GETTING READY FOR CHILDREN'S DAY AND GOLDEN WEEK at SHURI CASTLE

Japan's 2016 GOLDEN WEEK holidays are soon upon us, and the CHILDERN'S DAY "Flying Carp" decorations are already adding a colorful touch to the SHURI CASTLE environs, especially here over RYUTAN POND.

This pond was hand dug during the reign if King SHO HASHI in 1427 (long before Columbus "sailed the ocean blue") as a giant picnic / party venue for visiting Chinese Diplomats, and has been here ever since.

King Sho Hashi (尚巴志, 1371–1439) was the last king of Chūzan and the first king of the Ryūkyū Kingdom --- in some ways like a "George Washington" of Okinawa.

The pond made it through WW2, but everything around it was leveled by the American / Allied Forces bombardment in 1945.

In the 70+ years since WW2, the surrounding trees (mostly Bishop Wood trees) have made a nice comeback.

But, no matter how nice this pond looks today (with the re-built SHURI CASTLE rising in the background) it can hardly compare to the immensely huge trees and landscaped gardens that surrounded it for the centuries preceding WW2.

Today, various species of ducks can be seen waddling around the pond's promenade (hoping for a handout, no doubt), and turtles gather here and there, poking their heads out while keeping an eye on the ducks.

I also counted 24 little ducklings while walking around.

I hope the overcast sky and occasional drizzle I experienced here today gives way to blue skies and vibrant, flying carp for CHILDREN'S DAY, at all of the colorfully decorated venues found all over Okinawa.

If you are a photographer, keep those batteries charged, and an extra SD Card in your pocket !

Cheers !

♥ GOLDEN WEEK HOLIDAYS AND SCHEDULES : www.japan-guide.com/e/e2282.html

♥ KING SHO HASHI : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%8D_Hashi

Personal Note : If King Hashi was alive today, I would ask him to put me in charge of hanging those "Flying Carp" over the pond. As it is, I think they need MORE cables and MORE carp in a slightly different arrangement. You'd have to go see it to know what I mean.

Some rights reserved

Taken on: April 25, 2016

Sets appears in: • PATTERNS OF LIFE on OKINAWA • CHILDREN'S DAY in OKINAWA more » • OKINAWA ! « less

Stats: 1,729 views / 2 comments

go back

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder