Kakunodate was good to me. I found a really nice guest house on the first night. That evening, as I said in the last post, I ran into some English teachers. The next night I crashed at one of their places, so I got to stay in Kakunode an extra day!

Mike, an American who had been living in Kakunodate for over two years took me around the historic part of the Town, where a whole neighbourhood of Samurai houses have been preserved.

We then went back out to the lake to take a look at the other side, the shore I didn’t get to. Certainly worth the trip, the shrine and statue out there I had missed before and the weather was perfect.

That night we went out and ran into some older past pupils from the school the guys were teaching at, who I think were having a reunion or something. It was good times. I’m going to miss Kakunodate, I didn’t expect to grow so attached to a place I was only going to pass through quickly.

Alex, me and Mike up by the lake.