Hirosaki – The Most Attractive City in Aomori Prefecture

With the number of tourists coming to Hirosaki for the Cherry Blossom Festival (弘前さくらまつり) and the jam-packed hotels in the city, it goes without saying that late April to early May is one of the best times to visit this beautiful city.

The Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival will take place from the  21st of April to the 5th of May in 2023. For more information, please refer to the official website HERE.

Although you might think Hirosaki is a great place to escape from the summer heat due to its high latitude, this is definitely NOT the case!

While the average summer temperature doesn’t exceed 30 degrees, that is the “average” of the past how many years… The earth is warming up, and the city’s temperature can now easily go beyond 30 degrees on a sunny day without any issue.

You can hardly find a spot in Japan that isn’t beautiful in autumn. In Hirosaki, the highlight is the Hirosaki Castle Chrysanthemum And Autumn Foliage Festival (弘前城菊と紅葉まつり)!

The festival, held from late October to early November each year, features several local folks performing on traditional instruments such as taiko drums and shamisen (a type of Japanese lute).

If you happen to be traveling in mid-February, the Hirosaki Castle Snow Lantern Festival (弘前城雪燈籠まつり) is waiting for you (*’▽’). But please make sure you bring enough clothes with you unless you want to buy some heat-tech innerwear from Uniqlo – which isn’t a bad idea either (^_-)-☆.

In 2024, Hirosaki Castle Snow Lantern Festival will take place from the 9th to the 12th of February. For more information about the festival, please refer to the official website HERE!

The thing we love about this city is its bike rental services. There are a couple of places where you can rent a regular bike for 500 yen (or an electric-assisted bike for 1,000 yen) for the rest of the day (you have to return the bike by 4 pm, though)!

If you are coming to Hirosaki by JR train, one of the bike rental stations is conveniently located at Hirosaki City Tourist Information Center (弘前市観光案内所) on the JR Hirosaki Station’s ground floor (=ﾟωﾟ)ﾉ.

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During your time at Hirosaki, see how many street post boxes you can find with an apple on top (≧▽≦).

We are sure you will be super excited like us when you spot one. But here are some tips. You should definitely be able to find one around Hirosaki Apple Park, JR Hirosaki Station, or Hirosaki City Hall!

Hirosaki Castle is the symbol of Hirosaki City. With its castle tower (天守閣) being the only one that has retained its original appearance since the Edo period in North-Eastern Japan, the Castle is a must-visit spot for a Japanese history buff.

For more information, please refer to our article on Hirosaki Castle!

The Hirosaki Park consists of 492,000 square meters, which includes Hirosaki Castle. The park features a variety of plants, from approximately 2,600 cherry blossom trees (50 different types) to ginkgo and chrysanthemum, all there to add different seasonal colors to this massive park throughout the year (*’▽’).

After you visit Hirosaki Castle, if you have time, strolling around this park is definitely a good idea. There is even a shrine in the park for visitors to pray for a peaceful world!

The Fujita Memorial Garden is just next to Hirosaki Park. This memorial garden is the perfect example of how Western and Japanese cultures can exist in harmony.

The property was the villa of a successful businessman – Kenichi Fujita (藤田謙一). The garden has a size of 21,800 square meters which makes it the second biggest garden in North-Eastern Japan (just smaller than the Motsuji Temple‘s garden in Hiraizumi.

On the ground of the property, there is a Japanese-style house surrounded by a Japanese garden and a Western-style house with a Western-style garden.

Surprisingly, traveling between the two different styles isn’t jarring or confusing. It is probably due to the talent of the gardeners and architects back in the early 1900s.

On the first floor of the Western-style house, there is a café – Taishō Roman Tea Room. The cafe is so famous that almost everyone who visits Hirosaki Park stops by. The spacious terrace seats are a luxurious space where you can have a cup of tea while looking out at the beautiful garden (*´ω｀).

In autumn, the spot is as beautiful as Hirosaki Park. If you get the Hirosaki Park + Hirosaki Castle combo ticket, don’t forget to drop by this memorial garden on your way out of Hirosaki Park (because it will be free to enter!).

If you plan to visit the garden, allow yourself at least 40 minutes (if you are not dropping by the café).

• The admission fee is
  • 320 yen for adults
  • 100 yen for children
  • Free if you are only visiting the Western-style house
• The garden is open between the 1st of April and the 23rd of November from 9 am to 5 pm.
  • The last entry is at 4:30 pm.
  • Note that between the 24th of November to the end of March, only parts of the Garden are open.

This whole village is about one of the Three Great Festivals of the Tōhoku Region – the Hirosaki Neputa Festival (ねぶた祭). This festival, which sees more than 2 million people coming to Aomori, is held from the 1st to the 7th of August each year.

Throughout the festival period, parades of gigantic neputa lantern floats and folk art performances happen every day from morning to night.

