Last weekend we were finally blessed with a day of perfect weather! After my
last blog post, this one is a very welcome contrast. I had been watching the weather forecast the whole week hoping for a sunny day and it was better than I expected. Sunday morning we got up and headed up north to the World Hertiage site of
Nakijin Castle Ruins for the cherry blossom festival. It's a bit over an hours drive from our house, but the day was so beautiful we took the coastal scenic route rather than the Okinawa expressway. Once through Nago, we also opted for a more scenic drive along route 84 through the mountains. There were a lot of stalls selling
Tankan (a kind of tangerine) so of course we stopped off and bought a bag!
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| Beautiful blue ocean in the distance |
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| Perfect weather |
We arrived at about 10:30 and the carparks were already filling up. We walked around, and I got to take millions of cherry blossom photos. Cherry blossoms in Okinawa, are the first to bloom in Japan. When I first moved to Okinawa, I wasn't that fussed about going to see the cherry blossoms here because they didn't seems as beautiful as the
ones on the mainland, however this year I finally went, and they were gorgeous. They are much more pink and vibrant that the ones on the mainland, and definitely suit the environment here perfectly.
The trees aren't yet in full bloom, but it was still beautiful. I think in the next few days it will look amazing up there! The paths through the castle ruins were lined with little glass lanterns for the night time illumination of the site, so I also think it would be a great experience to head up there for a night time viewing of the blossoms and the ruins. If you are in Okinawa, it is definitely worth making the trip up north to view the cherry blossoms in Late January/early February!
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| Family selfie! |
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| Old castle walls |
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| Griff called this the cherry blossom forest |
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| Love these guys |
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| This bird turned this picture into a postcard! |
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| The cherry blossoms are much pinker than the ones on the mainland |
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| Blue skies! |
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| This stall was selling sugar cane juice and products |
After taking way too many photos we headed back to the entrance to check out all the stalls. Of course I couldn't resist getting some cherry blossom ice cream, which was incredibly delicious! We walked around the stalls and bought some omiyage including cherry blossom chinsuko cookies, and some cherry blossom castella cake before heading off to find a good cafe for lunch. The cafe we found for lunch deserves it's own blog post so stay tuned.....
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| Cherry blossom flavoured ice cream! Of course! |
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| There were lots of stalls set up at the main entrance selling snacks and souvenirs |
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| This mascot for dairy products is hilarious to me |
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| More stalls |
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| Cherry blossom chinsuko cookies |
Lovely photos!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe cherry trees are starting to blossom in Okinawa already! In Osaka, one can already see some plum blossoms but we need to wait for another two months for the Sakura.
I'm jealous of your beautiful day there. Wade and I wanted to go today and of course it was back to awful rainy weather. Your pictures are wonderful!
ReplyDeleteYeah, the weather has gone straight back to rainy and miserable after that one beautiful day! Hopefully you get some sun this week to go and check them out!
DeleteSo beautiful! I love when the cherry blossoms come out, makes everything look so pretty.
ReplyDeleteI know! I love how much the Japanese get into the different seasons. People go crazy for cherry blossom viewing and the fall colours!
DeleteBeautiful!! I always get really envious when I read about cherry blossoms... What a lovely shade of pink they are! And those cherry blossom snacks are... *drooolz*.. Looking forward to see what you had for lunch! #TravelTuesday
ReplyDeleteYes! I LOVE Cherry blossom flavoured snacks! The ice cream was amazing!
DeleteThe cherry blossoms are so beautiful - great photos :-)
ReplyDeleteGoodness those blossoms are beautiful - thank you for sharing them! It looks like a stunning day :)
ReplyDeleteThanks. Okinawa in winter is quite miserable-weather wise, but I was so glad we got a day like this on a weekend!
DeleteStunning shots, can never have too many cherry blossom photos!I so want to try a cherry blossom icecream!
ReplyDeleteThe ice cream was so delicious! I hope you get to try some someday!
DeleteBeautiful! I love a good ruins too ;)
ReplyDeleteAlso, love your nails in the cherry blossom ice cream pic!
Thanks! Doing my nails is my relaxation :)
DeleteI went from 'woah, look at all of the beautiful cherry blossoms to OMG CHERRY BLOSSOM ICE CREAM' in 0.5 seconds!
ReplyDeleteHahaha, yes! That's pretty much how I was when I saw they were selling Cherry Blossom ice cream!
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