Cherry blossoms

This weekend was the Cherry Blossom (sakura) festival in Okinawa! The blossoms here are not as plentiful as on mainland Japan, and open much earlier because it is so much warmer, but we wanted to go up and be a part of the fun and enjoy the beautiful blossoms! Saturday morning, we went to a baptism at church for our friend Nick, and then headed to Nago with some friends for the festival at Mt. Nago.

 We hiked up a huge set of stairs lined with trees. Unfortunately a lot of the other foliage around was kind of bare which made the trees not stand out as much, but it was still fun to see, with the Japanese lanterns hanging along side, etc.

At the top was a small castle type thing with a bell you can ring. There was obviously some purpose and symbolism that I am not aware of (I should do some research and find out), but it was fun to see. It was SO warm though, we were sweating like crazy halfway up the hill!

 We had plans to continue up north to hike to a waterfall with the same group we were with. The nice thing about people coming and leaving off the island at different times, is that we learn new things and places from people who have been here a long time, and can then pass the knowledge on once we are the old timers. We thought a short hike with some cherry blossoms sounded like a good afternoon activity, so we tagged along...and we definitely didn't regret it!!!

 The cherry blossoms were so much more beautiful than in the spot we had gone for the festival, and the greenery surrounding them made for the perfect backdrop!

There were gorgeous palms and ferns everywhere. This hike reminded me a little of one that we did in Maui which I loved. This is the type of place I had been wanting to find in Okinawa but hadn't managed to find yet.

 About halfway through the hike we arrived at this little stream/waterfall, and everyone said that we had arrived at "the waterfall". I thought this was a pretty small waterfall to hike to, but even so, the rest of the hike had been so beautiful that I didn't even care. Finally, they said they were joking and we continued on to the real destination :)

A little bit more grand, don't you think? :) It would be so much fun to go back in the summer and swim here. The trail is mostly shaded so it wouldn't be unbearably hot either.

Love finding new favorite spots on the island!