Dear Mommy,
We also got to go to a place called Murasaki Mura. Jayme was excited to go. Here we are at the entrance. The dog/lions next to us are called Shisas. Shisas are the traditional protectors on Okinawa, and culturally are taken from the Chinese. Okinawa was not owned by the Japanese until recently and it has a rather unique blended culture since it used to be a very common trade stop because of its location. Culturally they have picked up many things from the Chinese and Japanese, but because the Americans have been here since World War II there are also some odd American traditions interspersed with it all. But the Shisa are the protectors all over Okinawa. They are lion/dogs and are found in pairs, one to let the good spirits through and the other to catch the bad spirits. Almost all homes and businesses have them and you can make your own here at Murasaki Mura. Jayme says she assumes there are ones people made and either couldn't or wouldn't pay for so they added them to the many decorations.
We got to walk around Murasaki Mura, but unfortunately we did not get to do any of the crafts there as it began to rain! Boo. Here are the pictures before the rain.
Maybe we'll get to go again one day, it sure looked pretty and some of the crafts they did there looked very neat.
More soon,
Thiele
