Beth V Powell

Take That First Step

Posted on August 9, 2016August 9, 2016 by Beth V Powell

“The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you’re not going to stay where you are.”

J.P. Morgan

Take the first step…

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Okinawa Part III: Here I Am!

Posted on August 8, 2016August 12, 2016 by Beth V Powell

This is the final post in this three part series. I see now that it would’ve been a fantastic experience to share with you had I posted all along during the nine months I’ve been here. Hey, I never claimed to be perfect!

This island is small (smaller than NJ) but feels vast. There are several main highways and one toll rode. Unless you travel to the far North, there’s not a lot of open space. I am always amazed because plants that we typically see in the states as potted house plants are growing as plantings around people’s homes like we would plant azaleas, boxwood, pansies. But these are what are commonly called pregnant onions, dragon plants, and several more. I will miss that.

The first time I had an opportunity to use one of our company rental cars I was nervous. I’m a good driver and can drive a variety of sizes and types of vehicles, but I’ve never driven on the ‘wrong’ side of the road. After a little practice on some less traveled roads near the apartment I got the hang of it pretty quickly. I’m sure when I get home it will take some time to go the side of my car where the steering wheel actually is!

It is my understanding that Okinawans drove on the right until the 1970’s when some changes took place with ownership and some other political issues and it changed to the left.

Everyone drives pretty slow here. The speed limit is 50 kph which is about 30 mph. That’s if you are traveling along at the speed limit. Often you are sitting in traffic. Traffic isn’t bad, but I will look forward to going home and being able to get on an Interstate and just drive even at the speed limit. Because of this accidents are rare and there aren’t the fatalities we have in the U.S. The toll rode speed limit is 80 kph which is just under 50 mph. It feels like you are screaming down the road.

All the vehicles are pretty small. They are generally brands that we have in the U.S, but because of some licensing issues they can’t use the model names we have. Because of that it’s next to impossible to export a car here to the U.S. The vehicle names are hilarious too. The Suzuki Mr. The Toyota Funcargo. The Honda AirWave. Once in a very great while you see a U.S. vehicle that a service member had shipped. They stand out like a sore thumb. I’ve seen a couple of classics, a jacked up truck, and a PT Cruiser.

Because the island is small, you can’t get very lost. The rental cars have GPS so you can see the road numbers and where you are, but you can’t type in an address because it’s all in Japanese. You can type in a phone number in some cases. I’ve tried to just follow my nose and see what I find. I’ve never been lost or not able to find my way home.

I shop at the 100 yen store which is the equivalent of the Dollar Tree at home except I think they have a much better variety at the 100 yen store.

No matter WHERE you go on Okinawa, hospitality is phenomenal. We could learn so much from these people as Americans. When you enter any business no matter the size, type, or how busy it is you are greeted. No exceptions. Cashiers can be running registers with lines of people and still will look up and greet you and welcome you. When you check out and pay for a service, food, or merchandise you are thanked many times not just when you pay, but as you are exiting. Generally it’s about 3 thank you’s.

Okinawan and Japanese people bow and I’m accustomed to bowing. Not huge deep bows, but enough. As you are thanked for your business with so much sincerity they bow to you and you say thank you and bow. As they continue thanking you I find myself backing out the door continuing to bow and thank them. It’s polite and respectful. It’s such a welcome change. When was the last time you had a customer service experience that made you feel like a person or business is there to serve you in the best way they can.

It is written in many reports of both Japanese and Americans prior to World War II that the hospitality of these people stood out to everyone that visited.

As a matter of history, the Okinawa people do not have much allegiance to the Japanese. They were living happily when Japan took them over. They had their own language and laid back ways. Prior to World War II the Japanese started arriving knowing that this was the last defense before Allies invaded their home in Japan. They were terribly mean to the people here. They already treated them like trash and believed they were disposable people. That became a terrible time for anyone in Okinawa. The Japanese showed up and took over. They forbid them from using their dialect for fear they would be spying, keeping secrets, talking about them, or siding with the Allies. You get the idea. The children were pulled from their homes and schools and forced into labor.

