The Lily Festival

The Okinawans host many festivals celebrating the blooming season of various flowers. We had already attended the cherry blossom festival in January, but May is the time of year for lilies. We decided to spend the day traveling to Lily Field Park on Okinawa's neighboring Ie Island where the festival was being held. Our friends met us that morning and we set off with plans to catch the ferry at 11 am...but then we hit traffic on the expressway. We decided to stop and have lunch and just catch the ferry at 1pm...but then there was a wait for the best burger joint on the north side of the island. It was worth the wait! Especially since the restaurant was on the beach and we simply admired the view and found hermit crabs until a table was ready. We were not able to get onto the ferry until 2pm, and the last returning ferry to Okinawa was at 4pm! We had a very short time to get to the festival.

The view from the beach while waiting for a table.

We found so many hermit crabs!

Finally! We made it to the ferry!

On our way!

When we reached Ie Island we realized the lilies were on the opposite side of the island. We were told the shuttle had stopped running, so we grabbed a cab. The driver got us there...quickly. She took shortcuts though tobacco fields ignoring all stop signs. About two minutes later she dropped us off at the lily festival. There were rows and rows of white lilies stretching down to the ocean. Past the white lilies were straight lines of every kind and color of lily imaginable. The air was fragrant with a breeze coming off the water. We could only enjoy the flowers for about an hour before we had to head back to the ferry. The shuttle was still running after all, so we hopped on the bus in order to make the last ferry off Ie Island and back home.