Naha’s Yogi Park

I visited Yogi Park when they were holding a festival and all I can say is that I am clueless as to why it was called a festival.

Hardly anyone was there. There weren’t really any vendors. I didn’t see a stage nor did I see anyone performing anything. It was weird.

Sure, I may have arrived to the park a tad bit early, but even after the festival was supposed to start, I didn’t really see much of a festival going on. Quite bizarre, if you ask me.

Disastrous festival aside, I did manage to take in the beauty of the park’s blooming flowers.

And the flower I ran into most was none other than the famous sakura (cherry blossoms). While my photos of the cherry blossoms came out rather attractive, the reality is that I couldn’t understand the hype behind these flowers. Like, why would anyone look forward to hanami each year just to look at these flowers? It was beyond me.

The funny thing is that my feelings toward sakura kind of changed after seeing a bunch of soft pink blossoms on the main island of Japan at Yoyogi Park.

I suppose there’s a certain charm when these trees are in full bloom and the blossoms flutter about.

Nature aside, the “best” part of my visit to this park had to be passing by a bunch of men during their training. Unfortunately, I didn’t really look at them but I believe they were firefighters. As Paris Hilton would say it,”That’s hot!” Lol (Yes, there’s a fire department across from Yogi Park.)

As for the worst part of my visit to this park, it surprisingly wasn’t the uneventful festival. It was actually the fact that I got harassed by an old man. And this harassment unfortunately set a certain stage for my Okinawa trip. I became extra wary of people. And I couldn’t find it in me to smile back at anyone that happened to smile at me, especially if they were male. Shame on this old man for harassing me and for actually having the guts to harass me in the first place!

The back story of this harassment is basically me, waiting around in one spot in hopes for the festival to transform into a legit festival only to be approached by this old man.

Ew is all I can say. He smiled and I thought he just wanted to say hi, which I’m cool with but no, it wasn’t just an effing hello. He had the audacity to plant himself down next to me and then, scooted himself into my personal space. He was basically right next to me and I’m like wtf.

I was confused, baffled, concerned and more.

This fool of an old man was trying to ask me or say something that I didn’t quite understand. While I know my Japanese skills are infantile, I like to think it’s not so infantile that I can’t make an intelligent guess. Based on the word he used, I think he was trying to “ask” me to go on a drive with him. I sure hope it wasn’t some slang for something more sleazy, but I honestly wouldn’t be surprised.

I put the word ask in quotes because I don’t feel like he was truly asking. He was being persistent about it with no regards to the fact that I was not happy with him being in my space and harassing me.

In the states, I think the average person would flip and make a scene. Unfortunately, I don’t think doing that works well in Japan (yes, including in Okinawa) so I tried hard to think of a non flippant way to get away from this creepy old man, while he had the nerve to rub my back.

The effer had the pleasure of rubbing my back four times before I finally figured out how to get away asap without actually making a scene. I remembered a phrase and used it to excuse myself from this disgusting man. The phrase was, “I’m busy” which of course would not work in the US but works in Japan.

I could see his face contort into a mixture of disappointment and anger. It was such an eyesore to see because only I had the right to be angry and disappointed. What right did he have to experience such emotions when he was the one that stepped into my space and harassed me?

Obviously, I got out of that park asap. Jittered from the harassment, I had enough adrenaline to walk all the way from the park to the beach, which is quite the distance if you ask me.

Due to my initial fear that he’d follow me, I power walked until I was certain that I could normalize my pace. I even stopped at one point and took a breather at a rest point because Okinawa’s sun was being so harsh.

Looking back on that day, where were all the “civil servants” at? I know I’m not hot like fire, but I probably would have liked for a firefighter, on or off duty to just intervene. But I suppose that’s not really a firefighter’s role in society, right? And besides, that’s just something that magically happens in drama series, right?

Firefighters aside, the park actually has a koban and an actual station across from the park. In the states, this would be the greatest deterrent against creeps. But I guess some creeps just don’t care, are too confident or have gotten away with their harassment way too many times to see right from wrong. That and the ugly fact that Japan, in general probably still has a very loose definition of what’s harassment and society shaming women that didn’t “ask for” harassment is another problem, altogether.

I am pretty certain that this dirty old man has harassed other women before and will continue to do so until he actually has to face consequences. I pray that women harassed by this man come forward. Even more important though, I pray that no woman ever gets harassed by him again.