Cherry Blossom Viewing

What a great weekend! We went Cherry Blossom viewing on Mount Yakedake..beautiful. Both D and I took a bazillion photos. I tried to cut down how many I posted, but there were so many great photo opportunities (where were you Adam???). It reminded me of when we were kids and Mom and Dad would bring out the old slide projector for picture viewing. Grandma and Grandpa loved the show, but us kids were ready to slip into a coma. We would make bargains with God..."Dear Lord, please get me through the next 1400 slides of scenery and I will eat every lima bean provided to me from now until my 18th birthday." Now I see the appeal of such photos.

Our tour guide was a spunky, cute Japanese woman. She spoke very broken English, but made up for any miscommunication with personality. Let me see if I can recap what I learned. Bear with me because I am not sure I got it all, but here are the bones. Cherry blossoms are very dear to the Japanese people. Over here (and on the mainland), the cherry trees bloom for about a month starting this time of year in Okinawa...later on the mainland. Yes, spring is here already..it was a tough two weeks of winter. After about a month the blooms fall off the trees rapidly. Because the blooming is so beautiful and quick, the Japanese say that cherry blossoms symbolize those who die young and with honor. Therefore, they are often associated with wars and warriors. Mt. Yakedake is the second highest mountain on Okinawa and was the site of much fighting during the war. Long after the war, when the Army returned the mountain to the Japanese people, the people of the area got to decide what to do with the rehabilitation funds that were given to them. The rural area was very poor, but they made it a top priority to allocate funds toward the replanting of the cherry trees. Now there are over 300 varieties and 7000 trees that wind up the mountain. Lovely! Japan also donated the cherry blossom trees you see in Washington D.C. and New York. However, they are a hybrid version of trees from here, genetically engineered to have a very truncated bloom (like a week). Ahhh...those subtle Japanese..they got a little dig in with the gift :).

The weather was overcast, windy, and Okinawan chilly (55 degrees). (The coolest I have seen it here during the day is 52, it did dip down into the mid 40s at night a couple of times...but our tour guide said that this was an unusually cold winter. Don't choke on your parka string Alaska...I didn't say it was cold the tour guide did...I used the term chilly...I had to layer...that counts as winterish). We prepped for the weather, but the rain held off. The raincoats were still great because they blocked the wind, which was much worse at the bottom of the mountain for some reason. After we got off the bus there were lots of tents with wares and food. We were one of the last of our group to start the independent trek up the mountain. It wasn't because of we lolly gagged around the tents. No, we were last out of the gates because we are four girls and there was one non-funny potty stall plus layers of clothing...no we weren't even going to try the funny potty that day. Wet and windy are a bad combo.

We loved the hike up the mountain. We walked along the winding road with all the cars and other pedestrians. It was surprisingly peaceful...very little noise. We were comfortable and it was great to hike, take a photo, hike some more, people watch...loved it! About an hour and half later we were back at the bus and moving on to Jusco for lunch. (The girls did some journaling during the bus ride there...I love that picture). It was a huge Jusco! The area is further away from US bases, so blue eyes were more of a poke-your-companion-worthy novelty here...we got a lot more people watching aimed at us than usual :). For lunch we had the opportunity eat just about anything..see photos. We settled on really big noodles, squash and sweet potato tempura. They were nummy. However, we didn't realize that the noodles we ordered for the girls were served cold. The three of us ended up splitting Mommy's hot noodles. (I tried to eat the cold noodles..you know, trade and do the garbage disposal mom thing...it was rather unpalatable. Our minds are culturally programmed to enjoy noodles hot...unless they are spiral shaped..we do love those in a good cold summer salad).

Finally it was time to head home (and end this freaking novel before you slip into a coma). We were happy tired (if McKenzie looks grumpy in some of the mountain pictures it is because she was sure that D and I were incapable of telling time and paranoid that we were going to miss the bus. To her credit...they do not mess around with schedules..if they say to be on the bus by 12, you will be out of luck if you arrive at 12:01. Anyway...we did get plenty of smiles out of her..she just won't do it for the camera anymore.) We spread out to different seats. D read, I listened to some 70s tunes, and the girls watched the scenery. By the time we hit the espressway, the kids were out like preschoolers!!!