Specifically, the new office is designed to deal with problems around the Senkaku Islands that has been lately the focus of a heated dispute of ownership between Japan and China. Japan that administers the islands says there is no dispute regarding the ownership and that the islands are inherently Japanese territory, while China says the islands, which it calls Diaoyu, have historically been Chinese territory that Japan has annexed illegally.

The new Naha office has five patrol boats in its disposal, and is divided into three subdivisions of administrative, security and rescue, and maritime traffic.

Spectators watch when street dancer put on their best moves at Music Town on May 25.

Entrants are still being sought for the Saturday, May 25^th Koza Street Dance Festa taking place in the Music Space in Koza Music Town Oto-Ichiba.

Audience cheers their favorite performers as they compete.

Entries are being accepted 11:30 a.m. ~ noon, with the dancing getting under way at 1 p.m. and running through early evening.  Spectator participation is free.  KSDF this time will hold B-BOY 1on1 BATTLE, from which a champion will acquire the tournament seed to “Red Bull BC One Japan Cypher” held in Tokyo on August 25^th, and will participate as the representative of Okinawa.

Who will gain the crown of “Red Bull BC One” which determines the No.1 B-Boy of the world, and who gains the ticket to which it challenges to the world?

The winner of the contest gets the right to go to the championships in Tokyo.

That’s going to depend on who signs up to compete.  Details are at the official website http://www.redbullbcone.com/home, or by calling (098) 932-1949 and talk to Music Town Oto-Ichiba.

Since its birth in the late 70s, B-Boying has been announced dead several times, but it’s still alive and kicking, very much so! Today a vibrant and well connected B-Boy scene exists worldwide. One of the most important B-Boy competitions is the Red Bull BC One, where 16 of the world’s best B-Boys meet to compete and to determine in a 1-on-1 knock-out-battle who is “The One.”

The challenge is to find dancers from all continents ready to set new standards and show state of the art breaking.

Extraordinary artistic skills, an outstanding character, and a good reputation in the community are the success formula to get selected as a dancer for the Red Bull BC One. The challenge lies in finding influential dancers from all continents ready to set new standards and show state of the art breaking.

B-Boy battles have their roots in 1-on-1 competitions. During the past 15 years these 1-on-1 battles have been pushed to the background as crew competitions became more popular at the big events. Red Bull’s objective was to go back to the roots and show B-Boying in the most spectacular and powerful way.

The first Red Bull BC One was hosted in 2004 in Switzerland. Since then, the annual competition has moved from Germany to Brazil, South Africa, France, USA, Japan, Russia, with last year’s event being held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In 2013, the world final will move to Korea. Around 60 national Cyphers, leading up to 6 regional finals will help to determine the 16 B-Boys to compete for the legendary belt this year. The Red Bull BC One title remains the most coveted prize in B-Boying, and celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. Let the battle begin.

Starting early is important, and the Fighting Karate open Tournament has categories for competitors of all ages.

The main arena of the Ginowan Civic Gymnasium is the venue for the Fighting Karate Open Tournament on May 26^th.

Doors to the Sunday events, which are free to the public, open at 9 a.m., with competition getting under way at 10 a.m.

“Byakuren Kaikan” origins come from Chinese Shaolin martial arts and not Karate, although the organization calls itself a “karate organization.”

Byakuren Kaikan, a Karate organization with more than 60 branches scattered across Japan, is sponsoring this annual tournament. This Karate organization is the party of the Chinese martial art, which Masayasu Sugihara established in 1984. The uniqueness of “Byakuren Kaikan” is that it’s origins come from Chinese Shaolin martial arts and not Karate.

Therefore, it consists of both hard methods and soft methods. The hard method is poking, kicking, etc., while the soft method is throwing, sub mission, etc. There is a close resemblance between these two methods and the style of Chinese Shaolin martial arts. However, the “Byakuren Kaikan” calls itself a “karate organization.”

In this tournament, many fighters gather from all areas throughout Okinawa, and they vie in the strength. There are four “Byakuren Kaikan” dojo branches in Okinawa, which are located in Ginowan, Naha, Urasoe, and Okinawa City.

Karate began as a common fighting system known as te among the Pechin class of the Ryukyuans. After trade relationships were established with the Ming dynasty of China in 1372, some forms of Chinese martial arts were introduced to the Ryukyu Islands by the visitors from China, particularly Fujian Province.

A large group of Chinese families moved to Okinawa around 1392 for the purpose of cultural exchange, where they established the community of Kumemura and shared their knowledge of a wide variety of Chinese arts and sciences, including the Chinese martial arts. The political centralization of Okinawa in 1429 and the policy of banning weapons, enforced in Okinawa after the invasion of the Shimazu clan in 1609, are also factors that furthered the development of unarmed combat techniques in Okinawa.

