Last September 7, Yu-Nan, a Taiwanese international student, organized a trip to Kakunodate located at the Senboku District of the Akita Prefecture. Kakunodate is a former castle town renowned for its well-preserved samurai houses and that weekend was the town festival. We took a super-sized taxi to Wada Station at 1:00pm. From there, we took a 36-minute train ride to Omagari Station then transferred to one more local train. We got to Kakunodate Station at 3:30pm. Upon arrival, the townspeople were already prepping for the festival. Attractive and colorful floats paraded down the street one after the other. There were lots of street food as well. We tried some yummy takoyaki balls that afternoon!
We then went inside a samurai house. I loved the traditional tatami mats. Along the street, I saw a tiny shop selling traditional Japanese slippers. Normally, these type of slippers are made out of wood, but the ones on display were actually made of a softer material.
At night, Kakunodate was all lit up. I loved the traditional Japanese lanterns and other festive decorations all over town. We left the festival at 9:14pm by Shinkansen. When we got to Wada Station, we had to walk back to AIU because there was no more bus. It was really fun that all 23 of us hiked together for an hour! What an adventure!
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