Kakunodate-Samurai House

This weekend we went to Kakunodate to visit two notable samurai houses, the Aoyagi House and the Ishiguro House. I was excited to go but didn't think I would enjoy as much as the other things we have been doing.

Yeah, I was wrong, this place was really cool and the history of samurai is fascinating.

This is the entrance to the Ishiguro House. The house was constructed almost 200 years ago and remains almost exactly the same.

I thought this had to be an entrance to some elaborate room...nah, it's storage.

Then, on to the Aoyagi House. This house had a collection of artifacts from the 15th century through the 19th century.

After the Samurai houses we had some free time to go and get lunch and explore a little. We had lunch at a traditional Japanese restaurant across the street. I tried the udon noodles, I definitely like ramen better. Dan had some really good curry.

After lunch, ice cream time. Rayce got chestnut flavor, IT WAS SO GOOD!

Hinokinai River. This place is a cherry blossom viewing hotspot in the spring, lots of cherry blossoms.