Nago Sakura Festival 2008

I went to the Nago Sakura Festival in Okinawa, Japan today. The sakura (cherry blossoms) were not developed as far as they were on the Mount Yaedake Sakura Festival, but the walk up the mountain to the shrine was very interesting. Here are some photos:

This is a photo, climbing up the mountain to the shrine:

This was the shrine at the top of the mountain in Nago. You can see some of the sakura (cherry blossoms) above the shrine:

Here are some sakura near the shrine. To download a large version of the following photo that you can use as desktop wallpaper on your computer, please click on the image and then save the file to your computer.

Here are some sakura overlooking the city of Nago, Okinawa:

This is Nago, Okinawa with the South China Sea in the background:

Many people were out for the Nago Sakura Festival in Okinawa:

This was the view, coming down the mountain from the shrine:

This was another Japanese shrine in the forest:

A Japanese festival is not complete without vendors selling delicious food:

There was also a parade with Japanese high-school bands:

I'm going back to the Nago sakura festival tomorrow and will take some more photos. I may also go to the sakura festivals on Honshu in March/April where the cherry trees are a different variety and the custom is to drink sake under the trees.