First off, yay socks. Picked these up at a mall just for fun. For one, I like socks a lot. These are made in Japan and the variety to choose from in the store was quite awesome. I'm gonna rock the checkered with some shorts I think.
Then off to Kakunodate, which was a castle town and samurai stronghold back in the day. It's a short ride from Sendai on the Shinkansen which takes you through a rather mountainous and currently snowy area where the sun hasn't gotten through much. Not sure if I've put many pictures of the trains up, so here's what they look like at the front!
The cherry blossoms are juuusst about to bloom. 3-4 days and it would have been a totally different experience. Sadly, I don't have that time! There was some festivities going on though and a little show on arrival.
Picked up some miso and a bottle of I'm-not-sure-what-it-is-because-I-can't-read-Japanese-but-it-tasted-like-it-might-be-a-fruity-soy-sauce-or-something.
The Ando Brewery here, has been making them the same way for for over 150 years.
Aoyagi House is one of the larger houses and pictured below. Maybe a bit of an outside observation but the people have gotten a lot bigger than their forefathers. Armor is always so tiny.
I'd buy one of these if I could..
Mustache to match.
Or buy a set of armor..
Even some of these I'd be happy to take home!
It also has a nice garden area on the outside in the back.
In the Ishiguro house you'll find these hand carvings. With the light shining through it casts a turtle on the walls of the interior room. With candlelight it is said to make the turtles swim. Turtles are a sign of long life and good fortune. So pretty good to have swimming around.
There was also a display of armor for boys day coming up. This one was something like 200 years old?
This partiuclar fir tree is 300 years old. Massive massive tree.
As with the festivities on arrival at the station there was a bunch along the river. Where in just a few days there will be loads and loads of weeping cherry blossom trees. Really wish they had been in bloom when I got there... next time perhaps.
Somebody found a spider when kneeling to bow and wasn't too happy about putting her head close to it.
Had some cotton candy, sakura soft ice cream, and sakura salted popcorn at the festival! One Piece, pictured above, is one of the most popular manga and anime in Japan.
Picture this but in full bloom. Boooo, why couldn't it be here already. The buds were there just not opened.
Taiwanese for dinner!