An Afternoom on Motobu Peninsula with Three Sisters

Three Cameras Involved Too

 

 

Normally I post something here daily.

A slight overdose of fun kept me from doing that last night so, I went home and crashed.

The hills are ablaze in brilliant colors this time of year.

So, yesterday, the wife, two of her sisters and I,  went to check them out.

It's Hydrangea season, in Okinawa, right now.

Locally, these flowers are known as Ajisai.

Photo credits for some of these shots belong to the gals.

There's no telling who was doing the shooting with the Canon G12.

Give the women a camera and, head for the hills with my Pentax cameras was the plan.

Whoever shot this, should consider making a living with the camera.

The lighting, suited me best, looking back down the hill from the entrance.

Little did I know, one of the gals, was shooting me, with my own camera.

Er maybe, I'd have fixed my hair.

The highlight of any visit to the Ajisai  garden has to be this sweetheart.

Mrs Uto Yohena, the woman who planted all these flowers, is almost 100 years old.

She remembers me, every time I see her.

Each year when we meet, I like to get a photo of her smiling.

And, I'll print it so, I can deliver it to her or, her family.

This year, someone came up with an idea.

The cameraman will go nuts, if you just flip him the peace sign.

All these gals are sweethearts but, one looks rather suspicious.

Hiking back down the trails a few more photos were taken.

 It really was a beautiful day.

 After leaving Yohena's Garden in Izumi, we drove to see the trees in Bise.

The three sisters wanted to go to dinner when we got back in Kin Town.

That's when, I came up with this plan.

If they dropped me and the cameras at my office, they could go do a Lady's Night.

It worked.

Three cameras were downloaded.

And, I went home to sleep !

Tree Lovers, Here's Fukugi Trees from Okinawa Just for You ! (Photos)

There's a small village in northern Okinawa named Bise.  They have trees called Fukugi up there and all the travel agencies promote Bise and the Fukugi trees.  I just had to go and find out what the big deal is and what's special about a tree named Fukugi. So, that's what I did.

Yesterday, I wandered around with my camera to shoot all the photos I wanted pretty much undisturbed by any humans. I figured, on a weekday, there wouldn't be a bunch of tour busses dumping tourists off in the woods and I could set up my camera and tripod in the middle of the narrow streets to shoot a series of photos for any tree lovers out there who never saw a Fukugi tree.

It was cold, windy and most of the day pretty cloudy so, the only people out in that kind of weather had to be pretty much idiots, cameramen, intoxicated or maybe, tourists from Hokkaido.
Folks from way up in northern Japan, where it snows, probably think it's warm down here, not me.



Once you get off the narrow, one-lane paved road there are a couple of side streets heading towards the ocean that are just natural, a mixture of sand and clay. You don't see any litter in the streets; they are kept clean and you can tell someone rakes the sand daily. It's always clean.

As you walk farther into the tree-lined streets it gets a bit darker. The Fukugi trees pretty much block out the sun. Where you see bright light ahead lets you know how far it is to the next intersection.

There are about 250 homes in the village of Bise.  I deliberately composed these photos to eliminate them from view. This post is for tree lovers so, that's all I'm showing you, today.



A cloudy day makes it ideal for taking pictures. I've visited here many times in the past when it was sunny. The sun shining through the dark shadows these trees create make some awful high contrast photography.



This scene was shot from the outskirts of town as I was leaving. There is much more shade covering the streets the deeper you go into the interior of the village.

For the true afficionado of trees (I think that's a tree lover) I shot a close up of these leaves. I don't like to post things here and end up misidentifying trees, birds or anything. So, just in case I couldn't find the correct infomation, scientific name, common name and all that jazz, for the Fukugi tree, I'd have this shot to show and maybe, some scientist or tree lover could help me.

It's a good thing, too. After three hours online, trying to ID this tree, last night, I gave up.

Somewhere, I found out it was called a Garcinia. Well, all the searches I did showed me there were anywhere between 150 to 400 kinds of Garcinai trees. They have them all over the world and people claim these trees do all kinds of stuff, from making medicine to talking to the gods.

Now, don't get me wrong. I believe in freedom; freedom of speech, worship, free parking and keeping the internet free. Free stuff is good. There's just way too much on the internet today.

It sure would be nice if they had, like, some kind of special place for idiots to post their stuff on the internet so I wouldn't have to waste so much time sifting through garbage to find out the truth.

Couldn't somebody create a special internet for idiots and liars where they could post their stuff without aggravating the rest of us?  I'd be willing to pay. It'd be like a rodent control tax, yeah!

Oh, back to the trees. This morning, with the proper level of caffine in my body, I found what I wanted to give the tree lovers.  They are  Garcinia subelliptica and are planted around homes in Bise Village to shield them from typhoons.