May 3. Hirosaki, Aomori, Japan. We came back the next day, too, because the weather had improved...
Unlike the previous day, May 3rd was also an official holiday, rather than one that people take off to get a continuous week of vacation time. Thanks to the weather, this meant that it was rather tricky to maneuver through the throngs of people populating the park.
We also came craving lots of greasy food, and had the good fortune to be first in line for some deep-fried, battered, butter-flavored potatoes straight from the fryer. All I can say is that I'm glad my blood pressure has always been fairly reasonable. I would have taken a picture, but I was too busy clogging my arteries.
Out of nostalgia Hiromi felt compelled to buy a couple of bottles of sickeningly sweet ramune soda from some charismatic vendors... they asked which flavor we wanted... I believe the choices were regular, pink and blue. She chose the colorful ones... they tasted... well, pink, and blue. And sticky.
We also had some "amai amai" corn, which is pretty much like the corn Americans of my generation grew up with. Since the average sugar content of American summer sweet corn has been hybridized to near candy-like extremes, I wasn't all that surprised by it, but Hiromi was impressed at how sweet it was.
Sunny
Peek-a-boo
Pink!
White!
Yatai
An oyaji day off
The birds enjoy the blossoms, too
Matsuri folk dance and music
Extra-goofy Jason
Hiromi and botan
Boy, is this ever twisted
The wind picks up
[YouTube:4-NKEJfnKTU]
When the wind picked up, the cherry blossoms went flying...
See Part 1.