Completed in 1611, the castle was occupied by generations of the Tsugaru clan. The castle keep was rebuilt in 1810 and has now been turned into a small historical museum.

It dominates the 121-acre / 49ha public park, which is very famous throughout Japan for the flowering of its 2,600 cherry trees, from the end of April to mid-May.

The botanical gardens in the park are worth strolling through to see the many styles of garden in different seasons.

Let's experience Hirosaki's unique summer time festival within the Neputa-Mura Village!

Here you will see:

Neputa Float: Containing some of the highly decorative festival floats with illuminated screens or gigantic fans used during the Famous Hirosaki festival, the Neputa Matsuri Festival.

Did you know that the word neputa derives from nepute or “drowsiness” in the local dialect? This allegedly refers to the farmer’s custom of placing giant lanterns along the riverbank in order to keep them awake when they were returning home from a hard days work.

The museum also offers free live performances featuring:

● Shamisen: Japanese traditional 3 stringed musical guitar.

● Neputa Festival Music where you can try hitting the gigantic drums

*The following are NOT included in the fee:

●Lunch and Shopping: Ramen and others (Aomori Ramen-dried sardine-based soup, Sushi, Tempura (Mountain vegetables).

●Aomori Specialties (varieties of crafts, cake and others)

●Workshops: wooden dolls, pottery, locale ware.

You can ONE choose amongst the following:

*Fujita Kinen Teien - Garden

In its 26,312 sq yd / 22,000sq m area, you will find a Japanese house with a floor made from Yakusugi (ancient pines), archeological hall, a tea ceremony pavilion.

A somber Taisho-era dwelling with a magnificent veranda.

The garden also features a café - the apple pie here is best!

*Entrance fee is 320yen

**Attending the tea ceremony with some sweets fee is 1000yen per person

***Attending the handcraft workshop has an additional fee that changes per event; fees are generally around 300-2000yen - please ask for what the current event is!

OR

*Zenrin-Gai

Thirty - three Zen temples flanks this peaceful “Buddhist way “leading to the Tsugaru family temple of Chosho - ji, containing 500 small statues of the disciples of Buddha.

*There is NO additional fee required

OR

*Nakacho Historic Quarter - Samurai Houses

The people who served the Daimyo (King of local districts in Japan), lived in this district.

Several houses are open to visitors. The Iwata House shows how a Samurai family would have lived at the time (16c- 19c) around 400 years ago.

*Ninja house is near this district

**There is NO additional fee required