There were few formal styles of te, but rather many practitioners with their own methods. One surviving example is the Motobu school passed down from the Motobu family by Seikichi Uehara. Early styles of karate are often generalized as Shuri-te, Naha-te, and Tomari-te, named after the three cities from which they emerged. Each area and its teachers had particular kata, techniques, and principles that distinguished their local version of te from the others.

Members of the Okinawan upper classes were sent to China regularly to study various political and practical disciplines. The incorporation of empty-handed Chinese Kung Fu into Okinawan martial arts occurred partly because of these exchanges and partly because of growing legal restrictions on the use of weaponry. Traditional karate kata bear a strong resemblance to the forms found in Fujian martial arts such as Fujian White Crane, Five Ancestors, and Gangrou-quan. Many Okinawan weapons such as the sai, tonfa, and nunchaku may have originated in and around Southeast Asia.

Sakukawa Kanga had studied pugilism and staff fighting in China, according to one legend, under the guidance of Kosokun, originator of kusanku kata. In 1806 he started teaching a fighting art in the city of Shuri that he called “Tudi Sakukawa,” which meant “Sakukawa of China Hand.” This was the first known recorded reference to the art of “Tudi”. Around the 1820s Sakukawa’s most significant student Matsumura taught a synthesis of te (Shuri-te and Tomari-te) and Shaolin styles. Matsumura’s style would later become the Shaolin-Ryu style.

Matsumura taught his art to Itosu Anko, among others. Itosu adapted two forms he had learned from Matsumara. These are kusanku and chiang nan. He created the ping’an forms which are simplified kata for beginning students. In 1901 Itosu helped to get karate introduced into Okinawa’s public schools. These forms were taught to children at the elementary school level. Itosu’s influence in karate is broad. The forms he created are common across nearly all styles of karate. His students became some of the most well known karate masters, including Gichin Funakoshi, Kenwa Mabuni, and Motobu Choki. Itosu is sometimes referred to as “the Grandfather of Modern Karate.” In 1881 Higaonna Kanryu returned from China after years of instruction with Ryu Ryu Ko and founded what would become Naha-te. One of his students was the founder of Goju-ryu, Chojun Miyagi. Chojun Miyagi taught such well-known karateka as Seko Higa (who also trained with Higaonna), Meitoku Yagi, Miyazato Eiichi, and Seikichi Toguchi, and for a very brief time near the end of his life, An’ichi Miyagi (a teacher claimed by Morio Higaonna).

In addition to the three early te styles of karate a fourth Okinawan influence is that of Kanbun Uechi.  At the age of 20 he went to Fuzhou in Fujian Province, China, to escape Japanese military conscription. While there he studied under Shushiwa. He was a leading figure of Chinese Nanpa Shorin-ken style at that time. He later developed his own style of Uechi-ryu karate based on the Sanchin, Seisan, and Sanseiryu kata that he had studied in China.

The return of the Futenma Marine Corps Air Station site in Ginowan to Japan is likely to take “at least 10 to 15 years,” Maj. Gen. James Kessler, head of Marine Corps’ Installations Command, has told a subcommittee meeting of the Senate Committee on Appropriations.  Last month, the Japanese and U.S. governments agreed that the site of the Futenma base will be returned to Japan in fiscal 2022 or later.

The return will be achieved that year if the relocation of the base to the Henoko district of Nago City progresses as planned, according to the agreement. The relocation plan has drawn strong opposition from Okinawa leaders and citizens.

Kessler is the first one on the U.S. side who has acknowledged in public the possibility that the fiscal 2022 target may not be met.  Kessler added that the Marine Corps hopes to secure $47 million  over the coming three years to cover repair costs that will result from the continued use of the Futenma facility.

Patrick Ventrell, the department’s acting deputy spokesman, made the remark after the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China, on Wednesday carried an article by a researcher that questions Japan’s sovereignty over the southernmost island prefecture.

At a news conference, Ventrell also said his country “does not take a position on the underlying question of the ultimate sovereignty of the Senkaku Islands.”

China claims the uninhabited East China Sea islands, part of Okinawa Prefecture, as its own.

Ventrell did not say whether the move by the People’s Daily represents a unilateral provocative act.

May 4 is a national holiday in Japan called “Midori-no Hi” or “Green Day,” and one of a string of national holidays commonly known as the Golden Week.

The “Se-fa Utaki” is now one of the UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites in Okinawa. It’s one of the so called “Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Ryukyu Kingdom,” and was registered as a World Heritage Site in 2000. Before, it attracted almost 30,000 visitors a year.

Then in 2006, four towns and villages were merged into Nanjo City, and a museum was built adjacent to the site to study the Se-fa Utaki, and other aspects of the culture and history of Nanjo City.

