Ryukyu Life: 2019

Friday, February 1, 2019

A trip was made to Mt. Yae in northern Okinawa to check out the blossoms today.

The flowers are blooming in scattered fashion this year.

One tree may appear to be in full bloom and the next one might be bare.

So, you'll see families gathering around the best blooms for photos.

Not wanting to bother people for model releases, I just photographed the trees.

This year, for the first time, requests were made for donations on the drive up the hill.

Normal sized cars and motorcycles are asked to give 500 Yen.

This is to help maintain the trees, roads, and facilities associated with the festival.

That's a reasonable amount so, I gave them a thousand Yen and said, "Keep the change."

Last year's typhoons got the cherry trees confused and they were blossoming in Autumn.

It's rare to see the pink flowers and green leaves sprouting at the same time.

Normally, the blossoms are gone before the green leaves cover the trees.

It may get busy on the mountain this weekend especially if the weather cooperates.

The fresh air can be a little chilly but, it's refreshing when hiking up those hills.

Folks who have to go to work on weekdays should get up there this weekend.

Something tells me, it won't get much better than this in the coming weeks.

For directions try Google Maps

Sunday, January 20, 2019

Pages