Big Surprises

Big Surprises

I was stationed in Hanza Okinawa for one and a half years. I was young, twenty-two, and used to go to a lot of clubs with my friends. Sometimes we went to clubs at Kadena Circle, to meet local girls who liked to dance. I had been on the island for about a year, when I met a very cute Okinawan girl, named Yuki.

Yuki spoke no English, and I supplemented the little Japanese I knew with a language dictionary. Whenever you met a local girl you had to be careful. The local age of consent was nineteen, and the penalty was twenty years in an Okinawan prison, the prisoners subsisted on fish heads and rice.

I sat with her, and we talked in my limited Japanese with the help of my dictionary. She was twenty and attended the local college. We hit it off fine, and for the rest of my time in Okinawa, would meet at the same club, then go to other clubs, or back to my place. She never stayed the night, always insisting on taking a taxi home, before it got too late.

We were never serious, but enjoyed each others company. I had known her for about six months when my rotation time came. My friends decided to throw me a going away party at the club, in Kadena Circle, where we always met.

I was seated at a table with many friends, and some friends of friends, that I did not know well. After a couple of hours Yuki came in with some of her friends. She saw me at our table and came over. We talked for a while then she left with her friends.

An Okinawan I knew slightly was at the table. He looked at me quizzically, and said “Do you know Yuki?” I said, of course I knew Yuki.

He asked “How well do you know Yuki?” I told him pretty well, and I guessed he knew her too. He said yes, she went to school with his brother. I said “Oh, so your brother goes to college in Naha.” He answered “No, my brothers in high school.”

I was stunned. “High school, she told me she was twenty.” “No, she’s seventeen.” In Japan seventeen will get you twenty. I just sat there, frozen, not knowing what to say.

He looks at me, grins, and says “That’s not the worse part.” “What is worse than her being underage?” I demanded. “Her father hates Americans.” He answered with glee.

Still stunned I just looked at him “Crap.”

You could tell he was really enjoying this. He smiles and says “That’s not the worst.” “What is worse than being with an underage girl, whose father hates Americans?”

“Her father, very important, Okinawa Yakuza.” He stated. I looked at him, realizing that he was stringing me along. “I don’t believe you.” I said with a relieved grin.

He called another Okinawan over from another table. “What does Yuki’s father do?” he asked the other local. “Oh, he very big in Yakuza.” The other answered.

I don’t think I slept a minute, from that moment, until my plane took off for the states.