The Okinawans lost so much. They lost their homes, land, family, respect, language and a large percentage were killed either during the attacks or forced to commit suicide by the Japanese to avoid capture. But with all that, they are as hospital and friendly as if nothing ever happened. You can’t help but treat them with respect.

I had the honor to meet a survivor and visited a memorial service on their version of Memorial Day. It was an honor and very moving. I would have never learned this or developed these opinions if I hadn’t lived here. For that I am grateful.

Did you know that after the war Japan tried to pawn the island off on the Americans and really didn’t want it? Did you know that Okinawa tried to become an American territory and created a flag, a petition of signatures, and many other aspects? I was really surprised.

I will miss much here and will forever be changed.

Okinawa Part II: Arrival and Assimilation

Posted on August 6, 2016August 5, 2016 by Beth V Powell

I arrived in Okinawa the weekend before Thanksgiving 2015 via Tokyo. I was prepared for the customs in Tokyo based on my trip to China mentioned in Part I. My initial stay was at a hotel on Camp Foster USMC base in Okinawa. I stayed there until I found an apartment and got settled in with some purchases.

I wished I’d been more prepared as I could have saved money and brought sheets, towels, and some basic necessities. I planned to live as simply as possible and not have a lot to take home when the assignment ended and I returned to the states. The apartment was furnished and even had some dishes someone left behind so I had a good start at setting up my new home.

It was more than a month before I could get a base pass to shop or even work on base so I did all of my shopping off base. That was a real advantage I later learned. I wasn’t startled by the local stores because my Chinese daughter-in-law bought products from the local Taipei store in Roanoke and I had been there a few times. Plus, I’d been taken to some local restaurants by my working partner who lived on the island (a retired Marine) and between both experiences I was able to find plenty of products I liked and wanted to try.

One of the first necessities was a rice cooker. I’d only used Minute Rice at home, but knew my daughter-in-law had a rice cooker and when I visited China every home had a huge one. My landlord took me to a local department store to buy some curtains and I saw they had rice cookers that seemed inexpensive. Granted they were all in Japanese, but how hard could that be?

IMG_20151220_113725

Japanese Rice Cooker

My friend told me that rice is a very important part of the Okinawan culture and there are many choices as well as very expensive ones to give as gifts. He advised me to purchase a mid-range priced rice and try it and then move up or down from there. I’ve actually liked the first choice I made and used it ever since.

The photo button was pretty obvious and it came with two measuring cups. There were also graduated markings on the inside of the removable pot. I knew that the ratio of water was 2:1 of rice. I made rice and it actually came out. It was fluffy, yet sticky so easy to eat with chopsticks.

I took a photo of the front panel and sent it to my daughter-in-law. I knew there was a difference in the writing, Kanji, between different Asian cultures but hoped she could tell me what the different buttons meant. It was funny because she said one was for white rice, one for brown rice, and the third button she didn’t know!

If you didn’t know it, a rice cooker stays on warm after it cooks the rice for about 18 hours. During my first month in the apartment I was strapped for money and ate a lot of rice!

I bought fresh salmon that was very thin and delicious and became a staple for my meals. It was very inexpensive. I dread the thought of returning to the U.S. and no longer having this available. For $5 or less I had enough salmon for two meals. Hard to beat, right? IMG_20160131_1134569_rewind

One of the things that I found that separated Okinawa from the U.S. other than types of food and freshness of food was quantity. When you go to a restaurant, you get what’s called a ‘set’. That’s a combo in the U.S. Except it’s also different from a combo in that it generally contains miso soup, and several items to make the ‘set’. Often there will be a small cookie or something sweet and matcha tea or oolong tea.

At the grocery store, quantities are small. You don’t buy a pound of bacon or several pound package of steak or pork. You buy small packages that are very thinly sliced of whatever it is. You see quarts of milk not gallons. You see individual bottles of soft drinks, not 2-liter bottles or 6-packs. You see small loafs of bread with 6-8 slices though the slices are as thick or thicker than Texas toast.