Although the name of the village is “neputa”, it is more like a Tsugaru region’s folk crafts museum. Whether you just feel like strolling around the village to explore nuputa lanterns that depict gods, Japanese and Chinese historical or mythical figures, or Kabuki actors, or you want to learn how various local craftworks are made by actually making one yourself, Neputa Village can cater to your request!

• The admission fee is
  • 600 yen for adults
  • 400 yen for high school students
  • 300 yen for elementary school students
  • 100 yen for children from 3 years old
• The village is open daily from 9 am to 5:30 pm (till 4 pm from December to March)
  • The last admission is at 5 pm.
• To get to the village, get off the bus at Tsugaru-Han Neputa Village (津軽藩ねぷた村)

This house is located in the Nakacho Traditional Buildings Preservation Area (仲町伝統的建造物群保存地区). Back in the shogunate era, the Ito family used to serve as doctors at Hirosaki Castle.

Inside the house, you can explore the structure and characteristics of a middle-class samurai house from the Edo period!

P.S. It is free to enter the grounds of the house (^_-)-☆.

• To get to the house, get off the bus at Tsugaru-Han Neputa Village (津軽藩ねぷた村). The House is just a 5-minute walk away from the bus stop.
• The house is open from 10 am to 4 pm from April to November (except on the 13th of August and from the 29th of December to the 3rd of January)
• The house is closed on Tuesdays and Fridays from July to October and Monday to Thursday from November to March.
• Note during the Neputa Festival and Autumn Festival, the house is open regardless of the above.

Unlike the Ito Family Residence, this one is a thatched-roof samurai house with a Japanese tea room atmosphere.

Most of the main parts of the house, such as the pillars, huts, and thatched roofs, have never been replaced with new material but retain their original state, built 200 years ago.

If you want to know about the life of the samurai in Hirosaki at that time, make sure you drop by this residence!

Entry is again – FREE!

• To get to the house, get off the bus at Tsugaru-Han Neputa Village (津軽藩ねぷた村). The house is just a 2-minute walk away from the bus stop.
• The house is open from 10 am to 4 pm (opening hours may differ during the days when festivals are held in Hirosaki)
• The house is closed on Mondays and Thursdays from July to October and Wednesday to Sunday from November to March.
• Note during the Neputa Festival and Autumn Festival, and Winter Festival, the House is open regardless of the above.
• The house is also closed on the 13th of August and from the 29th of December to the 3rd of January.

This residence, built in 1903, was the dormitory for foreign teachers who taught at Tōō Gijuku School. The museum inside the residence has furniture and furnishings used back in the Meiji period (1868 – 1912 ).

If you are interested in what foreigners’ life was like in the early 1900s in Japan, then this is the place you want to visit when you come to Hirosaki!

P.S. Entry is FREE!

And for those who love visiting unique cafés, you won’t want to miss out on the café on its ground floor. Again, apple pie is the most popular dish (´▽｀*). From the cafe’s window, you are able to see miniature buildings across the road at Ōtemon Square (追手門広場).

Chilling here for a few hours and pretending you are one of those foreign teachers who were invited to Japan back in the 1800s can be another way to enjoy your time at Hirosaki!

• To get to this Residence, get off the bus at Shiyakusho Mae (市役所前)
• The residence is open from 9 am to 6 pm daily
• The cafe is open from 9:30 am to 6 pm
  • The last order is at 5:30 pm

In Ōtemon Square (追手門広場), you will find 14 miniature buildings quietly sitting on the grass lawn. While you may not be able to find some of them now in Hirosaki city, they actually existed during the Meiji and Taisho periods (1868 – 1926).

The buildings are 1/10 of the size of the original building, so there are about the size of a little 3-year-old!

• From JR Hirosaki Station (弘前駅), it is a 30-minute walk to the Museum.
• You can also cut your travel time by taking a bus and getting off at Shiyakusho Mae (市役所前).

This cute building was open to the public as a library until 1931. It is currently a museum featuring the history of the building and local literature. As it is super close to Hirosaki Park and entry is free, why not add this little spot to your itinerary, even just for a photo op?

• From JR Hirosaki Station (弘前駅), it is a 30-minute walk to this library.
• You can also cut your travel time by taking a bus and getting off at Shiyakusho Mae (市役所前).
• The library is open from 9 am to 5 pm daily!

This building was built to be the first bank in Aomori Prefecture. The renaissance-style building comes with a tower that serves as an observatory – which isn’t open to the public at the moment… (;´･ω･)

Various financial instruments such as old banknotes and coins are displayed on the ground floor. If you have a great passion for the banking industry, come here to discover how the industry has evolved!

• From JR Hirosaki Station (弘前駅), it is a 30-minute walk to the Museum.
• You can also cut your travel time by taking a bus and getting off at Shiyakusho Mae (市役所前). The residence is just a 1-minute walk away from the bus stop.
• The Museum is open between 9:30 and 4:30 from the 1st of April to the end of November daily except for Tuesdays and from the 29th of December to the 3rd of January.
• During Cherry Blossom Festival, Neputa Festiva, and Snow Lantern Festival, the Museum is open from 9:30 am to 6 pm.
• The admission fee is
  • 200 yen for adults
  • 100 yen for elementary and junior school students

The Catholic Hirosaki Church is a Romanesque wooden mortar church built in 1910 and has been used as a church ever since.

