Monday, May 13, 2013

Hirosaki Castle Cherry Blossom Festival

We recently went on a trip to Hirosaki Castle Cherry Blossom Festival. Hirosaki is a town about two and half hours away from Misawa. It used to be the capital of our prefecture, but was replaced by Aomori because of its more centralized location.




Hirosaki has a castle originally built in 1611 although the current structure was built in the 1800's. There are over 2600 cherry blossom trees planted all around the castle grounds, making it one of the most popular cherry blossom festivals in Japan.
We signed up for a base tour so we could just hop on the bus and not have to worry about parking or directions. It turned out perfect, because parking was crazy. We were hoping for a decent day, but it was chilly and raining off and on. It wasn't terrible, but we were both wishing for bluer skies! We sucked it up through the wet with hoods, but most Japanese had umbrellas. They got a little ridiculous in the crowded sections and poor Jeff kept getting hit since he's a head taller than most Japanese. His head lines up with all of their umbrellas...

Here are the pictures!


We tried to steer clear of the crowds by sticking to the less centralized sections of the castle grounds.

He loves pictures!

Growing bamboo and trees.

One of the more crowded sections...





The oldest cherry blossom tree in Japan.

Hirosaki Castle







Best.picture.ever




The food section was the most crowded. So many delicious smells. I'll never get used to seeing an entire fish on a stick though...

The most amazing ramen after a chilly, rainy day

We had a lot of fun exploring a new town and getting out of Misawa for the day. Both of us really enjoy seeing pieces of history like an old castle in northern Japan.

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