Adventures at the Cherry Blossom Festival

Saturday 1-31-09, We, (me and my traveling buddies Karen and Pam) headed north to Nago to the Cherry Blossom Festival. The Cherry Blossoms really pretty. The festival was held in the city of Nago, at Nago Central Park, which is at the foot of the Nago Castle Ruins, we arrived in time to see the opening ceremony, there were about 15 people cutting the ribbon, then to actually open the festival three men busted the top on a big barrel of Saki (rice wine). Then they handed out cups of Saki to everyone. I wish I could say that Saki is really good, but I really don’t care for it. It is not like wine, it is more like a mild whiskey. But you all know me, I had to participate with the local tradition, so I drank my glass, luckily I grabbed one that didn’t have very much in it! There at the park you climbed up about a million stairs to the castle remains, which consist of a shrine that has a bell hanging on a big rope. You are supposed to put 500 yen into the box under the bell, make a wish bow three times, ring the bell and clap twice and your wish will come true. Yes I made it to the top, it took a little bit but I made it! The view was beautiful, it on top of the mountain looking down on the city below and the East China Sea.

Pineapple Park the second stop on our day full of adventure. This is a really interesting pineapple factory. We began our pineapple adventure with lunch in the café, which served fresh pineapple juice and all the dishes come with pineapple. I had rice pilaf with fresh pineapples, it was really good. They have automatic “Pineapple car” that take you thru the park and tells you all about the trees, flowers and flora that is grown all around the pineapple fields. At the end of the cart ride, you go all thru the factory, and this is a real tasting tour. They make three kinds of wine and a sparkling wine. I really wanted to like one of these wines, but it just didn’t happen! You all know that I am not a wine drinker, so I thought with pineapple flavor wine I would probably love that. Let’s just say it wasn’t pineappley enough for me! Much better than the wine was all the cakes, cookies, pies, jams, candy, chocolate (light dark and white) nuts and a almost anything else you can think of that is made from pineapple. Needless to say, we should have skipped lunch in the café!

Stop number three on the agenda, Mt. Yaedake. Luckily we got to drive to the top of this mountain. It was really tall and again we looked out over the city and the ocean. The Cherry Blossoms were beautiful going up the mountain, as you can see in the picture it was bumper to bumper and a very narrow and curvy road. I guess it is a good thing I didn’t like that pineapple wine before making this drive! All along the mountain were mikan (tangerine) fields, the trees were loaded. This is the area that the mikan picking tour went last week, you know, the one I had to miss due to being sick!

On to stop number four – our final destination – Nakijin Castle Remains, to watch the sunset. Well, the trip there was an adventure itself! Pam was the only one smart enough to bring a map. They had both been to all these places before, so I assumed they knew where they were going….wrong! Pam recognized that she didn’t know where we were! But she bravely kept that to herself each time she told me to turn, she had such confidence that we thought she must know where she was going. Let me put it this way, two stops for directions later, we made it to Nakijin Castle about 6:30 p.m. well after sunset. It was very pretty at night, they had colored lights shining on the walls, and only a half a million steps made from rock and lit by candles in plastic drink bottles. Something you would NEVER see at home due to the danger and fire hazard! I made this one to the top also, but they had let me hold on to them because the rock was so uneven that I was afraid I would fall, there were no rails! When we first started to enter, I saw a big pot holding walking sticks, like my grandma Morgan used to use, next time I go, I will definitely get a walking stick! Any way, I made it to the top and I am sure it was beautiful, the only problem is, it was dark and I couldn’t see a past the mountain. There were a few lights off in the distance, but you couldn’t see the ocean or any of the land below us.

By the way did I mention that remains mean there isn’t a castle anywhere in sight Mostly just a lot of rock walls!

We got back to my room about 9 p.m., it was literally a full day of adventure! Thank goodness the next day was Sunday, because I rested just like we are supposed too! I went to church at Chapel Two, which is where Sylvia and Butch used to go. Butch worked in the Chaplain Service and Sylvia volunteered and hung out there. I will say again, the Fr. King is really great. I can even remember what he talked about. I wonder if I remember because I don’t have as much on my mind as I usually do at home. I am not worried about all the unnecessary stuff, like cleaning house, what will be going on at work the next day, how behind we are at work, if I am doing a good job. You know all the everyday things that we worry about, that really have no value because we can’t control them anyway! Maybe I came to this conclusion because of the readings, it said that God doesn’t want us to be anxious, husbands are anxious about pleasing their wife, wives are anxious about pleasing their husbands. If we focus on pleasing God, we don’t have to working about pleasing others. That is so true, in every aspect of our life, if we strive to please God, everything else will fall into place!

Well, I will close; I miss you all. Please keep me in your prayers and when you find just a minute or two, send me an e-mail just to let me know that you are still around! Remember I get my news from home from Stephen and Jennifer. They are a wealth of information about Morgan, school, the house, the dogs, etc. Let me know that is going on outside of those areas. Come on, I know there are many of you that are just like me read the divorces, marriages, and of course the obituaries, just to make sure we aren’t there!