{"id":1051,"date":"2015-04-06T11:09:07","date_gmt":"2015-04-06T16:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.jhanebarnes.com\/?p=1051"},"modified":"2015-04-11T17:51:28","modified_gmt":"2015-04-11T22:51:28","slug":"the-treasure-of-okinawa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.jhanebarnes.com\/?p=1051","title":{"rendered":"The Treasure of Okinawa"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Fb-Button\"\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>
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The Treasure of Okinawa
\n<\/strong>
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\nIshigaki Island in the Yaeyama Islands of Okinawa, Japan<\/i><\/p>\n

Masaru Shimabukuro is a songwriter and guitarist of the popular Japanese band BEGIN. He was born on this beautiful island.<\/p>\n

He and his friend, Ryoko recently came to our house in Waccabuc, NY for a visit. We ate and drank a lot and then convinced him to play his songs for us. I was so taken by the melody of one song that I couldn\u2019t get it out of my head. I had to know the lyrics of the song. My husband, Katsu, translated the words to me and also explained the following story about its creation.<\/p>\n

Masaru’s band\u00a0was asked to perform at a junior high school in Okinawa about 13 years ago. He and his band were already famous in Japan. He wrote a special song just for the occasion, although some of the words upset the educators at the middle school. It later became a huge hit all over Japan and today is sung at every school graduation in Okinawa.<\/p>\n

Below are the lyrics to his song and here is the link to their performance: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Uy4FW0RTIBo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How much do I really know? How much has it ever shown?
\nOf all the stars that shine above or clouds that come and go
\nYou can ask me all their names, but I’m really not sure to claim
\nI was born here on this island, yet still I cannot say<\/p>\n

But I know deep inside, something money could never buy
\nAll the times that I’ve cried and the tears that have dried
\nIt all happened right here under this sky<\/p>\n

So many things are kept in darkness
\nIn all the textbooks we blindly follow
\nNo matter what you’ve heard in the papers
\nBelieve me, there’s more to be seen
\nThat is the treasure of my home, our island dream<\/p>\n

How much do I understand? How much do I really see?
\nOf all the dying coral and the life under the seas
\nHow are we to repossess, and give breath to what is left?
\nYou could ask me for solutions, still I can’t explain<\/p>\n

But I know deep inside, something money could never buy
\nI can tell in the tides to the waves that I ride
\nThe ocean is changing before my eyes<\/p>\n

So many things that are never spoken
\nOn the radio and television
\nNo matter how clear the pictures appear
\nBelieve me, there’s more to be seen
\nThat is the treasure of my home, our island dream<\/p>\n

How much do I perceive? How much there is to be?
\nTo the words which are sung to these island harmonies
\nTuva Rama lullabies, Densa melodies
\nI can’t even define for you what they really mean<\/p>\n

But I know deep inside, something money could never buy
\nOf the joy that they bring when we hear them all sing
\nWhile we’re dancing through the night until sunrise<\/p>\n

Inside of me I will always cherish
\nThe memories of the love I’ve shared
\nNo matter how far we are apart now, my heart is there to stay cause
\nThat is the treasure of my home, our island dream<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

I couldn\u2019t resist taking this photo! A little jet lagged, and after several glasses of wine, Masaru fell asleep on our deck. Still in position to play A7! (BTW he\u2019s laying on my reversible, outdoor textile, \u201cFrames\u201d for Anzea.)<\/p><\/div>Masaru and his band BEGIN got their first break performing for a Japanese TV show, similar to our American Idol, over 25 years ago. When they won the first round they had no idea that they had to continue and write four more songs for subsequent shows. They had only written one song, but somehow they produced the songs in time and won the contest.<\/p>\n

The three band members Eish\u014d Higa (vocalist), Hitoshi Uechi (piano), and Masaru (guitarist) have been friends since elementary school and have been performing together ever since. In March, 2015 they released their 25th anniversary album.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Masaru Shimabukuro, BEGIN the band, and Okinawa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","hentry","category-just-jhane","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jhanebarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jhanebarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jhanebarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jhanebarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jhanebarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1051"}],"version-history":[{"count":63,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jhanebarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1119,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jhanebarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051\/revisions\/1119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jhanebarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jhanebarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jhanebarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}