We woke up at 7ish and I bundled up to walk to the kombini alone to get breakfast. I got onigiri, hearty veggie miso soup, coffees and I got Jives a chocolate which I wrapped up because it was valentine’s day and it is traditional in Japan for women to give homemade chocolates to men on valentines day. Clearly I couldn’t make chocolates for him while we were travelling, so this seemed like the next best thing. It is traditional for men to give women chocolate on March 14th or white day one month later. I got Jives a strange chocolate biscuit thing with a cute cartoon on the back. We then walked to the train station for 10am. They were setting up for the snow festival at the train station, making lanterns out of snow using a mould. There were women setting up an amazaki booth (alcohol free rice wine).
Airbnb we stayed at in Kakunodate
We took the 10am Tazawako train to Omagari where we transferred to the Ou Line for Shinjo, getting off at Yokote. We had a 52 minute wait at Omagari and explored the station area. Omagari is a city known for its firework production, all of the mascots are made of fireworks and they are adorable!
We arrived in Yokote for 11: 32 and set out from the station towards the castle. It was snowing incredibly hard! Along the way to the castle we saw so many Kamakura (snow lanterns), but HUGE ones with benches inside. The festival was the following day, so I assume they were putting the final touches on the domes and sculptures. We took so many photos and videos. We walked along the river to the castle on the hill.
The hike up to the castle was steep and intense and it was snowing so hard that we looked like snowmen, but all of this was completely worth it!
The top of the hill was covered in small kamakura and 6-8 large ones….and then we saw the castle! The castle was snowy white and surrounded with lanterns. The snow was falling so heavily as well and it was magical. The view over Yokote was spectacular too! We walked around and took so many photos. A nice lady insisted that Jives pet her adorable tiny dachshund in a winter jacket, saying “kawaiiii” over and over.
We then trudged back down the hill and back to the station and ate a snack at the train station as we waited for our train back to Kakunodate at 2: 20pm.
Once we were back in Kakunodate we found a place to have lunch/ dinner at about 4pm. It was a delightful little spot with bench seating. I got a soba dish with deep fried tofu. It came with a side dish of smoked cooked root vegetables, which seems to be served everywhere we went in northern Japan. Jives ordered the chicken and egg tonkatsu dish which came with miso soup and pickled vegetables. On our way back to the Airbnb we saw two adorable shiba inu doggies. We had a beverage at our airbnb and researched the train journey for the next day that would take us to our second magical ryokan experience.
