So on my first day in Okinawa one of the first things I noticed was kinda how shabby, yet strong looking in buildings they have here. One of many things Kelly and I were never informed about living in Okinawa, was being a tropical island, Okinawa is subject to frequent typhoons. Or what they call them in the Atlantic "Hurricanes". If you look up Okinawa in Google maps the pin is larger than the island itself. Living on an island we are not protected by mountains or miles of american southeast to protect us from "dangerous" weather. So almost everything here is built to survive the typhoons the cell phone towers here look like something that should be atop a battleship.
Most every building here is built out of reinforced concrete (concrete + rebar). Some apartment's we have visited on the outside look huge but inside are rather small. I wonder why this construction technique hasn't been adopted back in the U.S. for certain Tornado stricken places. Why build your house out of sticks and get it blown down every year when you can build once. Reanna Kelly's JET predecessor says she's never lost power in the five years she's been in the apartment we inherited from her, which isn't common from what we have been told. Shortly after we arrived we were told to assemble a Typhoon kit with some food and water for a few days incase we loose power. Kelly and I have to be reminded that people have lived here for thousands of years and we will be fine.