Kakunodate - a samurai city
Day 5: Merchants and Samurai. An ironic juxtaposition of the old and new. The cherry blossoms will be in full bloom late April in this historic town - Kakunodate - nestled in mountains between Akita and Morioka so we were all alone as tourists in the winter chill.
Those samurai really knew how to live the good life and the wide ambling boulevard lined with wooden fence says it all. Attempts to imagine an unpaved road and walking slowly and intentionally in kimono met with s