The vegetables are all fresh and delicious, but are also small. Cucumbers are as skinny as two of my fingers. Sweet potatoes (a staple here and even available in bags for enjoyment the way we might see fresh peanuts on the street) are thin and smaller than my wrist. Lettuce comes in half a head and celery or fresh herbs come just a few stalks instead of an entire bunch.

On the contrary carrots are HUGE! Bok choy is big and what I think is referred to as Napa Cabbage is big.

Soba noodles are very popular here, but Taco Rice is everywhere. The Okinawan poeple love it!

IMG_20151221_1221437_rewind — Taco Rice Set

Follow this series as we explore driving in Okinawa (what it’s like to drive on the wrong side of the road!), getting around, and the wonderful Okinawans. Sign up here to get emailed updates.

Okinawa Part I: How I Got Here

Posted on August 3, 2016August 3, 2016 by Beth V Powell

You may wonder what it’s like living in another country. You can’t drive home on weekends and holidays, but if you embrace it you will find it to be a wonderful experience.

In October 2015 I began discussions with my current employer to take a position performing work as a government contractor. The initial question was “Do you mind travel?” I didn’t. Then it was “Are you willing to live overseas?” After I expressed an interest, the process that got me here to Okinawa began picking up speed and happened almost overnight.

I might not have been interested or might have been too fearful. But several years ago now my son made a trip to China to meet a girl he met online. He assured me that he’d taken precautions to make the trip and have it laid out whether she actually showed up or not or turned out to be creepy (which she wasn’t). He’d gone through the passport application and came home with some amazing stories and photos.

Only a few months after that he came to me and said he was going to move there. He was quite put out with me when I replied, “O.K.”. He told me that he’d planned this big speech to convince me. Hey, he was 18 and should live his life. So, he sold most of his possessions and left for China the following spring. He planned to receive training to teach English as a foreign language (TEFL) and had a job lined up. He ended up living there for two years. Partly because he wanted to prove to her parents that he wasn’t there just to snatch their only daughter away to never see her again and partly because of the process involved in getting paperwork for her immigration to the U.S.

My late husband and I got our passports. We were looking forward to making a trip to China for the wedding scheduled for April 2010 and meeting her parents.

I was asked many times over those two years if I missed my son. I laughed and would always respond that it was hard to miss him when I talked to him on Skype ever day and sometimes more than once. It was as if he never left. (Though the house was cleaner!)

My husband’s cancer, Multiple Myeloma, got worse in 2009 and he died that September. He could’ve hung on a little while longer, but we had agreed that I would intervene if the quality of life wasn’t there and that’s what I did. I didn’t want to say good-bye to my best friend and soul mate, but I knew that the person with me wasn’t the same so I held up my end of the deal. I also kept my promise to have him cremated in his favorite ratty old denim shorts, worn out shoes, Army jacket from college in the 60’s covered in patches and a stash of weed in the pocket. (I think the funeral director must have thought I was insane!)

The week before I was to fly to Shanghai, China for two weeks I was diagnosed with endometrial cancer. I wasn’t terribly surprised, but it was rather ironic. I had a wonderful relationship with my gynecologist and he told me that it was extremely early and that it’s slow growing and that I should go to China and enjoy myself and not worry about it. We scheduled surgery for a complete hysterectomy in late May before I left. I did just that.

My time in China went pretty fast as you might imagine. I was really grateful that I wasn’t there just as a tourist. I got to go to every day places and got to go out to a small village where her parents lived and meet what seemed like hundreds of relatives that came for the wedding. People came from all over.

There was an entire room of their house just for fireworks! These were what we would see as professional fireworks in the U.S. It was just amazing. That’s a practice there to set off fireworks for such events.

There was so much food and so much booze and so many people to meet. You drink your alcohol in a bowl and the bride and groom and family would go from table to table and everyone would toast you. Well, you can imagine that if everyone is toasting you how much the bride, groom, and family are drinking to toast every person they come too?

