15 Photos from the Higashi Village Azelea Festival

These Flowers Will Brighten Up a Cloudy Day

 

 

Don't let the weather loonies, keep you locked up indoors this month.

One weather channel will predict heavy rain and, another says clouds and sunshine.

 Then, showers will come in late the afternoon.  They're all nuts.

Up into the hills of Higashi, we decided to go and, check on the azaleas, again.

It turned out to be a bit cloudy and hazy, at times but, we spotted sunshine sometimes, too.

Just peeking through the Tsutsuji Matsuri (Azelea Festival) sign, things were looking good.

 There were lots more bright colored flowers blooming than, last time we came here.

 These pretty girls, take your money and give you tickets, to get in, for only 300 Yen.

They remembered me, from the last time I was there.  Last Friday.

So, after joking around awhile, I asked if, I could take their picture.

And, got smiles with peace signs.  Little darlings.

 The stage, directly in front of this hillside of flowers, was a bit distracting.

But, I bet when there are dancers, up there, it looks much more attractive.

Not a big fan of cloudy, grey skies, I decided to keep the lens out of the sky.

Between a wide angle lens and a zoom, for close-ups, I shot lots of flower images.

With a camera, you could easily, spend two or three hours, walking those hills.

So, that's what Doc Graff and I, planned on doing, as long as, the rain held off.

Azaleas come in all sorts of colors so, I tried to get a variety to show everyone.

 There are still many flower buds, that haven't opened yet but, will in the near future.

 Not too wild about the pure white flowers, I preferred shooting mixed colors.

These things look psychedelic.  I wonder if anyone ever tried to smoke the things,

Just kidding but, they hurt my eyes.  What color are they, anyway ?

Mother Nature, provided a black backdrop for this pink flower.

It's actually a big rock, that had been rained upon, before we showed up.

Another thing it proved to be handy for, was blocking the wind from shaking the subject.

I shot more of these psychedelic things, in order to show you the unopened flower-buds.

Probably, during the next week these hills will see full bloom for the Azalea Season.

 One flower, in the center of this scene, appeared to be almost orange, in color.

 By now, I was feeling like, I had enough hill-climbing and flowers, for the day.

So,  I decided to take some parting shots, on the way out of there.

Here, you get Azalea Bridge, pine trees and, a bit of ocean, all in one snap of the shutter.

Down here, you can see families crossing the Azalea Bridge, from outside the park.

Do you suppose, we should head back up to those hills, next week ?

Fern Photos: Flying Spider-monkey Tree

Listed in the 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants as Rare

 

 

These fern trees grow all over the northern hills of Okinawa, Japan.

Those IUCN dudes should come over to the Ryukyu Islands sometime and, pay me a visit.

As soon as I find the recipe, I'm going to learn how to cook them.

That's because, according to local legend, people used to eat the young things.

The little golden sprouts, people claim, look like a spider-monkey's arms.

That's the part of the plant folks were eating, way before the microwave oven was invented.

Nowadays, everybody just hops in the car and drives to fast-food joints.

That couldn't have anything to do with getting FAT, could it ?

It would be best to chop those little monkey arms off while the tree is less than a meter tall.

You would have to climb way up to the top of the tree to grab some when they are full grown.

Normally, I don't carry a tape measure or, ruler with me when I'm out in the jungle.

Different sources say this tree grows 3-5 meters tall.

From my observations, I think they might get to be 10 meters or, taller.

The first two photos were taken on Mt. Yonaha, two days ago.

This photo shows the Flying Spider-monkey Ferns in 2009 at the Azalea Festival.

They are really pretty trees and, I probably wouldn't eat them.

But, I would, before I'd go chasing after a real monkey to eat !

Read more about these IUCN Threatened Plants at Trebrown

or

Dave's Garden

Flower Photos: Azalea This Ain't No Shrub, It's A Bonsai Tree !

Look what I found yesterday.  This bright-colored bunch of flowers grows on a tree next to a red-tiled roof in Okinawa, Japan.  This beauty isn't a whole 20 seconds walk from my house.

So, when the rain stopped for a few seconds, I grabbed the wife and the camera.  She thinks she knows everything so, I asked her to tell me what that tree was growing all those flowers.  She says it's azaleas.

Well, I told her she must be crazy. Azaleas grow on little bushes. 

I shoot them at the Azalea Festival up in the mountains and Azalea Season was over a long time ago.

Look at the size of that freakin plant.  It's a tree. 

That's me, with the camera, across the street.  I'm not exactly a midget, ya know.


It turns out, the wife really isn't crazy. They have Bonsai Azalea Trees that bloom in the month of May, in Japan.  How did women get so smart about flowers, anyway?  It drives me crazy.

Now, mind you, this is rainy season and I plan on getting some high-quality photos of those azaleas, with a pretty blue sky background, first chance I get. That might take some time.

To really get a great shot I'll have to climb the wall and sneak into the garden where the Laughing Buddha statue sits.  I know the people who own the place but, they don't wake up early enough in the morning to let me in through the gate. 

So, I'll just have to pretend I'm a criminal and climb the fence the old-fashioned way.

Just in case you want to learn more about Azaleas, I found the AZALEA SOCIETY OF AMERICA
and, another place, I'll call the THE AZALEA BONSAI TREE CHANNEL because they're the first ones who agreed with me. That Azalea ain't no shrub, it's a Bonsai Tree!