Tsugaru-han Neputa-mura Village — Attraction in Hirosaki

Neputa Village is located in the biggest tourist-trap area of Hirosaki, right at the bus parking lot. So there are hoardes of people there. But I was happily surprised to not find many people inside Neputa Village. There was no wait to get in.

There was staff giving information on the Neputa in multiple languages, and they provide you with a flyer in your language as well.

The Neputa on display are gorgeous. They even have the biggest Neputa in Hirosake there. The show room is nicely decorated. Take your time to look at all the different artworks.

After the big show room, you follow the trail through a small museum showing some of the Neputa history. They also have a video playing, showing what the festivals look like.

Then comes the tourist-trap part; the vendors. They are all friendly though, and not pushy. I lost the little gamble game, but ended up buying a small paper fish for good luck. After this area, you get to the garden. They have lots of fishies in the pond, and there is a food machine for 100 yen; of course I had to feed them.

The last part is the huge gift shop, which is also accessible to the public from the other side. It was chaos so I...

I was pretty skeptical about this place, which was arranged by the cruise line as a tour along with the nearby Hirosaki Castle, but I enjoyed it. The bus ride from Aomori was interesting to me (as a foreigner) and there were excellent views of the volcano Mount Iwaki on a bright, clear day. The museum/cultural center focused on a festival held annually. There was a demonstration by a young man playing the shamisen, a 3 stringed instrument that was a bit "twangy" and reminded me of a banjo in terms of the sound. A display of their floats used in the festival parade was present. I wish there was more focus on the famous Tsugaru-nuri lacquerware but I saw nothing other than some wares for sale in the gift shop. (I'm also still kicking myself for not buying some there, though they were very expensive.) A pleasant garden was also at the center with koi wanting to be fed. From there it was a short walk to the castle and...

A fantastic multifaceted experience !!! This museum is great, it's just packed with a HUGE variety of goodness. The friendly presenters here spoke many languages and did a brilliant job of explaining the history so everyone could understand, they also had an excellent variety of fabulous presentations too. The Neputa Festival floats are sooo magical to see & they let you play the drums too, I had such a blast :)

The craft village out back was really immersive and had finished works for sale, and it was super cool to see the masters work on their projects. Nice garden with a lovely koi pond & you could buy a bag of fish food to feed the fish. Absolutely superb gift shop too with tons of options and tasty food stalls nearby. This is a must see if your in the area visiting...