A Long-Overdue Update
I kept meaning to update this crazy thing, and somehow never got around to it. But no worries, that just means you get a cornucopia of (love!) pictures now. Right in time for Thanksgiving!
I suppose I'll start with the Bamboo Festival of Yusui. (Yusui is up in the mountains, and is generally a very gorgeous place. Unfortunately, it seems to rain every year on the festival day.) Also, apologies for the blurriness of the Yusui pictures - it's difficult to carry an umbrella and take a picture at the same time.
Here's some bamboo, carved out with candles in it.
They even trusted Lauren and me to light the candles inside some, and viewed it as a photo op for the local news station.
Pretty!
They put them out in the middle of the pond, too, though they had to keep hauling them back in to relight them after the rain put them out. Apparently, students from one of my schools also wade into the water every year to pull up some sort of plant that has some kind of significance. Clearly, I'm a bit iffy on the details.
Bunny!
There were geese involved, too.
This guy looked like he was walking on water a la Jesus, so I had to take a picture.
There was sort of a lot of bamboo at this bamboo festival.
And a walkway through the mini-forest that was actually a lot prettier and less creepy in real life.
And you can't tell now, but this place got lit up like a spaceship with blue flashy lights later that night.
A shot across the pond.
My artsy shot for the night:
The music tent:
And a ton of carved bamboo:
The musical entertainment:
And that was that! It was really quite lovely, despite the rain. And Masako-san (the woman who invited us) made delicious sandwiches for us to eat beforehand! All in all, a good time was had.
A week later, I went to Okinawa with all of my Kajiki people.
This is Naha. I sort of fell in love with it a year ago, and being there reminded me exactly why.
It rained a bit while we were there, but definitely not enough to spoil our fun. We went to a market that boasted such local delicacies as sea grapes and pig faces. Who could resist? (Pig face not shown for those faint of heart.)
And ran across some "American Coffee." Because, of course, in America you can't enjoy your coffee without a half-naked woman sprawled across the hood of a car.
Then we made a beeline for Shuri-jo, a famous castle in Naha that, unfortunately, didn't withstand the might of the invading Kagoshima forces hundreds of years ago. But it's still quite pretty.
On our beeline, we encountered a hippo head statue standing guard over an arts college campus. Obviously, I had to take a picture of it.
And some lovely trees, too.
And finally, the entranceway!
I thought it was sort of like a "living village" thing with people wandering around in old-style Okinawan clothing, but it turns out this girl was actually just a tourist, too. So then I felt awkward taking a picture of her. Oops.
Another entrance! (There were a lot.)
Shiisa!
...And another entrance.
Weird water-spout thing. I'm sure it was explained somewhere, but I'm equally as sure that they used kanji to do it. So I still don't know the purpose of it.
And the entrance to the castle proper! (Almost there.)
The main building, finally!
A nice view over the city.
Gardens that are - sort of - inside the castle.
View out the window to the courtyard.
And this shows the ground underneath the castle through thin plexiglass. I don't know why. It's important, apparently.
Lots of thrones and crowns and things were in the main building.
Tiny castle, with tiny castle people!
And that's it. We continued our tour by going to some free public gardens in Naha. Along the way, I came across a dragon coming out of the concrete for no apparent reason. (I think it was next to a gas station.)
And then gardens!
With fish and turtles and other nature-y stuff.
A very green view out of the gazeebo, strange hanging orchids that seem healthy despite their lack of an obvious source of nutrients, and cool buildings.
Very pretty flowers, and my humble self posing in the weird building.
Holy rock formations, Batman! That philosopher has been petrified! (Couldn't resist, my apologies - those rocks are considered mildly holy, though.)
And a big ol' waterfall. I felt compelled to be up there.
The next day, we went to the "prettiest look-out spot in Okinawa." The following pics haven't been 'shopped at all. The water is that blue, really.
This one looked like an old man leaning his head against something.
More beautiful pictures, this time including a hotel that probably charges more per night than I make in three months.
After that, we went to Nago Pineapple Park! True to its name, there were a lot of pineapples.
And pineapple carts!
Riding in the pineapple cart...
At one point, the strangely accented recorded voice asked us, "Do you know what pineapple stands for?" We expected something a bit better than the following: "It means pine and apple!" Oh, well. The ride was pretty, anyway.
At the end of our journey, we sampled 3 kinds of pineapple wine, ate pineapple cake, pineapple pie, pineapple sugar, pineapple caramel, and pineapple juice. It was pretty intense.
On the drive back to our hostel, I spotted a cloud that looked like a shiisa with a wave surging towards it. So... I took a picture. It's not everyday you see this kind of thing, you know.
The next day, we went to the Ocean Expo Park and the beach. I got to see whale sharks and dolphins and sea turtles, oh my!
Whee!
Huge!
And the beach (though not the one where I saw sea snails and sea cucumbers and various other sea things):
And that's it for this post! Next up: Sports Day at Kurino - sunny and beautiful, but full of sweaty students and strange activities. Look forward to it!