Traditional Okinawan Dance and Song

Traditional Okinawan min'yō (民謡, a genre of traditional Japanese music) performed by students for a few Japanese-English translators after the Atheletes welcoming party for the 2006 World Triathlon Championships on Ishigaki Island.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• okinawa
• ishigaki
• min'yo
• dance
• song
• shamisen
• yaeyama
• cir

[iCraacked]

No. Okinawan is a different language than Japanese. Just as Hawaiian is different from English. As caecandy has pointed out, it was an island nation taken over about 150 years ago. Similar to Hawaii, except when it comes to Hawaii, it was illegally overthrown since Hawaii was an external sovereignty which means they were like any other country, just smaller.

I am proud of my Okinawan culture, which I get from my grandfather. And my Japanese culture whom my grandmother I am thankful of.

[ninjaman989]

lol! But this is okinawan!

[boosted98gst]

@FoochaTheObscure In our eyes we are alot different.....we look different as in skin color, build, diet, how we speak. I live in the states and can still tell an okinawan person before they even speak to me.

[blacknight811]

@FoochaTheObscure I lived in Okinawa for 5 years, and after living there yes I can visually tell the difference from a "mainland" Japanese person and an Okinawan person. Okinawa is a subtropical climate similar to a Guam or Hawaii. As such the Okinawan people are typically a darker skin complextion than mainlanders. They (at least a decent number of the women) are a little"thicker" than mainlanders as well. It may be your personal preference that these combinations appear to make them "prettier"

[lhn1111]

:)  ,happy

[FoochaTheObscure]

Hmm, have I noticed all wrong, but do Okinawan ppl look bit different from other japanese ppl? Just that it seems that Okinawan ppl look so young and...o.o prettier than the rest (NOT BEING RACIST. SERIOUSLY.)

[13421JLUJ]

Who needs to travel if you can see it all here.

Thank you, very interesting! :)

[xaoseph]

working that off-beat

[signedlongint]

There was nothing I could do to prevent myself from smiling the entire time this video played.

[minttea86]

such a beautiful video!! i really enjoy watching this... would you mind telling me if this song has a special name? i would like to hear other recorded versions of it. thank you!

[Tokyogirl83]

I totally LOVE this!!! It makes me very happy.

[ZeinaAhmed]

I didn't know there were differnent languages in the Japanese region! Can you still understand each other and still have simular words? By the way this dance is too cute!!