Japan & Russia on HAL Westerdam - April 2019

Part 12 - Aomori

This day was our last port day of this cruise. In terms of cherry blossom viewing it was supposed to be the highlight of the cruise... so spoiler alert - you are going to see many cherry blossoms!

 

Together with 3 other couples we had booked a taxi to Hirosaki Castle. It was about an hour’s drive from Aomori, and our destination was the Cherry Blossom Festival in the park of the castle.

Unfortunately the weather was rainy and miserable. However, the clouds in the sky couldn’t cloud our joy and amazement when we entered Hirosaki Park. Again, no words can describe the experience, so I‘ll just give you the photos.

 

An area of the park was reserved for food stalls and vendors offering all kinds of Japanese specialties catering to the people celebrating Hanami despite the cold.

 

By now the rain had really set in and Birgit and I warmed up with a nice hot bowl of Ramen in one of the stalls.

 

On our way back, in the cosy comfort of our warm van, one of our tourmates summed up the day with the words, “Now this was delightfully overwhelming!” He was spot on.

Back on the ship we had a hot cup of tea in the Crow´s Nest while waving Aomori goodbye and heading out into the stormy sea. We had the same feeling as on our previous cruise to Japan two years before, when we left the last port - we missed Japan already.

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