Airmen Adventures: Hirosaki Castle

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Patrick S. Ciccarone
  • 35th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
HIROSAKI, Japan --  "Airmen Adventures" is a six-month long print series to accompany Misawa Air Base's alcohol awareness campaign, "Another Day Wasted?" Each story will detail a young Airman's travels to various cities in Japan with transportation, attraction and cost details. This initiative is implemented in hopes of giving Airmen at Misawa a guide to travel outside the gate and explore Japan -- instead of spending another day wasted.

During the week, I write stories that highlight Airmen, airpower and the advancements to quality of life made here at Misawa Air Base. As a junior-enlisted member, my weekends and any free time are very important, so once the weekend comes, I high-tail it off base to explore new and interesting parts of Japan.

Fall is associated with a lot of things - the temperature begins to drop, the sun sets earlier, leaves change color and the people of Misawa begin bracing themselves for the impending winter.

Waking up on Saturday morning, the previously hectic workweek brought with it a debilitating grogginess and sluggishness to my morning routine. Being the Halloween season, I guess it's only apt that I resembled the walking dead.

Hoping to enjoy the last little bit of daylight and warmth before preparing for hibernation, my travel companion and I ventured 75 kilometers to Hirosaki to view the majestic castle and vibrantly-colored leaves of fall.

My friend and I started our day fairly early because Hirosaki is definitely not a leisurely trip to a local convenience store. It's a hefty two-hour drive and we had a limited amount of daylight to work with.

Hirosaki Castle is lauded for its famous cherry blossoms during the Japanese holiday of Golden Week with over one million spectators, and is one of the 100 Fine Castles of Japan. In the winter time, the castle also hosts a snow lantern festival. During early February, the festival is hosted at the castle for four days and features hundreds of mini kamakura snow lanterns.

We hit the road running (not literally) and headed toward Aomori for lunch.
As with all my trips thus far, I try to find a new restaurant to have lunch or dinner during the day. Because we chose a route through Aomori, we stopped to have ramen in a shop far off the beaten path.

Hidden behind a thicket of buildings and somewhere along the coastline, our ramen shop was one adorned with apples - something the city is known for. Unfortunately, because time was of the essence, we had just enough time to pop in, rapidly scald our mouths on their lunch set and bolt out of the building.

We were quite literally racing the setting sun.

Occupying our time with good conversation and music, our two-hour drive passed by pretty reasonably. Although traveling can be fun alone, for long distances like this, I suggest bringing friends or family with you to share the memory. It really speeds up the trip!

Earlier in the year, I visited Hirosaki-jo for the annual Sakura Matsuri (cherry blossom festival), so as I approached the castle grounds for the second time, I was struck by a sense of nostalgia remembering the bustling crowds of people, smells of vendor food and sounds of singing.

These days, Hirosaki Castle's park area is a bit different. It's currently undergoing renovations, so it certainly wasn't bustling with people, nor did it have vendors selling mysterious things on sticks.

Don't let that dissuade you from going to see it, though.

The park area is beautiful - the fall colors paint the grounds in vibrant oranges, reds and yellows. The air surrounding it is crisp and refreshing. It truly puts you into a mellow state of mind. A perfect calm from the busy mission we contribute to every week.

The park features several spots to stop and sightsee, including an open air picnic area and waterside walking trails.

Although our time spent on the grounds wasn't very long - we managed to stroll along the waterfront, stop for some ice cream and snap some photos just before the sun set.

As the day ended, so did our trip to the castle. We packed up, bid our farewell and took off toward Aomori for dinner.

Something to note about our trip was our intention to see the castle's chrysanthemum festival taking place between the middle of October and early part of November. During this time, Hirosaki Castle's leaves turn a vibrant crimson color.

Unfortunately, our timing was a bit off and we ended up going a little too early into the season. While the change in color was beautiful, we didn't catch the reds we were hoping for, but still managed to enjoy our trip nonetheless.

The total cost for this trip including lunch, parking, toll road and dinner was a reasonable $30 per person.

The trip lasted all day and provided a great look at the countryside and historic parts of Japan. As always, I recommend getting out and exploring new parts of the country. For many of us, the time here isn't permanent, so why not make some memories that are?