chinese to me anyway. I think the language has a heavy influence from Chinese.)
While visiting, we were able to get a photo of my great granparents. This photo was actually sent by my relatives in Hawaii to my relatives in Okinawa. (Sadly, the original in Hawaii was destroyed or misplaced.) Though no one had an idea what their names were, it was still nice to be able to capture a photo of them to pass along back to my relatives in Hawaii.While having lunch with them, Satoshi and I had our first taste of tebichi (sorry no photo). Tebichi is Okinawan for pigs feet. I enjoyed my first try of this dish while Satoshi says he's tasted it. (I guess it was a bit too gelatinous for him.)
Also on this trip to Okinawa, we found out that a relative is directly related to a sanshin (shamisen) craftsman. Sanshin is the Okinawan name for Shamisen (a musical instrument with 3 strings). The Okinawan instrument is covered with snake skin while the Japanese instrument is a little bigger and is covered with cat or dog skin.
This craftsman makes the chiga or body of the sanshin.
It was amazing--we were able to check out his workshop and were also treated to a mini concert. As everyone is getting older, we were really fortunate to be able to visit with our relatives.
It was a good sign of a good week to come.
Hi Kat,
ReplyDeleteSurprised you never had tebichi before. How was the one you had prepared? I like tebichi nitsuke.
Nate
How wonderful that you were able to reconnect! And a shamisen maker? Oh, lucky!
ReplyDeleteI loved hearing about your family! It's so special to have family heirlooms to pass down.
ReplyDeleteWelcome Back Kat!
ReplyDeleteWow it must have been and interesting trip remembering your past and reuniting with your relatives.
Last night, my dad also shared with the family about his grandparents! It really is nice to reconnect with where you come from.
I think it was nitsuke, Nate, it was served with daikon, carrots and konbu.
ReplyDeleteThanks Fuji, Jaden & Phoebe :)
Take care.
Kat
How great to be able to see family and reconnect. Very brave of you to try the pigs feet! Thats one thing I have not tried (yet?!) Max is worried about the cat skin covers though! ;-)
ReplyDeleteI guess Max will have to live in Okinawa, Deb as the cat skin covers are only in mainland Japan :) I hope you try pigs feet soon.
ReplyDeleteTake care.
Kat
Awesome story. Glad you were able to reconnect with your family!
ReplyDeletePaz
Thank Paz :)
ReplyDeleteTake care.
Kat
Very cool that you got the chance to reconnect with relatives. I thought the sanshin craftsman meeting was a great cultural plus, and how I wish you were equipped to make a short video of the brief concert!
ReplyDeleteThanks Rowena, I wish had had a way to record that concert too.
ReplyDeleteTake care.
Kat
That's really great that you got to reconnect with your relative in Okinawa, especially finding them that time during your first trip there!
ReplyDeleteThanks Lori :)
ReplyDeleteTake care.
Kat