At a 2009 concert, Seijin Noborikawa, the grand-daddy of Okinawan folk music, told the audience about where he felt most at home when he visited mainland Japan. He described a neighborhood where passersby chatted in uchinaaguchi language, where shops served pig-trotter noodles and island songs seeped like honey from tiny backstreet bars. Noborikawa was talking about Yokohama's Tsurumi Ward, and in particular an area between the river and the docks that, due to its close ties to Japan's southernmost islands, has led it to be christened Okitsuru — a synthesis of "Okinawa" and "Tsurumi."