A Japanese cherry blossom cruise.

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You cant kill them.Tree chopped down and away it shoots-

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Positioned on a hill the castle is impressive.

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A bit surprising that the tulips were out already-

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An interesting collection of shrines-

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And the first time I see a shrine to Mercedes-

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Lots of cherry trees on the upper level but as you can see the blue sky has given way to clouds-

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So it is back down to the festival-

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Deep fried spaghetti.Didn'ther to try it.

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Hanami parties were about to get into full swing down in the main festival area-

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We had a few snacks with beef and yakitori.A Japanese fellow would translate what we said if the stall holder didn't understand.I had noticed him following the other western couple we saw here and now he was following us.The fellow selling beef on a stick was a happy fellow-

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It turned out the fellow following us wanted to have an English conversation.After watching me murder the Japanese language he felt we were the ones to ask.In fact he had quite reasonable English so we had a long conversation.I am sure we both learnt a bit.He also had a phone app translating Japanese to English.Seems like a good idea.Here he is-

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We were intrigued with this woman's offering-

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It is a brown sugar crumble.Brown sugar over heat to caramelise then a small bit of bicarb dropped in and it solidifies.What a sugar hit!

We then brought a selection of sweets from the shop-

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These were very nice-

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On the way down the hill we had a sakura icecream-

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It was more a sakura gelato but enjoyable and we felt good giving the trade to such a young woman!

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We decided to go to the Art Gallery next to our hotel and have a coffee there to warm us a little.Unusual decoration outside-

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Nice views from the café-

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Now on Trip Advisor they recommend visiting the Entertainment street so we decided to walk there as not far-

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The further you walked down the street the more bars and nocturnal "entertainment"places there were.Decided it was not a place for older couples so walked back to the hotel

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It looked like they did have kayaking on the moat but probably no more-

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In the evening checked out a little shopping arcade behind the Gallery.Mrsdrron was surprised to see a boutique Australian business present-

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There was a nice looking Japanese restaurant there so we decided to eat there.Noone spoke English but the menu had some pictures and I can recognise suikiyaki when written so that is what we had.The waitresses were obviously pleased we knew what we were doing.Initially the young trainee was trembling when she was sent over to serve us.

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Saturday and we went shopping.Not really a destination for it but did find a good pottery shop and the 100 yen shop so a few purchases.Also the Muji shop which had a differently named curry-

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That night I decided to do some night blossom viewing.It was bitterly cold so mrsdrron stayed at the hotel whilst I put on all the clothes I had and went out.It was worth it-

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So the last of the night viewing-

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And boys will be boys all over the world.These young fellows had hotted up cars.they took turns at racing around the block making as much noise as possible-

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I really enjoyed the noght viewing and by the end I wasn't feeling the cold.I can recommend a night blossom viewing.

I would also recommend thinking of Akita as a place for blossom viewing especially later in April.We were there 21-24/4.It was at peak though on average that would happen about a week later.

Sunday and another of the highlights of our trips.When researching getting from Akita to Hirosaki I first thought the Shinkansen back to Morioka then the Hokkaido shinkansen to Shin Aomori.But on Hyperpedia it came up as well with a train called the Resort Shirakami number 3.So I decided to look at that even though it took more than an hour longer than the shinkansen.

JR East have 16 "joyful"trains.Three of them run between Akita and either Hirosaki or Aomori.In Spring they only run on weekends so there was one running on the Sunday-the other 2 were operating in the reverse direction.So we booked.Down to Akita station some time before and bought some snacks including tonkatsu sangers-not bad.

Then waited on the platform.the first train didn't look joyful and fortunately the sign for our train didn't change-

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One warning if travelling in Japan.if someone says get on the next train they do not mean the one that will be stopping next-that is this train.The next train is the one after.The joyful train arrives.

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Great train.huge windows for viewing and separate areas at each end of the carriage with even larger windows.Definitely adequate leg space-

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The train is also fitted with nose cam.First passed by a freight train whilst still at Akita and then off at last-

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Lovely near water but at this time of year the plains are a little boring-

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A few spots with lots of blossom-

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