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Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival

I've been trying to write about our day trip to Hirosaki for a few days now, but when you have approximately 20,326,483 pictures of an event, it's a little daunting to blog about it.  

Enter; my mad video making skillz.  Yeah.  That's right.  I'm so awesome at making videos on my Mac, (which makes it insanely easy) that I spell "skills" with a Z! 

As usual, I've tried to choose rocking music to accompany my movie to make it worth your additional click. 

So enjoy.

(That's an order.)

This movie is dedicated to our good friends "The Effs" who plan awesome trips and then let us tag along!!!

Want more technical information?  Rather than tell you in my own words all about Hirosaki Castle and the surrounding area, I'm going to copy and paste from japan-guide.com.

Here you go:

"Hirosaki Castle was built in 1611 by the Tsugaru Clan. A three-story castle tower, fortified moats, castle gates and some corner turrets (yagura) survive or were reconstructed. The castle is located in Hirosaki Park, a spacious public park of about 0.6 square kilometers.  The castle's original five-story keep burnt down in 1627 after being struck by lightning. Rebuilt in 1810, the present three-story keep is the only one in the Tohoku region that was not rebuilt in the modern era, amongst only a handful in all of Japan.

Gokoku Shrine

Botanical Garden

Hirosaki Park is one of Japan's most famous cherry blossom spots with several thousand cherry trees. Over a million people visit the park during the sakura matsuri(cherry blossom festival) from April 23 to May 5, when the blossoms are usually in bloom. This coincides with the Golden Week holidays.

Inside Hirosaki Park there are a few other attractions of interest, including the Hirosaki Castle Botanical Garden in the park's southeast corner and Gokoku Shrine, the Aomori branch of Yasukuni Shrine in the north end of of the park. Most of the city's other tourist attractions are also located within walking distance of the park."

Mormons and Temples

If anyone were to ask me my opinion of the HBO series "Big Love", (which no one has) I would say "It's not a good place to get information about Mormons and/or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 'Cause, ya know...it's a cable show...made by people who are not themselves members of the church...and are definitely not religious scholars."

Then if that same person asked me about temples, (which they haven't) I might refer them to this video:



Then I would say this: "Since moving here in August, Doug and I have not been able to visit the temple. The nearest one is in Tokyo and we haven't made a temple trip down there yet. (It's about a 12 hour drive.) But we are planning to go soon and can't wait. Our ability to visit the temple is one of the greatest blessings we have as worthy members of this church and we both love visiting the temple." 

The End and Amen.

Any questions?

I've had some complaints

that I'm not talking about Japan enough. Well, it's true. I'm not. (buncha whiners.)

And I'll do better. Later.

WHEN I'M NOT DEATHLY ILL AND I ACTUALLY MANAGE TO LEAVE MY HOME LET ALONE THE BASE!!!

Alright, so I'm not actually deathly ill. And I did go to church off-base today...begrudgingly.

But after finishing two different simultaneous courses of antibiotics along with an oral steroid, my tonsils are still as big as grapefruit, and my sore throat has returned along with a snotty nose. Which always leads to tonsillitis. Which always leads to an ear infection. Which always leads to me being Miss Cranky Pants!

So lets just say I'm a little testy at the moment. BUT, being the stoic martyr that I am, I still managed to do this:

(Don't say I never gave you anything.)

Turn the volume up. It's a darn good song.

And stay tuned for more Japan adventures and cultural commentary.

(geez, it's like people don't even come here for my wit and/or cute kids...!)

Sayonara!