弘前公園 (弘前城) ＆ さくら祭り – Hirosaki Park (Hirosaki Castle) & Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival

[Original Travel Date: 5/5/2014]

Finally, my last stop on my Tohoku trip was to Aomori Prefecture, to visit the city of Hirosaki and witness its famous cherry blossom festival that I had heard so much about.  Unfortunately, while peak season came a full week later than normal last year, this year ended a bit earlier than expected.  That’s the problem with planning a trip around a thing of nature – it’s heavily dependent on timing, weather, and good fortune.

Despite this, Hirosaki Park was still extremely well-attended, and although many of the trees had lost their blossoms, the party was hardly over.

Hirosaki Castle, or Hirosaki Park, as it is more often called, is the site for Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival as well as the remains of the castle owned by the Tsugaru clan.  The castle itself burned down years ago, and all that remains are some castle gates, a few corner keeps, and a tenshukaku, or castle keep, which is in fact a three-storied reconstruction of the five-storied original (the original was struck by lightning and burned down in 1627).

To be blunt, the castle keep is quite underwhelming, and it costs about 300 yen to enter the inner grounds where the keep is (the rest of the park is free to the public).  This might deter you from paying the money, HOWEVER, the keep itself aside the inner grounds are actually quite pretty and offer a nice view of the city overall.  It also has some great specimens of cherry blossom trees that were still in bloom even when I was there.

Aside from the inner grounds, the rest of the park had some wonderful trees with plenty of color.  The weather was nice and walking around the park admiring all the trees was a fun way to spend the afternoon.  It would have been a nice place to have a picnic… Though that might have been a bit sad to do all alone.

Speaking of picnics, as I mentioned before in my post about hanami in Maruyama Park in Kyoto, the biggest draw of the “flower-viewing” experience is the party atmosphere.  Hirosaki was no exception.  Plenty of food vendors, as well as small attractions such as a haunted house and a motorbike circus.  Families and friends in groups everywhere with their mats spread out on the ground under the trees, enjoying their picnic lunches or food and drink bought from the nearby stalls.

Even if you are a fan of castles, you should not come to Hirosaki just to see Hirosaki Castle.  There are many far more interesting (and beautiful) castles in Japan to observe.  In fact, you really shouldn’t come to Hirosaki at all unless during one of their major festivals/events.  The two most famous being the Cherry Blossom Festival, and the Apple Blossom Festival.  Like the rest of Aomori Prefecture, Hirosaki is famous for its apples, often called the “City of Apples”.

The Apple Blossom Festival also takes place immediately after the Cherry Blossom Festival, so if you like apples and want a chance to listen to some tsugaru shamisen music, this might be a good option if you miss the sakura season in Hirosaki.