Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival (the biggest and best!)

Enough with the cherry blossoms, right?! Not quite! Hirosaki Park was by far the most beautiful place I visited to view the sakura blossoms! A friend and I made the trek to check them out and were so ecstatic that we went when we did! There are currently about 2,600 cherry trees planted in the park and we were there right at the peak of the blooming! Each year around 2 million people visit Hirosaki Park to view the blossoms. It's one of the most famous viewing spots in Japan! AND it's only a couple of hours from Misawa! (Map/driving/cost info at bottom of this post)

Still a lot of snow in the Hakkoda Mountains!

AMAZING!

View of Mt Iwaki from inside the castle.

Skunk cabbage.

As the sun went down, the park was illuminated which gave everything an entirely different look. Just as beautiful as it was in the daylight. The hanami (blossom viewing) parties shifted from daytime picnics to nighttime parties. All the blue tarps spread throughout the park were reserving party spaces. The process for reserving your spot is actually pretty simple, put down your tarp, mark it with your name and the time your party will start. Amazingly, that is all that is needed. You could leave your bags, food and drinks there for as long as you'd like and no one would touch it. Try doing that in an American park, haha!

This group brought a keg!

Hirosaki is approximately 105km (65 miles) from Misawa, the drive takes around 2 1/2 hours going the non-toll route through the mountains or a little under 2 hours taking the toll route. Tolls are about ¥2,100 each way. There is no entrance fee to the castle grounds, however the cost to go into the castle is ¥300 or ¥500 for the castle and botanical gardens.

Going to Hirosaki I took the route through the mountains (southern route on map), going home took the toll road. Used the Kuroishi Interchange to access the toll road.

Up next: My other random April adventures