After the facility was built, the number of visitors soared to 142,157 in 2007, increasing to 438,157 in 2012. Last year May 4, also the “Midori-no Hi” holiday set the record at 3,013, and this year set again a new record at 3,146.

A staff member at the facility said a combination of Okinawa Prefecture’s tourism promotion and a good weather brings such a high numbers of tourists, although he added that more than 3,000 visitors in one day is rare.

Keisyun Koja the mayor of Nanjo City, promotes the facility and the public land just next to the site where a spring ceremony called “Uro-ka” scheduled to be held soon. That could attract even more people to the site.

According to a professional on the field, Himehabu grows to 40 – 50 cm long, but this one was 84 cm long and thus considered really rare. Makishi found the snake on the center of the road, and captured it with snake capturing equipment that he had in his car.

The snake is 84 cm long, weighs 970 g and has 15 cm “waistline” at the thickest part of its body. Makishi is a specialist in capturing snakes for the past 30 years, and said this is the first time ever he has captured such a large size Himehabu. Tsutomu Otani, the chief of Takada Reptile Laboratory Okinawa said “Habu grows non-stop if there is plenty of food and good environment for them, but its really rare that a specimen grows this large.”

Makishi says this is the season when there is plenty of rain, and the weather gets warmer, and habus came out to roads to hunt frogs. He says that this is an especially good season for spotting them. When asked what he plans to do with his large catch, he said that intends to use it to make habu sake.

Fontz Holdings, a company that runs a music distribution business in Tokyo has reportedly agreed to purchase the Relax Hotel in Maejima, in Naha, and will run the hotel as “Tune Hotel Naha” starting a couple of months from now.

Fonz Holdings has reportedly signed a contract to buy the Relax Hotel, which is currently run by Relax Kanko Co. in Naha, within the month of May for \1,000,000,000. They would then contract an associated company to run the hotel. A spokesman for Fontz Holdings says employees currently working in the Relax Hotel need to apply for continuing to work at the Tune Hotel, and there’re no guarantees to re-hire the entire current staff. Kazunari Agarie, the president of Relax Kanko Co. says that his company will assist the employee as much as they can.

Tune Hotels opened its first hotel in Malaysia in 2007, offering low cost accommodations with minimum service that include a bed, shower and toilet, but levies a charge for air conditioning, towels and any extra services. The hotel chain has expanded to Southeast Asia.

Fonz Holdings contracted with a company in Singapore, which runs a Tune Hotel chain, and after learning from them about the concept, decided to go into the hotel field in Japan. They are aiming to expand their hotel business throughout Japan starting from Okinawa.

For more information see Fonz Holdings’s website at http://fontz.jp/ (in Japanese only). Tune Hotels can be found in English at http://www.tunehotels.com/my/en/

Toshihiro Nakanishi, an Urasoe City worker spotted the two sharks, one 70 cm and the other about one meter long, in the river near Yui-rail Makishi Station. “I especially noticed their triangular dorsal fins sticking out of water, and that’s when I was sure they were sharks,” Nakanishi said.

Keiichi Sato, a staff member at the General Research Center of the Ocean Exposition Commemorative Management Foundation said that the sharks were likely bull sharks, because bull sharks can adapt to swim in fresh water, and sometimes they area found or caught in rivers. Especially infant bull sharks often appear in rivers before summer. Sato says bull sharks can grow up to three meters long when they become adults, and it is one of the shark species that attack people. However, very young bull sharks don’t attack people, but they still have very sharp teeth even when they are just babies, so people should keep that in mind if they happen to catch one.

The bus route runs from Toyosaki Churasan Beach in Tomigusuku to Bibi Beach in Itoman City, then on to Kokusai Street in Naha, and many places in between. The companies set up the bus route and share the costs in order to promote sites and facilities in southern part of the island, not only for peace studies but also the many leisure spots that are located in the area. Participating companies say that they felt they had to do something as most tourists tend to stay and travel around the middle parts of the island north from Naha area and especially during the summer season. There are a few regular bus routes in the south currently, and the service could provide much help for foreign visitors, and also local residents living there.

The buses are scheduled to run from Jul. 20 through Sep. 1, five round trips a day. aAnd having a capacity to carry 45 passengers at a time. Anybody can hop in for a ride, even people who do not stay at the hotels that organized the project. The bus starts at Bibi Beach in Itoman city, and continues through Naha Airport, Palette Kumoji and other stops taking about one hour for a round trip. It also stops near some Yui-rail stations allowing an easy access to Shuri and other sightseeing spots that are out of reach for the shuttle bus.

There was a similar project in Okinawa before, but mostly only people staying in participating hotels were allowed to ride.  It was also hard to manage. But this project gives a free ride to anyone, and organizers hope also local residents use the free buses, and get to know more about the southern parts of the island. The project even may spawn new ideas for the bvenefit of the residents of the south.