Hirosaki Snow Lantern Festival

I called my blog "aomori bokeh," but lately it's been Kyoto/Osaka bokeh and before that, Hakodate bokeh and soon enough Taiwan bokeh... Which is all fine and good, but I'd like to inject a timely bit of local bokeh with some pictures of the Hirosaki Snow Lantern Festival from last week (February 11th - 14th).

I hadn't been to Hirosaki Park since the Chrysanthemum and Foliage Festival at the beginning of last November, so it was my first time to see everything covered in snow. Thursday the 11th was a public holiday (National Foundation Day), and after lunch I took the 100yen bus to the park to see the snow lanterns and sculptures built by all sorts of community groups and organizations.

Highlights include: my first time seeing the castle in its "temporary" location; photo ops with my favorite local yurukyara Takamaru-kun; lots of snow lanterns, and a fireworks display on Friday the 12th... illustrated below.

Minami Uchimon Gate at the Snow Lantern Festival in Hirosaki Park

Giant snow lantern at the Otemon Gate entrance

Hirosaki's snow manji near the gate to the Botanical Gardens 

Team-ALT with their magnificent snow lanterns near the Castle

Snow lanterns leading up to the relocated Castle

Checking out the park from Takamaru-kun's perspective

Takamaru-kun himself is in his construction gear

Fabulous nearly full-scale snow castle made by the JSDF

In the athletic field, more snow sculptures and food stalls

Gudetama snow sculpture, near the minion

Gokoku Shrine, Aomori branch of the Yasukuni Shrine 

Sun setting through the Shrine gate

Hirosaki Castle in its temporary home

Snow lantern with a kiddie slide at the Castle 

Snow lanterns and Iwakiyama over the lotus pond

Decorated lanterns around the kids' area

Giant snow lanterns

Giant snow lanterns

Blue lights in the snow near the couples' picture spot

Finishing off the night with fireworks in front of the donut stand

More fireworks at the end of the night

edited 2016-02-21

正月 - Ringing the temple bell for Shogatsu

Firstly, あけましておめでとう, akemashite omedetou, Happy New Year from Hirosaki!

The line of temple visitors enters the main gate

初詣, Hatsumode, or the first shrine visit of the new year, had been on my list of things to do in Japan, and I received an invitation to go to hatsumode at Saisho-in Temple with a group of JETs from Hirosaki and the greater Tsugaru area. Kindly guided by Hideki-san, Alex's friend and go club manager, we walked from Dotemachi street to the north approach of Saisho-in Temple and got in line with many other visitors to pay our respects. 

I'm not an expert on the tradition by any means, but I do know that it involves going to the shrine or temple, tossing some coins in the offering box, ringing the bell and bowing. We followed Hideki-san's instructions at the main temple hall, then executed a team effort to ring the larger temple bell on our way out. We also stopped in to pay our respects at the Yasaka Shrine next door before heading back for fruit, candy and tea at the go club.

Approaching Saisho-in from the north

The moon shines over the five-story pagoda

Waiting in line to go into the temple

Lantern in the snow

The steps to Yasaka Shrine in the front, and the gate to Saisho-in in the back

Lanterns hanging around the dragon fountain 

Happy 2016, year of the Monkey!