Kakunodate Samurai District

Kakunodate was laid out in the 1620s with the samurai quarter to the north and the merchant town to the south, and the northern half survived: a broad street of dark plank walls and gateways, deep gardens behind them, and old weeping cherry trees leaning over the fences. The trees came from Kyoto with a bride, according to the town's own account, and several hundred of their descendants now line the district. A handful of the residences are open, some still lived in by the same families, with entrance halls, storehouses, armour and household kit left in place. The other cherry line is on the Hinokinai river bank, a long tunnel of blossom along an embankment.

What you actually see

• The samurai street - dark plank walls, gates and deep gardens along a broad unpaved-looking lane.
• The open residences - Aoyagi and Ishiguro houses with storehouses, household objects and gardens.
• Weeping cherries - old shidarezakura hanging over the walls, at their heaviest in late April.
• Kabazaiku - the local craft of cherry bark work, pressed and polished into tea caddies and boxes.

When to go

Blossom in the last week of April is spectacular and the town is packed for it, with the river embankment and the samurai street flowering together. Autumn colour in the gardens is quieter and just as good. Winter buries the district in deep Tohoku snow, when it is silent and most of the houses close. The Shinkansen makes it an easy half day from Akita or Morioka.

Honest expectations

The district is one long street, seen slowly in two hours, and outside blossom season Kakunodate is a very quiet town with little else going on. Some houses charge separately, which adds up. Interior labelling is mostly Japanese. During the cherry fortnight the street becomes a slow-moving queue and parking is impossible.

Nearby

Lake Tazawa, the deepest lake in Japan, is half an hour east by bus.