The dialect of the southern islands is very different to the language in the main parts of Japan. Indeed, even each island group has different dialects. Miyako Island still has many different dialects - maybe 5 or more, corresponding to the towns they are spoken in. Even though Miyako is not so large, local people don't speak the dialect of other areas and use standard Japanese to communicate between communities.
One curious word that is used in the subtropical parts of Japan is 'ban shi rou' (sounds like "ban shi row"). And what does it mean? Guava, wild guava. They grow from the Amami Islands in Kagoshima to all the islands of Okinawa. Amami is the northern (and eastern) most area that the local word is used. At first I didn't know what people were talking about, and they didn't know what I was talking about! It was really confusing because the English word 'guava' is very similar in standard Japanese, but my neighbors never use the word. One day a neighbor was telling me I had a fruit in a tree in my garden and we couldn't understand each other until she pointed to it with a stick!
That same neighbor gave me the two guava in the picture above, from the land surrounding her mango farm. She and her family don't eat them! Which is lucky for us because she gives them to us when she finds ripe ones. They begin to fruit in spring and we can get them until winter.
The original tree in my garden probably grew there after a bird dropped the seeds, but it was broken in a typhoon last year and died. However, the previous year I'd put seeds into pots and grown seedlings, so now in another part of the garden I have several young trees growing together, and they have just started to flower. (The photo to the right with the big white flower, large leaves.)
I also have a strawberry guava which is a bred variety. A friend recommended that I plant one, and two years ago I found a seedling at the local plant nursery. Last year the sapling was also damaged in a typhoon, but this spring it has many, many flowers and baby fruit. I'm really looking forward to when they change to a wonderful bright red color!
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