This Saturday (March 13) we were all celebrating St. Patrick's Day in Koza City. You all know that we're ahead of the States time-wise, but I bet you didn't realize we were THAT far into the future. :) Realistically, it's difficult to have a good all-day festival during a weekday, so we're just saying St. Patrick's Day came early to Okinawa.
They had shut down Park Avenue and had three music "stages" and lots of food all day long. Earlier in the day, they had a parade, but we opted to go a bit later in the afternoon and grab some dinner.
At one end of the street, we watched a traditional Okinawa performance. I love the large bright yellow flowers on the trees this time of year! Aren't they gorgeous?
The band had some enthusiastic audience participation dancing to the music.
There was another music area set up halfway down the street, where we stopped to hear a band play "Zombie" by the Irish band, "The Cranberries." I didn't get any photos of that, so you'll just have to use your imagination. (Japanese band singing Irish band's song in English.)
We made our way to the other end of the street and it got progressively more crowded as we neared Paddy Mac's Irish Pub, an honest to goodness Irish-owned and run bar located on our little island. They were one of the major sponsors of the St. Patrick's Day Festival. (Side note: it was so much fun to see everyone wearing so much green!)
We'll definitely go back another night when it's not so incredibly packed and see if we can't find a corned beef sandwich for Brandon to officially celebrate St. Patrick's Day.
Brandon did enjoy a glass of Guinness in honor of the holiday. And check out his green shirt! He's supporting Okinawa (the shisa), Jamaica (the colors and flag), and Ireland (the green shirt) all in one tee!
We watched a rock band in front of the pub. I was getting hungry, so we didn't stay long enough to find out if they actually played a Flogging Molly song or not. We ended up eating at a little eatery that specialized in Jamaican and Thai foods. We both had Jerk Chicken sandwiches. Yummy!
No St. Patrick's Day is complete without a bagpiper, right? (And a guy in the audience wearing a green wig.)
Wandered back up to Paddy Mac's to listen to an energetic Japanese brass band and we called it a night after a rousing rendition of "Why Can't We Be Friends." We had a lot of fun and look forward to next year's celebration!
---Arielle