My first solo escapade (with my camera in tow) after moving back to Oki was obviously a flower festival, specifically the Azalea Festival in Higashi Village. I had to scroll back up in my phone’s camera roll to remember what was happening at the time. A couple of days prior the lease to the apartment was signed and I was so excited to drive up north for the first time in years that I decided to “vlog” my day in 15 second increments on my Instagram stories.This was also the soft launch of my driving timelapse videos… where I would prop my phone on my dashboard and film my drives through the island to the tune of whatever song I was obsessed with at the time.
I remember how many enthusiastic messages I got that day from people who had left Oki and appreciated being “taken along for the ride”. It sparked even more excitement for the adventures I would have in the upcoming years and the content I would be able to film and share with my followers, who were mostly—in one way or another—connected to Okinawa.
March 21, 2022 was a perfect spring day. The sky was bright blue, the temperature was cool and it was just me, my car and my phone’s camera (carrying my followers in spirit alone). I stopped at a small rest stop to take in the turquoise waters of the East China Sea, and then in true Oki fashion, Google Maps took me through an unknown route that had me thinking I was lost… but I made it in one piece eventually!
The Azalea Festival takes place in March at Tsutsuji Eco Park up on a hill in Higashi Village, on the east coast of northern Okinawa. Tickets in 2022 were ¥300, but according to the official website they were ¥500 this year. Over 50,000 azaleas bloom over the sprawling hillside park in red, pink, white and purple bushes with views of the Pacific Ocean below.
I didn’t know of azalea flowers before moving to Oki (ok, let’s face it I didn’t know a lot of flowers before moving here) and my first spring in North Carolina I was so happy when they began to bloom everywhere! My visit to Airlie Gardens in Wilmington made me feel so close to my happy place (Oki).
I don’t think this was the best blooming year for azaleas, that or I was either early or late, but I didn’t care… I was happy to finally get the opportunity to dust off my now 10 year old camera and photograph my favorite subject, flowers, in my favorite place, Okinawa. I also wanted to recreate some of the photos I had taken during my first visit to the festival 9 years prior.
Afterwards, I couldn’t let the hour and 20 minute drive north be for one stop… so I headed west. I stopped on Yayagi Island for a mango smoothie, from a food truck I remembered that parked outside the Kouri Island bridge. I went down to the beach and finally saw the pumice from the submarine volcano, located off the Ogasawara Islands, that had erupted just months prior and everyone had been marveling about.
I also stopped at the Unten Observation Deck, one of my favorite viewpoints on island that I have taken multiple friends to and have also shared with many social media friends—so much so that I went ahead and edited the Google Maps pin to make it easier for people to find. I’ve been getting emails from Google about the amount of views the pin has gotten for years! One small change that always made me feel a little proud when it pops up in my Gmail.
All in all it was a great first Oki adventure and also the perfect way to get back into this whole blogging thing. I won’t elaborate on how many days it took me to put this post together. To say I’m quite rusty would be an understatement… though I’d like to think my writing is better than ever after doing it professionally for over 2 years now! Can’t wait to share more Oki adventures and Japan travels. I’m just hoping my undiagnosed ADHD allows me to catch up on the past 3 years of content that’s just been sitting in my external hard drive.
Matane!
See ya soon!