Flowers from Kijoka for the Ladies -- Men Stuck Eating Steaks

Day Two in the Iris Fields

 

 

A second trip this week had to be made to capture more purple beauties.

Map It Okinawa Dude and, I drove up north this morning under questionable skies.

Fortunately, the rain clouds blew by and we had sunshine as we reached Ogimi.

For today's trip, I brought along an additional, wide angle lens.

When it comes to flower photography, I'm not too imaginative.

What you get from me, is either bunches of flowers...

... or, I just single out one or two.

Quick tours around the acres of land are made, snapping away on the shutter.

The purpose of my photography, is to make you want something.

It's supposed to make you wish, you could be here.

Imagine being here, sniffing all these fresh flowers and, snapping pictures, too.

Blue skies and sunshine. Yay !

 Armloads of these flowers, freshly cut, were delivered to my special ladies, too.

A Working Man Needs Nourishment

 

 

 

 

 

 Leaving the northern areas brought me here, for the second day in a row.

Road Station Kyoda  (道の駅」許田) is in Nago City, on the way home.

This is an establishment, I have stopped at many times.

And, never could figure out, why it is always so busy.

Deciding to splurge, I ordered garlic steak.

 Reasonably priced, it included rice, soup and salad.

At 1000 yen, that's just about 10 dollars; not bad.

Maybe, I'll do a TripAdvisor Review on this place.

 

 

Things I Never Knew About this Road Station

 

 

 

 

 

It was the first, the very first, Road Stand (Michi no Eki) to open, in Okinawa.

Tickets for travel attractions in northern areas, are sold at discounts here.

A lottery ticket stand, located here, is considered to be a good luck spot.

So many people have won with tickets purchased here, the word got around.

Over a billion and a half yen worth of prizes came from this lottery stand !

Thousands of fresh food items, souvenirs and trinkets are available, too.

The next time I drop in, I won't be buying any of that stuff.

Locally produced fruits and pottery are alright for some folks.

Lottery tickets, nah.  I don't gamble.

But, garlic steaks. Yum.  I'll be back again and, soon. 

 

Iris Fields Blooming in Kijoka -- Now's the Time to Visit

10 Flower Photos from Today's Travels

 

 

 

The weather may be a bit windy and cloudy, at times but, the view is magnificent.

If you like purple blossoms, you'll love these.

The official flower reports are saying, full bloom takes place this weekend and next.

My unscientific estimate says the fields are blooming over 70% right now.

If you've been living anywhere near snow country, these flowers will soothe your eyes.

They bounce around, a little bit in the wind.

It's more fun, trying to photograph flowers in the wind than it is, shoveling snow !

It's best to get out there and visit before the end of this month.

Before too long, rainy season will hit Okinawa.

A typhoon could sneak up on us and, blow all these blossoms away.

They sell these long-stemmed flowers at unbelievably low prices.

Five of them cost less than a cup of coffee !

Visit Goya Republic or, Map It Okinawa for directions and details.

April 2015 Full Moon Animation

Last month the full moon was clouded out and we missed it.

It is supposed to appear full for the next two nights.

While my cameras were recharging after a day of shooting, I took a little nap.

The moon was already high in the sky before I reached my normal position.

It's nice to shoot from atop a big tower away from the city lights.

When, I saw this plane coming, I hurried and set up the tripod and started shooting.

It looks like that flight is leaving the moon.

Any ideas who those folks might be ?

These Birds Are Members of the Turdus Family

Dusky Thrush is the common name for the critters.

The scientific community would call them Turdus eunomus.

A handy chart at Birds of the World helped me identify this species.

They could be on their way back to Siberia now that Spring has arrived.

That's what, I learned from the folks at Avibase.

Plenty of photos were taken because, I have never seen birds like this before.

It would have been a good idea to carry a zoom lens.

The birds wouldn't let me get too close before they flew away.

And, all I had to shoot with was a 300mm lens.

Plenty of websites were checked to make sure, I had a correct ID.

Somebody, in Japan, even made a video of this bird, eating a worm.

More about this bird (in Japanese) may be seen here.

5 Animation GIFs of a Pacific Reef Egret

The black Pacific Reef Egret is known as Kurosagi (クロサギ) in Japan.

This one seemed to be talking the fish out of the water.

Sometimes, it looked like a politician, talking out of the side of his mouth.

 It could have been saying, "We need a Bureau of  Disinformation."

Too many people let the truth leak out.

 It makes it almost impossible to run the government, these days.

 

Oops, I got sidetracked and started daydreaming.

 There are some good links for scientific studies of this bird.

 The Latin name if this species is Egretta sacra.

ARKive

Oiseauxibirds

Okinawa-kaeru

Planet of Birds