Saturday, January 31, 2009

Cherry Blossoms!

Okinawa is the first place in all of Japan to see the cherry blossoms start to bloom. Since the weather is so warm here, we are able to see them at the end of January. Every year, there is a cherry blossom festival on the northern part of the island, so we decided to check it out.
Of course as many of you have seen through pictures, there are always the weirdest, most random signs everywhere. I have passed this one a few times and finally was able to get a picture of it! I just want to make sure all of you know to make sure your vegetables are safely buckled in when you go anywhere! Ha ha! I really don't get the obsession with making everything a silly cartoon.
Anyway, back to the festival...Of course there is NO PARKING anywhere on this island, so after driving a few blocks we would up having to park at the convention center and walk 20 minutes. Oh well. The Japanese are really into festivals, and they are basically all the same. A bounce house, food, singers/musicians, and useless toys for children!
Here we tried our first chicken yakatori. It pretty much tasted like teriyaki, but it was on a stick, so it made it better and more fun to eat!
I LOVE cotton candy, so I had to get some. Believe it or not, this was the small bag!
Some of the other food, was a little, uh, questionable...
This festival is held near the ruins of an ancient castle. In order to get to the actual ruins, you must walk up over 700 steps! Whew! It took quite a while. I have a feeling my legs will be sore in the morning!
This picture was taken about halfway up. Its a fairly descent view of Okinawa.
Still walking...
Here's John posing!
Up at the top was something important, but all of the signs were in Japanese, so I'm sorry I can't tell you what it was! It made for a cute picture though!
We are really lucky many of the trees had already blossomed. It has been a really mild winter, so I think they started to come out a little early.
These are a few musicians that sang a bit for us. We are not exactly into this style, so we headed back home!
On the way back we encountered yet another strange sign. Scary. I don't think I would want to run into this animal!
All in all it was a nice day. The weather was a beautiful 75 degrees. Can't really beat that for January! We have some fun stuff planned for the weekend of Valentines Day, so stay tuned for some exciting pictures of us zip-lining over Okinawa!

2 comments:

The Trimble's said...

Zip-lining?!?!?! You guys live on the wild side!!!

Keeping up with the Jones' said...

WOW, I don't know if I have actualy seen real cherry blossoms or just pictures at Bath and Body Works! Anyways, I think now that me and Bobby are both working, we will really be able to come visit! We want to so bad!!