At the end of April we went to the Shikaen Gardens. It is said to be the royal gardens for the Shuri Castle emperor's guests. It was where they came to rest and stay. It was quite nice and peaceful. The day turned out to be very gorgeous so it made it even nicer. The garden is resembles that of Chinese influence, which a lot of Okinawa is. We spent the day there roaming around, it was very relaxing. Then as we were leaving we noticed a ton of people coming into the gardens. Once we got back to the parking lot there was 7-8 buses labeled princess cruise. News to me I didn't reallize they stopped over here. Also, there was an Okinawa wedding party that was entering to take pictures too, which was also interesting to see what they were wearing. The bride and groom wore traditional Japanese apparel and the party wore tuxes and dresses. After we left we drove down by the Naha warf to locate a fish market, we couldn't find it but we ended up finding the giant cruise ship. I have never seen one before and it surprised me how big it actually is.
The koi wind socks that are pictured above represent children's day. The last week in April and the first week of May the Japanese celebrate a holiday called golden week. It is basically a big vacation time for them and they tend to have a lot of events. The last day on May 5th is children's day. On this day you hang out a koi banner that represents the children in the family. It used to be just to honor the number of son's but as time changed it grew to be for all of the children. I ended up buying a koi sock. They are seen in many places through out this time.
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