We didn't want to miss the chance to see the blossoms here so in February we started looking for areas that had cherry trees. After doing some research Russ determined that the Naki-jin Castle ruins outside of Nago was a popular place to view Cherry Blossoms. Since we've had such a rainy spring, the cherry blossoms were later in arriving. When we found a nice break in the rainy weather, Russ took a Thursday off of work and we made the drive northward to find some blossoms.
Our first stop was at Nangusuku Park (Nago Central Park). It was a beautiful hillside overlooking the East China Sea and the drive to where we parked was beautiful. The blossoms weren't quite in full bloom yet but we found plenty for pictures. We figured they were full about two weeks after our trip. We parked and walked up the road further and found some gorgeous areas for pictures. Here's a few of my favorites from this park. We even found a cool spider that I spent awhile trying to photograph. His web kept blowing in the wind and going in and out of focus. I finally remembered that I have a focus lock on my camera and that was how I finally got an "in focus" shot of him.
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| I love playing with aperture with my camera |
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| There were walkways down the hillsides and picnic areas for hanami parties |
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| Sometimes one lone blossom can be just as picturesque as the whole tree |
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| A few of the fuller blossomed trees |
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| Our friend the spider who captivated quite a bit of my photography time at this park |
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| He was catching all the bees. No wonder the population of bees is lower |
After spending about an hour at Nangusuku Park we drove to Naki-jin Castle Ruins Park which is north of Nago. The park was quite crowded with sakura viewers. I think it must have been a holiday for the Japanese because there were quite a few families there which is usually rarer in the middle of the week. Finding photo ops without others in the background was nearly impossible here but with patience I was able to get quite a few shots I liked.
Naki-jin Castle was a 14th century castle that is located on the Motobu peninsula on a rocky hillside facing over the east China Sea. The castle saw three generations of rulers before being attacked and destroyed by the armies of Chuzan in 1416. Today you can view what remains of the castle walls and realize what a majestic castle it once was. It reminded me quite a bit of Hadrean's Wall in the UK. It was a huge picturesque setting decorated throughout the hillside with the Hikan cherry trees. They say it's known for having the first cherry blossoms in Japan each year. Even though the trees weren't in full blossom they were still breathtakingly beautiful. It was close to sunset when we were walking through this park so the lighting on the blossoms was different than the first park. I could have spent hours in this park photographing all the views. Through all my years in Japan I've come to love sakura season the most. I love that the Japanese people see the value of enjoying the beauty of the spring blossoms and take the time to stop their busy lives long enough to enjoy the beauty of the sakura.
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| Loved this tree growing out of a rock |
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| You can tell the rain caught up to us in this one. |
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| Had to snap quick to catch this bee on the blossoms. |
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| Sugar cane bundles drying |
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