On top of that, my husband had already challenged her father to a drinking contest. Damn him. We were planning on having scotch, but customs made sure that didn’t make it. So her Papa wanted me to drink with him. When you do this you drink down as quickly as you can and turn your bowl upside down. So here I was trying to be respectful and drink down beer (which I don’t care for anyhow) and beat Papa. I thought once was it, but oh no! He kept pouring and he and the uncles at the table and I chugged I can’t even begin to tell you how many bowls of beer. Needless to say, I got wasted on my son’s wedding day.

So, in November 2015 I left Roanoke, VA and drove to Woodbridge, VA to stay with a friend. She was in the Marine Corp and lived in Japan and tried to teach me some Japanese. She took me to the airport the next day where I flew from Dulles to Tokyo and then Tokyo to Okinawa.

Please sign up to receive the next installment in this series. I’ll share with you my apartment, shopping and driving, the people, and what I’ve learned about Okinawa.

Stay tuned!

What have your hobbies taught you?

Posted on July 28, 2016August 3, 2016 by Beth V Powell

It’s said that hobbies are healthy. I can remember hearing about to local dry cleaner where I lived once who worked hard and saved all his life. He retired and had plans to travel with his wife with their savings. The day after he retired he died.

Some of us have too many hobbies. I’ve had some hobbies I used to enjoy and was considered skilled at such as plastic model building, a skill learned from my dad. I made dioramas and competed in national events. That would be an attention to detail if you were listing hobbies as resume skills. I also learned to see a project through. I sold a few dioramas as well. Taking an idea or out-of-the-box template and creating a winning business with imagination sound familiar?

I grew up in the old car hobby. I can work on older vehicles and know quite a bit about identifing different makes, models, and years. The specs, how driving an older vehicles from the 1940’s through 1960’s differs quite a bit from today or even 20 years ago. Taking tried and true classics in any condition and make them fit in today’s world can translate into a variety of business situations. You have been using the same management style you learned in school and it’s not working? Time to update it.

I enjoy genealogy and history. We learn a lot from where we’ve been to be able to understand the imporance of moving forward even in directions that we couldn’t imagine 5 or 10 years ago.

I collect a wide range of ‘junk’ to some even though I’m a minimalist at heart. I’m always evolving in this aspect the way we all must evolve to be successful in our personal lives or business ventures.

Lastly, I volunteer and spread the message that we all have something to give and should give something of ourselves. There is nothing better for your soul or your ability to look at any situation more openly than to volunteer with something you feel passionately about. If you’re not passionate, then it won’t mean nearly as much. We must be open minded and open to new ideas to be successful in any business venture.

I’m interested in what your hobbies have taught you? Email me or leave a comment.

Who will you influence?

Posted on July 26, 2016August 3, 2016 by Beth V Powell

I recently had a conversation with my dad. We talked about some of the books I’ve been reading and he brought up the idea that he believed because I was raised in a small business environment I was better prepared for the world and more open in business. I never gave that any thought EVER. Do you think it’s made any difference in your life?

Yes, when I was very young my father ran the local airport. He was a flight instructor also. He started his own trucking business when I was in elementary school. I began answering phones after school and taking messages. My voice has never been feminine so people would always comment on how polite his ‘son’ was on the phone. I later began making appointments and by late junior high I was doing quotations for customers. In high school I took some accounting classes and did the day-to-day accounting which transferred to my grandmother who was in business for herself as a public accountant and who did our taxes at the end of the year.

I also learned a lot from my grandmother. She worked in the trucking business for decades in freight claims near the end. She began working from home and doing books for a number of clients and doing audits for businesses and her church. Come January she was always swamped with income tax business through April. She wouldn’t turn anyone away. She did this until the day she died at age 98. A true inspiration.

I don’t know that I am any more rounded than anyone else, but I do have a background and positive experiences in business. I know how important it is to look and act professionally. I realize how important word of mouth and customer service is. Any of these not handled well can sink a business. I ran my own business for 10 years.

