At Hirosaki Park, less than an hour away from Aomori port, some 2,600 cherry blossom trees bloom every year.
It is one of best places to be in Japan between about April 23 to May 5, when visitors can walk through cherry blossom tunnels.
At other times of the year, visitors to Hirosaki Park can still see how it looks in cherry blossom time and every other season.
They simply have to stand at each of five strategic spots and don special lenses that come with earphones to be transported through the four seasons in simulated treks with multilingual commentary—an exhilarating experience.
This facility also helps mitigate the shortage of multilingual tour guides when three or four busloads of passengers arrive together.
To make sure cruise visitors get their hands on these IT guide sets, they can book rentals at US$10 each, ahead of time.
For now, only 100 sets are available. They have commentary in English, Chinese, Korean, Thai, and Japanese.
Technology is also being used in another quarter of the park, where Aomori’s famous Hirosaki Castle has been physically moved some 70mtr.
Hirosaki’s castle, one of Japan’s twelve heritage castles, built in the Edo period (1603 - 1868), was damaged by lightening, burnt down in 1627 and rebuilt in 1810.
The castle’s 12mtr high foundation, comprising some 3,000 rocks, was in dire need of repair after an 1983 earthquake caused the building to lean.
In 2015, the entire castle was relocated to facilitate restoration works to its supporting rock wall.
Japanese engineers moved the 400-ton castle over a three-month period. It was lifted 60 centimeters/two feet from the ground by hydraulic jacks and a dolly system was used to roll it to a temporary site.
Hirosaki Castle will be moved back to its original position in 2021. Meanwhile, visitors can still visit the castle and its interior.
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