The cherry blossom magic continues here in Japan. At this point, I suppose we’ve seen millions of them but every single one is worth admiring. And, judging from the number of pictures I’ve taken, apparently a large percentage of those millions are worth photographing!
This is my second mini-blog post, created while visiting Japan, to serve as a series of postcards for my readers.
The cherry blossoms in Hirosaki Park, especially around the architectural treasures of the Hirosaki Castle, were incredible!
Located close to the city of Hirosaki is a 20-kilometer (32-mile) stretch of road known as “The Best Scenic Cherry Tree Avenue in the World”. There are over 6,500 cherry trees planted along the roadways at the southern foot of Mount Iwaki. We were fortunate to catch the blossoms at the perfect time.
Nebuta are large, colorful, paper lanterns carried as parade floats during the annual Nebuta Festival in northern Japan. Traditionally, local councils sponsored the nebuta and strived to outdo each other. “Nebuta masters” were engaged to design, build and decorate the nebuta. Historical characters including ancient warlords and kabuki theatre characters were popular themes. The nebuta, which are about 5 meters high by 9 meters wide by 7 meters deep, are made of Japanese paper pasted to frames of wood, bamboo and wire. The nebuta are beautifully lit from within—in days gone by candles were used but they have been replaced with electrical light bulbs. Here are a couple of dramatic nebuta designs from Hirosaki and Aomori.
From Hirosaki we made our way south to Nagano. There we visited the magnificent, 7th century Buddhist temple Zenkō-ji.
Another big draw in Nagano was the Jigokudani Yaen-Koen to see troops of wild Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata), commonly called “snow monkeys”. The Jigokudani Yaen-koen is a facility for observation of monkeys in an environment kept as natural as possible. Here are a couple of my favorite shots from our visit.
During the Edo Period (1603 – 1867), the Nakasendo was the primary trail used by warlords, samurai soldiers and others when travelling between Tokyo and Kyoto. Nowadays, walkers can walk along sections of the Nakasendo trail and stop at the beautifully restored post-towns along the way. We walked about 8 kilometers (5 miles) from Tsumago to Magome. The steep climb made it rather challenging but the forested trail was beautiful.
From Magome, we made our way to the outstanding city of Kyoto. We’re staying a few blocks from the Shōsei-en Garden which is simply lovely!
This is the second mini-blog post in a short series about my current trip to Japan:
. Postcards from Japan #1
. Postcards from Japan #2 (this post).
To learn more about the viewing of cherry blossoms in Japan, check out my previous blog post, Virtual Hanami Around Aizu.
Until next week,
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