Hirosaki

Yesterday I made a spur of the moment decision to visit the nearby city of Hirosaki. Hirosaki castle is a famous castle Located in the city. It was first built in the beginning of the Edo period of Japan in 1611, but burnt down in 1627 when it was struck by a bolt of lightning. In 1811, toward the end of the Edo period, the government allowed the castle to be reconstructed as a reward for Daimyo Yasuchika's service to the shogun.

Lucky for me, the government will be doing renovations on the castle and it will be closed down for ten years so I arrived just in time. Normally there are four festivals during the year; one for each season. Their summer Neputa festival was closed this year due to an accident, but hopefully I will be able to see the other three before it closes.

After the castle I went to (read: stumbled upon) Saisho-in temple. It had a five tiered pagoda and a graveyard. Not much else to say about it.