Even though I'd eaten not too long before going to the cafe, I couldn't decide between getting a strawberry cake or chocolate cake, so I ended up ordering the set that came with both. @_@ It was a little greedy of me, I admit, but I figured I'd been walking a lot over the past few days, so... ^^;;
At 5pm I met up with another friend and we went to Hirosaki Castle to see the cherry blossoms at night. We took the mountain road there, so we were still able to see quite a lot of snow in some places! It took us about 2 hours to get to Hirosaki from Towada.
I have been to Hirosaki Castle during hanami once before--two years ago when my parents, Bren & Ceci came to visit--but seeing it at night is really a completely different experience.
I'd say they were probably the most beautiful sakura I've seen in Japan so far. The only rather unfortunate thing was that it was a little crowded/noisy, but that really couldn't be helped since Hirosaki is pretty much the place for hanami in Aomori.
Again, with my camera I couldn't take the best photos (night shots without flash are difficult), but luckily my friend had a much better camera than mine. This is my hands-down favourite hanami picture:
For dinner we had ジャンボおでん（コンニャク）-- jumbo oden (konnyaku). It was black(!) on the outside but didn't really taste all that different from regular konnyaku (although it's been a while since I've had it, so maybe I just couldn't discern any differences). We also had yakisoba--another thing I hadn't had in a while.
Going back to Towada we took the toll roads, so the return trip only took about 1.5 hr!! I was really really happy we went to Hirosaki when we did (we had made plans to go on Friday night, but if we'd waited until then the sakura would've been well past their peak). It was probably the highlight of an already excellent Golden Week of hanami!
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2 comments:
When I was Univercity sutdent, I had lived in Hirosaki-city and I used to go to the castle in the night with friends and drank alcohol;-) It was weekdays so didn't crowd. I want to go there!!
Hirosaki Castle is a Japanese castle which is a symbol of old traditions and classic culture in Japan.
It is an ancient Japanese castle with fascinating architecture and structural design which is simply captivating and beautiful at night.
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