Substitute Holiday

Last Wednesday, I had a Substitute Holiday.

A substitute holiday is the weekday you get off to make up for having to work on the weekend. Many teachers work on the weekend, almost every weekend in fact, and they don't get substitute holidays, but that's beside the point. The previous Saturday was considered a mandatory work day because the students had special tests. I don't know which is worse, making the teachers work on the weekend, or making students take tests on the weekend. I guess giving everybody a Wednesday off makes up for it.

As far as I can tell, no other schools had a substitute holiday, so I was left to my own devices, with no complaints. In the afternoon I went on the nice long bike ride that I'd been thinking about since Silver Week.

First I rode to the main Post Office to get stamps and send out a package, and then I headed towards Hirosaki Park. I had this idea that I might be able to get another page of my 御朱印帳 (goshuuinjou, shrine stamp book) filled at the shrine at the northern end of the park where I hadn't been yet. As I pedaled along I realized I was following part of my usual bus route and decided to go a little further to find the dango shop that I always see open for business in the afternoons, but feel too tired to visit. At 3pm they were clearly in a quiet period with the staff back in the kitchen making dango, but the selection was pretty amazing and I ended up buying too many little dango only realizing afterwards that I'd probably have to eat them all myself.

Sneak shot of the display case at Kyokushoudou dango shop, in the Honchou district

Confections- Banana monaka, a buttery biscuit, a sakura monaka and a persimmon-looking dango

I rode along the long, uninterrupted east side of the park with the moat on my left splashing and gurgling at elevation changes where the water tumbles over stone barriers. That kind of made me wonder... if you build a stone dam to keep your moat filled, and it essentially functions as a bridge, it isn't much of a defense mechanism, is it? But it's very pretty and pleasant in any case.

I left my bike at the park gate closest to the shrine and walked in. The shrine gate was open, but I was the only person there, visitor or otherwise, so no stamp for my book. There was a big candy-striped scaffold set up on either side of the walk to the shrine that didn't seem to be supporting anything except itself. There were a couple of less-than-permanent looking signs that I might get around to translating some day, but right now I have no idea what it was all about.

Gokoku Shrine at Hirosaki Park

Gokoku Shrine with candy-striped mystery scaffold

Gokoku Shrine gate and walk to the shrine

I walked away from the shrine and found the Shunyo-bashi bridge, and a school of enormous carp who thought I looked like someone who might have a snack for them. Further on I walked through the Cherry Blossom Tunnel, although it's the wrong season for those right now, and around the end of the west moat and back past the bridge to the gate where I left my bike.

Shunyo-bashi Bridge and West Moat in Hirosaki Park

Carp swimming under Shunyo-bashi Bridge, looking for a snack

Cherry Blossom Tunnel sans cherry blossoms

Random advertisement for "Flying Witch," anime set in Hirosaki

The other side of Shunyo-bashi Bridge and the West Moat

Flowers at the edge of Hirosaki Park, I assume in preparation for use elsewhere...

On my meandering bike ride home I got intentionally lost in the Nakacho Historic House Preservation Area (or "Samurai District" for short), and rode through the parking lot of the Neputa Mura, a museum for local culture and tradition that I need to visit soon. I was on my way past a senbei bakery when the smell of fresh hot senbei grabbed me by the nose and I was compelled to stop. I think they were probably about to close up shop, but they kindly opened all the sample containers for me to try, and I bought a package of macadamia senbei to add to the dango already in my bag. I am a sucker for sensory pleasures, especially delicious smells...