"Japan Rose" Festival

My hometown's official flower (since 1949) is the camellia (called "Japan Rose" by the German botanist, Engelbert Kaempfer).  Camellias are known as tsubaki (椿) in Japanese. Today, my family and I went to our annual Camellia Festival downtown. I took over 100 photos; I will share just some of my favorite ones here :). I didn't realize there are so many varieties of camellias and they all are very beautiful. The Oregon Camellia Society hosted its statewide contest. These camellias were judged by size, color, form, and condition.

I even took a picture with jumbo Hello Kitty (a famous fictional character produced by the Japanese company Sanrio).