THE ISLANDS OF JAPAN

HAKODATE, AOMORI and HIROSAKI CHERRY BLOSSOMS HIROSAKI CASTLE NEPUTA MUSEUM

The Clipper Odyssey awaited us at the port in Hakodate on the northern-most main island of Hokkaido. Upon our arrival at the local airport following our flight from Tokyo, we boarded buses to be taken for a brief visit to Goryokaku (a western-style fort built in the nineteenth century) to view the cherry blossoms -- the only place (besides Hirosaki) where we were to encounter these hearlds of Spring in bloom so late in the season -- before embarking for our first evening aboard ship.

Our first port of call the next day was Aomori located on the northern tip of Honshu, the main Japanese island; however our destination that first day was really the nearby town of Hirosaki where we walked around the local castle grounds and spent some fascinating time viewing the exhibits at a museum dedicated to the paper-and-bamboo illuminated floats central to the justly famous local Neputa festival held annually in August.

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