i picked an airbnb flat that is close to yogi park, as this is one of the popular places for sighting the beautiful blooms in downtown naha. from there, a few other parks of about 30 minutes driving distance or so are also popular. i've considered going to one or two other parks for this trip, but was of the mindset that it might not even be necessary.
yogi park was a good 10-minute walk from the flat. the airbnb host advised us to try and get there by 5pm, so we can spend a good hour before it gets dark. there was a small playground in the park, so of course i had to let lovro have his way, before i got mine.
when he finally got bored, i tried to get him excited about seeing the flowers, so he agreed to do a stroll along the park. mommy scheme executed! it was quite a big park, and there was a long stretch of canal and it was lined up with cherry blossom trees. and the flowers were in full bloom. it was perfect.
there were a few stray cats in the park, and lovro saw a pretty fluffy one and we followed it. it climbed up the tree and stayed still for a bit. i was so happy it did, i got some pretty awesome photos.
i read about the type of sakura that can be found in okinawa. this variety is called kanhizakura which is a darker shade than what is normally found across japan. they are normally fuchsia-ish in color, but i found that in my pictures they sometimes turned up to be just normal pink and i suppose it was due to the angle and lighting in which i snapped them. the picture below shows more of their actual colors, and somehow the kanhizakura, due to its shape, pass off as bougainvillea flowers from afar.
we had fun by taking snaps of harry, lovro's 'best friend', and even lovro tried to get his hands at photography. i must say, the photos he took below, were not bad for a three year old.
the next day I cancelled my plans of going to Yaese park for sakura viewing, because it was quite cumbersome to get to. At this point of the trip, we've been taking taxi daily and since this park was a bit further out of the downtown area, the cab fare was estimated to be around 50USD per way. so instead, we just explored the immediate surroundings and went to Heiwa-dori and Kokusai-dori area to browse souvenirs and buy snacks. our airbnb host's aunt lives in the same flat, so she volunteered to show us around. we managed, despite the language barrier, and had lunch together. when she bid farewell and headed to don quixote, lovro and i kept walking past the shops and ended up in another park: makishi park. and you guessed it, there were cherry blossom trees!
we sat down and shared an ice cream cone while lovro was watching the monorail come and go.
then finally, he declared that we must ride the monorail!
it was not in the itinerary but i did research a little bit on areas that were accessible by train. so i've decided that we would go to onoyama athletic park because - playground.
as a bonus, there were cherry blossom trees again! not as much as the other parks though, but still beautiful.
the gorgeous sakura trees provide a very nice backdrop to the awesome playgrounds where the kids run around in delight. their laughter and shrieks of excitement drowned out any wandering thoughts i had about work and life and exhaustion from walking all day. as i looked at lovro i couldn't help but smile, knowing this was such a wonderful holiday for him. not just because of the playgrounds and the lovely blooms and the delicious japanese food. but mostly because he got mama all to himself, and mama was happy the whole time. 😊
No comments:
Post a Comment