Aomori

Leaving Insignia, we stopped at the information tent on the pier … which yielded all the information we needed to get ourselves to Hirosaki, including step by step travel instructions with ticket prices and a train schedule between the two cities. The 45-minute train ride was easy-peasy. Not sure about the other train cars, but ours was filled with locals commuting to work.

It was pouring rain when we detrained at Hirosaki Station. Luckily, by the time we talked to the staff at the information desk and walked over to the covered bus stop outside the station, the rain was over. It spritzed on and off all day, but it wasn’t until we were ready to return to Aomori that it started pouring again.

The Dotemachi Loop Bus — fondly referred to as the 100 Yen Bus — turned out to be not unlike the City View Bus we used to get around in Kagoshima. The service stops at practically all of the tourist attractions, but is also used by the locals to just get around the city. The map that the woman at the info center gave us had the stop we needed clearly marked. Before long, we were putting our 100 Yen coins in the payment box and getting off just steps away from the entrance to Hirosaki Park.

With some 2,600 cherry trees of some 50 varieties on the grounds, Hirosaki Park is considered to be the best cherry-blossom viewing site in Japan. No blossoms this time of the year, of course. No matter … we were there to see the castle.

Walking through the section of the park open to the general public, we reached the ticket office. Here, we opted for the combo admission that gave us access to both the castle and the botanical garden as well.

Hirosaki Castle is the only castle tower that remains in the northeast region of Japan. Constructed in the pagoda style, it has five stories … odd-number of floors is a tradition in Japanese castles. Built as the seat of the Tsugaru clan in 1611, it is a fortress castle that has been open to the public since 1895. It is surrounded by three moats and earthen walls.

The castle tower — also referred to as the keep — dates back to 1810 and is the second one built on the site using traditional features. At one time, the keep sat atop the earthen wall that is surrounded by the inner moat. Unfortunately, the wall was damaged during the Sea of Japan Earthquake of 1983, making it necessary to move the keep in order to repair the wall.

Thus it was that today we saw the keep in its temporary location … on the ground. The move took place in 2015 … a 70-day process that placed it just 250 feet away. Inside the keep, we saw fascinating photos and a video clip of what it took to make the move without damaging the structure. We then climbed two sets of very steep ladder-like stairs to see more of the interior. There wasn’t much on the upper levels, however, so after checking out the views visible through the arrow slits, we returned to the ground floor to continue our exploration.

Our meandering walk eventually took us to the East Gate of the park. Our next stop was to have been the Tsugaru-han Nebuta Village where we were hoping to see some of the floats built for the Nebuta Festival. We found the museum OK, but there was quite a crowd waiting to enter — including an Oceania tour. So, we moved on.

Our museum plans foiled, we continued around to the north of the park to visit the area where the samurai of the Tsugaru Clan used to have their homes.

Samurai, which means “one who serves,” were originally ranked beneath nobility. Over time, however, they rose to power and established the shogunate, a military-style government. In fact, during certain periods, the power they held diminished the Imperial authority considerably.

At one time, there were more than 1,750 samurai houses in the neighborhood we visited. Today, most of them have been replaced with modern-day residences. But four of them have been preserved and are open to visitation. The docent at the Old Sasamori House explained that it had been the residence of a lower class samurai. We also checked out the Old Ito House and the Old Omeda House. They both felt like they might have been the homes of middle class samurai, but there was no one around to ask.

By the time we left the samurai residences, the light rain that had started to fall had increased in intensity. We decided that this would be a good time to find somewhere to get a bite to eat and wait for the rain to pass. Alas, there were no restaurants anywhere nearby. So, we headed back to Hirosaki Park to eat at the café at the Rest House.

After lunch, we wandered back across the bridges that span the moats around the castle and arrived at the City Museum on the park grounds. Mui wanted to rest a bit, so we bought only one admission when we learned that it was not included in the combo ticket price. We should have, instead, skipped the place. It turned out to more or less be a special art exhibit, with only a few artifacts. Definitely was not worth the price of admission.

Next we walked over to the Hirosaki Castle Botanical Garden, had our combo ticket stamped, and picked up a brochure. Since we were either too early or too late in the season for some of the gardens on the grounds, we went directly to the rose garden for some photo ops before continuing onto what would be our final stop in Hirosaki.

The Fujita Memorial Garden is a 15-minute walk from the Otemon Gate of Hirosaki Park. It is one of the largest gardens in Japan’s northeastern region. The Edo-style garden was built in 1919 by Japanese garden architects from Tokyo to complement the new villa of the man for whom it is named.

The place — admission included in our combo ticket for Hirosaki Park — turned out to be a highlight of our day … despite the rain that started to fall steadily while we were there. First, we strolled the path around the upper garden. Then we took the stairs down to the lower garden where we were wowed by a field of irises set on either side of the yatsuhashi, a zigzag-shaped bridge. Gardeners were everywhere, making sure the irises were being displayed in all their glory. It was a patchwork of color that was very pleasing to the eye.

I’m so glad we didn’t miss the garden. We would have dallied longer — even in the rain — but announcements that the park was closing at 4:30p kept us on the straight and narrow.

After, a quick shopping detour — finally found the Lotte Premium Ghana chocolate that we were first introduced to in Okinawa and have been searching for avidly since — we took a taxi to Hirosaki Station, arriving with enough time to purchase tickets and make our way to the appropriate platform for the 5:41p local train.

The rest of today’s story will pick up back in Aomori …Read more