I’ve done other business as well even if not officially a business. For a few years I ‘flipped’ cars. Before the Internet I would buy rust free cars in Oklahoma where I lived and adverstise them in Old Cars Weekly, a national paper, and sell and deliver them to buyers in the rust belt.

I’ve also been a very successful eBay seller. I started in 2001 when my late husband (before we married) began moving some of his belongings from Philadelphia (where he lived) to Roanoke, Virginia (where I lived). There was a lot of overlap or things he decided to part with. We would make sure everything was clean and take excellent marketing photos. He would generally write the descriptions as he was a great writer. We researched similar items that sold and were selling to find our starting price. We sold some amazing stuff we never believed. After his death I carried on and spent six months carefully cleaning, photographing, and researching vintage go-kart speed parts and lived on that alone.

I was fortunate enough to have a lot of great role models in my family. Everyone contributed in some way to who I am today. We all have opportunities to influence people. You don’t need to have children to influence someone. How you act, what you write, what you do with your life can all influence. Who will you inspire today? Will it be something you say at dinner? Will it be something you write give pause and makes someone think? We all have that power. It’s what you choose to do with it that matters. Who will you influence?

The Next Starfighter

Posted on July 26, 2016August 3, 2016 by Beth V Powell

I read today that the last VCR is being manufactured. Who would have predicted this? I suppose it’s natural for any of us to view places or things in our lives that we took for granted and look at where we’ve come and wonder where we are going?

Movies that once seemed phenomenal ‘back in the day’ look terribly outdated when you settle in to watch one after having seen the fantastic effects of today.

I am a geek through and through, but I have always been a cautious geek. I don’t generally jump on the latest bandwagon. I want to, but I generally want to research or wait to see how it pans out.

When VCR’s came out, I didn’t rush out and buy one or one of the laser disc players also popular at the time. I waited until after all the dust settled and then chose to purchase. The first two movies I purchased were Top Gun and Lady and The Tramp. Quite a combination, huh?

When Virgin Mobile introduced pre-paid cell phones at Best Buy I was primed and ready. I was sending a son off to college and they were $14.99 so I purchased a pair. The antenna stuck up like a small walkie-talkie and my son was less than impressed. You only had to pay $20 every 90 days to keep service unless you used that and could add time as needed. Later as everyone was switching to smart phones I traded my old Virgin Mobile in for a flip phone. It made and received calls which was what a phone was supposed to do. I could easily slip it into my pocket.

Two years ago I lost my beloved flip phone. I searched and searched. At that time Amazon came out with their Fire phone. I already loved my Kindle Fire and while the price was more than I was willing to pay, I decided that it was time to move into the smart phone era. I miss the ability to easily fit the phone in my pocket, but I have come to depend on this new tool I can’t imagine going back. Unfortunately the Amazon phone didn’t take off.

Now I’ve just ordered a new phone through fi.google. The pricing was right at $20 for phone service and $10/GB. If you don’t use all the data you pay for it will be refunded on your next bill. My research indicates it’s a good deal for me. I’ll let you know.

I’ve embraced other technology such as Roku, Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube. I use a Kindle to read magazines and books even though I prefer the feel of a book in my hands. I know this method will take up less space and that was my goal.

I think outside the box as well. I installed Internet access at my father’s house in remote Southwestern Pennsylvania. He lives in the woods and can’t get cable or satellite. He used to receive all the Pittsburgh and Johnstown television stations until the digital change. Now he doesn’t receive any. I’ve set him up with a Roku and while he doesn’t have or want a computer he can watch programs on Hulu that he misses on regular television and watch movies on Netflix.

I also bought him an HP Printer with e-print. It’s our lifeline. The printer has an email address and I only need to send him an email no different from anyone with email and it prints directly at his printer with no intervention from him. I also have a printer driver so I can print anything from the Internet to the printer. He loves it! In addition, we upgraded to the next model up and now he can scan to email. He places a handwritten note under the glass and chooses ‘scan to email’ and it selects my email and sends me his handwritten note. He writes me a few times a week depending on what’s going on. This doesn’t replace our weekly calls, but it makes us feel more connected.

Author: Beth V Powell

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