Either the air in Hirosaki is really clean, or they put a lot of effort into keeping the church’s appearance as pristine as possible. As you can see in the photo, the church still meets its visitors with its pure white walls!

The church is open from 7 am to 7 pm (until sunset in wintertime). Unless the church is holding a mass, tourists are all welcome to walk around the church.

The gothic-style altar was a gift from the Church of St. Thomas in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Pay close attention to those brighter colored stained glass. You will find something that can’t be found elsewhere in the world (hint: apples and shamisen (Japanese lute))!

To get to the Church, take a bus and get off at Bunka sentā (文化センター). The Church is just a 5-minute walk away from the bus stop.

This ivory church is a Protestant church that was originally built in 1875. The current church that we can visit now is actually the second rebuilt in 1907. It has a structure of a heavy wooden two-story building with a double tower Gothic style similar to Notre Dame.

The church has a very simple interior with a red carpet and white walls, but it feels sublime!

To get to the church, take a bus and get off at Bunka sentā (文化センター). The church is just a 5-minute walk away from the bus stop.

Saishoin Temple, which is close to Hirosaki Park, is a famous cherry blossom spot. But the grounds of the temple are also stunning during autumn.

The temple was originally built in 1667 to pray for the peace of those who passed away in the battle of Tsugaru region unification.

• To get to the temple, take a bus and get off at Honchō (本町). The temple is then around an 8-minute walk
• If you are taking the regular bus, get off at Hirosaki Kōkōmae (弘前高校前)
• The Temple is opened daily from 9 am to 4:30 pm

Chōshoji Temple was originally built in 1528 and was actually relocated a few times before it settled down to where it is today (´▽｀*).

This temple which has a simple yet magnificent appearance, has been listed as one of the National Important Cultural Properties. So if you have some spare time between your busy schedule, how about spending 30 minutes or so to immerse yourself in this historically rich spot?

Leading to the gate of the Chōshoji Temple, at the two sides of the straight road, there are another 33 temples.

Just like the name of this road (or street), this area of Hirosaki is surrounded by a calming, zen-like atmosphere. Taking a little pilgrimage among these temples can be a great idea if you love visiting all the temples in Japan (*´ω｀).

• The temple is open from 9 am to 4 pm daily from April to November.
• Bus services stopping close to Chōshoji Temple depart from Hirosaki Bus Terminal (弘前バスタミナール) in front of JR Hirosaki Station for 300 yen.
• Regular bus services bound for Nishimeyamura Yakuba or Soma depart from bus stop no. 7 from Hirosaki Bus Terminal. Please get off at Shigemori Machi (茂森町). The Temple is a 10-minute walk away from the bus stop.
• For more details, please refer to Hirosaki Tourism And Convention Bureau’s website HERE!
  • P.S. The bus will also bring you to Hirosaki Apple Park.

When the Japanese think about Aomori, apples are probably one of the first things that will pop up in their mind. Hirosaki harvests the most apples in the country. So naturally, it has several orchards dedicated to tourists.

The most accessible orchard in Hirosaki is the Hirosaki Apple Park. In the park, there are around 80 different types of apple trees and approximately 2300 apple trees growing apples for us to eat!

At Hirosaki Apple Park, not only can you do apple picking, but there is a range of experiences and festivals/events that you can participate in throughout the year!

For more details, please refer to our article about the Apple Park HERE (=ﾟωﾟ)ﾉ.

If you love exploring nature, Mt. Iwaki, which is located around a 60-minute bus ride from Hirosaki’s city center, is the perfect destination to stop by when you visit Hirosaki. Although it is 1,625-meter tall, getting to the summit isn’t a hard thing to do!

For more information on how to get to the top of Mt. Iwaki without too much effort, refer to our article on Mt. Iwaki (=ﾟωﾟ)ﾉ.

Aomori City, the capital of Aomori Prefecture, has a wealth of beautiful nature, such as the Hakkōda mountain ranges and Mutsu Bay. Stunning scenery can be adorned throughout the year. In fall, it is the time to find out your favorite kinds of apples!

The city also has a couple of cultural heritages for you to enjoy a different side of Japanese culture.

For more information, please refer to our article on Aomori!

Especially if you are a Japanese railroad fan, you really want to be onboard Resort Shirakami once in your life!

Coming with 3 different designs, this joyful train runs between Aomori (青森) and Akita (秋田) prefectures on the Tsugaru Plain (津軽平野). It is reputed for its beautiful scenery along the railway line! Sightseeing such as walking around and seeing the scenery nearby is also good. Seeing the beautiful scenery changing from the train window is also a great idea.