Kevers in Japan: Misawa exploring

I guess the benefit of sleeping in the van in the land of the rising sun, is that you are up and ready to go by 5:30 am. Being that far north it was pretty chilly that night so I was very thankful to turn on the heat in the van and get going. We were in the Lake Towada area by 6:30 and we basically had this very popular area to ourselves. Lake Towada is a lovely caldera lake, the largest in fact in Japan. Its water was incredibly clear and we hiked through the Oirase Gorge to the east of the lake and enjoyed beautiful foliage that was just beginning to turn.

Oirase Gorge

I loved the old wooden bridges crisscrossing the stream

Lake Towada gems

the ladies

We started to head along the lake up toward the top of one of 3 volcanoes in this area. The drive was spectacular as the leaves were at their peak along the way.

beautiful views

Lake Towada from above

lookout from the top

bedhead hair and smiles at the top

This is how we roll, forts for all while we drive

in their fort

The must for me on this trip was the Hirosaki castle. Very famous for its hundreds of cherry trees in the spring, the castle is scheduled to be under renovation for 10 YEARS! They are draining the moat, and the building will be under scaffolding. It wasn't spring, but it was easy to see it would be breathtaking in the spring. Scaffolding goes up November 1, so we went.

Forget the castle. They wanted to do this all day

Exploring the grounds

Weeping cherry trees were everywhere!

Samurai armor inside the castle

Tommy was wearing his east coast apparel shirt, but unfortunately you can't tell!

Heading up to the city of Aomori next, our last stop for the day was Sannai Maruyama, a Joman period (300 BC) site. Just recently found, the site has yielded relics some 4000 yrs old, and they have rebuilt the village to what they envision it looked like. The children loved this, but they seemed to think living this way might not appeal to them.