Hirosaki Chrysanthemum Festival

Last weekend, we drove to the Hirosaki Castle (about a 3 hour drive from Misawa) for the Chrysanthemum Festival. The festival ran from October 19 - November 11, which is a lot longer than the typical festival. After seeing the castle with all the fall leaves, I cannot wait to go back in the spring when all the cherry blossoms are in bloom. Hirosaki is also now at the top of my list of favorite places in Japan.

On the drive to Hirosaki, we avoided the toll roads and took 394 through the Hakkodas. Most of the leaves have already fallen there, so the scenery wasn't as amazing as it was when we took a hike through the Oirase Gorge two weeks prior (post about Oirase coming soon).

Road through the Hakkodas. A little eerie, but very beautiful. 

Me next to a snow marker. I'm 5'9 for the record. Winter is going to get crazy!

Hirosaki as city was cute, and much bigger than Misawa. I wish we had left earlier in the day, so we could have spent some time wandering around the downtown area.

We found the castle without getting lost, which was a first for our Japan adventures. I think we are finally starting to get the grasp of how the highways wind and split.

The castle was surrounded by a moat, which was pretty freaking awesome. We paid ¥500 to park next to one of the 5 castle gates. I had a brief flashback to trying to find parking at the CWS in Omaha.

The moat. I love the old man fishing in the background.

Moat from the other direction.

Once inside the castle, we were delighted to see that all the trees still had their autumn leaves. I have never seen colors so vibrant, almost unrealistic. I even touched a few because they almost looked fake. 

After looking around the entrance, we paid another ¥500 each, which allowed us to look at the castle itself and the botanical gardens. The castle was surrounded by 3 turrets, which looked a lot like the castle but much smaller. The castle has been converted into a museum, but everything was in Japanese, so we just looked at the items quickly, plus I'm not big on history stuff.

View from inside the castle.

I was super thirsty after walking around, and luckily there was a water fountain outside the castle. Couple of things about Japan: their water pressure leaves something to be desired, so I had a hard time finding the right level for the water. Also, the whole "righty, tighty - lefty, loosey" thing, is the exact opposite in Japan. I did not know this.

We were the ONLY people not in winter coats.

After thinking I turned the water off and getting soaked in the face.

Then, we took pictures of the castle. It's so pretty with the changing leaves.

Us with the castle. The Japanese guy did a great job, even though he could barely understand us.

This is the oldest cherry blossom tree in Japan. It's a 120 years old and has seen better days.

Next, we made our way to the actual festival in the botanical garden. Honestly, the Chrysanthemum part wasn't my favorite, but seeing all the fall colors made it totally worth it.

I freaked out when I saw this, but Mark told me the swastika originally was a sign of peace before the Nazis hijacked it. 

Chrysanthemum

I love the juxtaposition on this one.

Every Japanese festival has a ton of food, music, and dancing. The Japanese love American music, so when we entered the botanical garden, we saw a bunch of kids street dancing to the most ghetto rap music. Unedited. To see kids dancing to 2 Live Crew "Pop That Pussy" while their parents cheer them on is just hilarious.

I am attempting to fully embrace the Japanese culture and try things I won't have the chance to once we leave, so upon seeing octopus legs on a stick, I knew it was now or never.

Sucking it all in.

It was pretty gross. It didn't help the lady dipped in some unknown sauce, just chilling in this big vat before handing it to me. It was really chewy, but it's rude to throw food away, so I toughed it out and ate the whole thing. Best ¥100 I ever spent! After that, I ate a chocolate covered banana to get something good tasting in my mouth.

All in all, I would love to go to this festival again, mainly because of the beautiful castle grounds. Hirosaki also hosts a Snow & Lantern Festival in the winter and Cherry Blossom Festival in the spring, so hopefully we'll have time to go to both of those.