In the Spring of 1966 I returned to Okinawa after I had gotten out of the Army. I came to Okinawa to live and work in the private sector, not affiliated with the U.S. government or the military. Life on Okinawa was good, and the little island had changed somewhat since my high school days five years earlier. The Pizza House was still there, in fact, it was one of the first places that I visited upon my arrival on Okinawa. But there were a few other "new" places that didn't exist before. In the 1950s and the early 60s, the only decent Chinese restaurant in Naha was the Rai Rai Ken, which served food that was actually in the style of Japanese/Chinese food. Plaza House in Awase Meadows had a decent Chinese restaurant (Hong Kong style), and there was one in Koza that was supposed to be half way decent, but that was about it. However, in 1966 there was a very decent Chinese restaurant on Kokusai Dori, a couple of blocks south of Rai Rai Ken, called the Mandarin House that actually had better food than Rai Rai Ken or Plaza House. There was also a Korea House in the Machinato commercial area, a few doors down from the old Tuttle's Book Store and across the street from the Rendezvous Supper Club that had very good Korean food. There were a couple of excellent Japanese restaurants in Naha, especially a sushiya on Kokusai Dori, a few doors down from Ryubo Department Store. There were definitely more decent eateries and other places of entertainment.
Jo and I got married in the Fall of 1966. We first lived at a small one bedroom apartment called Yamashiro Apartments that was built and rented to almost exclusively U.S. military and civilian personnel. I think we were the only couple living in the complex (two apartment buildings) who were not affiliated with U.S. government. A few months later we moved to a house in an area called Onishi Terrace Heights in Ojana, which was on the east side of Highway One, between Machinato Housing Area and Futema. It was a three bedroom house, a bit much space for just the two of us, but it was all that was available! The private rental houses on Okinawa were very different from those in Japan. In Japan the houses were simply whatever was available and were not built specifically for U.S. personnel. On Okinawa, other than Okinawan houses, all the private rentals were designed and built to be rented to Americans. Housing on bases could not accommodate all of the families. This dated back to the 1950s, so enterprising Okinawan developers built housing for Americans and made a sizable profit. In many respects, living in one of those developments was not really all that different from living on base. The main difference was that there was no chain link fencing or guards at the gates since there were no gates! Otherwise, everyone around in those houses were either military or civilian government employees.
Our neighbors on one side was an Air Force family while the ones on the other side was a Navy family. All of our neighbors were Americans. Okinawans simply did not live in those houses. Rent by Okinawan standards was high, and the utility rates were "American" rates, 100% above what Okinawans paid. Still, it was cheap. Our rent for the three bedroom house was $90.00 a month and monthly utilities for water and electricity (there was no gas) amounted to about $50.00 combined. In contrast, a friend of mine, Jack, who was married to an Okinawan girl and had rented a house in her name paid about $5 a month for utilities! Still, it was cheap for us, we paid out less than a $100 a month for our housing and utilities.
Despite the fact that we had no access to PX/BX as non-government civilians, life was still cheap and good. Bakery goods from Jimmy's Bakery were always better than anything you could find in a commissary, and the baked goods were not only good, but cheap! Interestingly, you could get everything you wanted on the economy if you knew where to look for it. I don't know whether the stuff was stolen or what, but it didn't cost much more than commissary, some things cost the same!
Since we weren't all that much into cooking those first years, Jo and I took advantage of the "new" places and frequented the Mandarin House and a small Japanese restaurant in the back street of Naha. We also enjoyed the Korean barbeque, which was cheap and as good as any Korean barbeque anywhere. Of course the good old Pizza House was always a good place to get together with our friends, which we did frequently. Obviously, we ate out a lot!
Because of my life long passion for hunting, naturally I resumed my avocation and Jo joined me. We hunted just about all of the island, often with our good friend Jack, the one who was married to the Okinawan girl. Jack had been on Okinawa with the U.S. Army and upon leaving the service returned to the island and married his Okinawan girl friend and lived and worked in the private sector like us.
Although we hunted all over the island, as far north as Henoko and Nago, we mostly stayed in the south, around Camp Chinen, an area with which I was very familiar. I no longer could walk out the back gate and head for my favorite spots, but I could drive to those locations from our house in Ojana area. We revisited all of my favorite haunts, all of the locations which I had named, like "the Pond," "the Commo Site," the "Ravine," etc. The "Ravine" was actually my very favorite spot that I, along with my buddy Larry, discovered in the Fall of 1957. It was located about a half hour walk east of the back gate of Camp Chinen. It was a ravine, surrounded on three sides by steep wooded hills, with the bottom of the ravine being more or less a marshy area that surprisingly always held moorhens and woodcock in season. In, Snap Shots, the second chapter is named after my favorite old hunting dog, Robin. In it I describe how I purchased Robin from a pet shop in Roppongi, Tokyo in 1954 and trained him myself to be a bird dog. Robin came into his own on Okinawa, and the "Ravine" was the place that I am sure Robin remembers fondly if dogs remember the good old days in the Happy Hunting Grounds. It was only natural that the "Ravine" was one of the first places that I took Jo when we went hunting. It was also a place we visited frequently with our new pup, Mark, a German Shorthair Pointer.
Life on Okinawa in our first years of marriage was indeed carefree and fun. Because of my passion for hunting, Jo took to it like a good sport, learned to shoot and accompanied me all over the island.
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