Rain Can't Stop Cherry Blossom Lovers

Wet and Breezy on the Mountain

 

 

Just to keep everyone informed, another trip was made up Mt. Yae, yesterday.

Luckily, Map It Okinawa Dude was driving; that's too far of a hike, for me.

The higher up that ear-popping mountain, you go, the colder it gets.

Wind blowing and rain falling make photography more challenging than usual.

 I figured it would be a good idea, to jump out of the car and snap a few photos.

Here's an image taken from almost the exact spot, I stood at, two weeks ago.

The shot couldn't be duplicated because, too many vehicles were coming up the road.

Standing with a tripod, in the middle of the street, can be dangerous.

 These young ladies, were out there in the rain, taking pictures and, doing selfies.

They saw the old man, with a furry face and posed for me.  Good girls.

 Where a Pentax camera, come in handy, is when it's raining outside.

Other than, keeping raindrops off of the lens, I didn't have to worry about it getting wet.

 The cell phone, I use is water resistant, too so, I snapped this photo.

The folks at the camera store know, I put their stuff through some rough tests.

They should send me free stuff and, see if it can be broken. I'd do a bang-up job for them !

 The trees, sort of blossomed sporadically, this year and, I wouldn't say they are at full bloom, yet.

Maybe it's fifty percent at full bloom, at this point; there are lots of barren cherry trees.

 It would have been, much more enjoyable, up there on a sunny day.

Maybe in the next weekend or, two the whole mountain will busting out in pink flowers.

Some of my camera-shooting friends live up there in Motubu.

They should do like, I do.  Sneak out of the house before the women wake up.

And, spend the whole day, snapping photos of cherry blossoms.

When, there's no blue skies, to add to the scene, I climb high and shoot down into the valley.

The colors and contrast make an interesting scene, I think.

Once my clothes were soaking wet and I was half frozen, it was time to get out of there.

Do you, love cherry blossoms enough, to visit them in the rain ?

Plum Blossoms on Mt.Yaedake

Who Would Have Thought ?

 

 

A true flower fanatic could go crazy with the cameras, up on that hill.

There are cherry blossoms and plum flowers starting to bloom, at the same time.

It's a shame, I didn't bring along the Garmin GPS gadget yesterday.

Knowing, a bunch of folks will want to know where these plum blossoms are, bothers me.

I'm not that good, at giving highway directions; there's more important stuff on my mind.

It's sort of rare, getting to see these plum flowers blooming, around here.

The season for viewing them probably, only lasts a week or, so.

That tree wasn't in full bloom, yet.  Look at all the unopened flower buds.

 Up on that mountain named Yaedake, you might find the plum blossoms.

Look for these cherry trees with the red and pink flowers, hanging on them.

And, position yourself, where you imagine, I was standing while taking this photo.

Then, turn around and, walk about a quarter mile down the country road.

The trees with white plum blossoms, are down there, on the left, somewhere.

Cherry Blossoms Bustin' Out Everywhere !

Today just two sites on Okinawa were visited.

Weekdays are the best time to go.

Traffic was non-existent and, it wasn't crowded up at Mt. Yaedake.

 

Lots of cherry trees were in full bloom.

The sun shined and, we had blue skies.

At Nakijin Castle, the best blossoms were along the road, going down the hill.

Where else, in the world, could you get weather like this, in the month of January ?

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It's a Good Thing We Don't Get Paid for This

 

 

People would expect us to go places, according to some sort of a plan.

Mt. Yaedake, is already almost in full bloom but, the weather took a turn on us.

Doc and I, decided to head south today, instead of north.

Once we get away from the wives, we're pretty much, our own bosses. So, that's what we do.

We went to Yaese Castle Ruins, to see how the sakura, are coming along down that way.

This was the first cherry blossom I spotted.

So, I shot a quick image, just in case there weren't any more.

There isn't really any money to be made chasing sakura but, we do it anyway.

We got plenty of exercise, climbing that hill.

The place is ready for the 8th Yaese Sakura Matsuri and it's lighted at night.

The flowers just don't always cooperate with the town's schedule.

An unscientific guess, would be maybe, 10% or less, of the blossoms have opened.

If you don't like crowds of people around you, now would be the best time to go.

To catch a lot of cherry blossoms here, maybe you could wait a week or, two.

Motubu's Mt. Yaedake is the best place to view sakura blossoms at this time.

But, along with all those flowers, you will see lots of crowds, too.

Sakura (桜) The Cherry Blossoms Are Popping Out Everywhere !

The search for Sakura (桜) continued today in the north of Okinawa.

Kids on school field trips were hiking up Mt. Yadake.

Not quite 50% of the Cherry Trees have Cherry Blossoms, yet.

But, if you take a walk and look around for awhile you can find some beauties.

And people with all sizes of cameras are snapping away.

When there is too much traffic or people in the way,  you just shoot high.

Some folks run up to you and ask to have their picture taken.

Well, I ain't exactly a people photographer so, I give their camera to Doc.

Then when they're not expecting, I shoot them, anyway.  Hah !

Wildlife photographers shouldn't take people pictures and Doc Graff knows me.

I only do wild things.  So, he must have figured it was time to get me out of there.

We got off that mountain and went to check the Sakura (桜) up at Nakajin Castle.

There weren't lots of Cherry Blossoms up at the Castle, yet.

This photo was taken with an ocean view as we came down the castle hill.

All you have to do is look around and you'll see.

The Sakura (桜) are starting to pop out everywhere on the island of Okinawa.