Helloooo.

Haven't written a post here for a while so decided to make one!

I love Japan guide for many reasons one of them was for helping me find my fiance and of course of the great tips and ideas of Japan.

I write a blog about travel in Japan and my life in Japan at http://arihelminen.com/
I'm a freelance photographer so I post new photos often to my flickr and blog about them in my page.
here is my flickr as well just incase you want to visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/picsoflife/

For new years my fiance and I went to see her parents house in north Japan in a small city called Hirosaki.

Very interesting city with a beautiful castle and apples everywhere.
It was my first real traditional Japanese new years and I was enjoying every bit of it !

Castle of Hirosaki

the amount of snow in Aomori is breathtaking since I'm from a fairly snowy country called Finland and it seems that I have never ever seen that much snow as I saw in Aomori.

Main gate to the Castle

I highly recommend people to go to this small city to see that beautiful castle and the area near by.
Very easy and cheap to go there by using a night buss or you can also access this place by Shinkansen.

Hirosaki Castle park in winter

This park is very famous in spring , in the cherry blossom time because it is full of Sakura trees, I'm maybe planning to go there in the spring to take photos as well.

Aomori apples

Aomori is very famous for it's tasty apples and in Tokyo you can see apples being sold in high prices but in Aomori they are cheap of course as is most things.

People getting rid of the snow

Always when I was walking in Hirosaki city central, people were taking away the snow but that was because pretty much everyday it was snowing.

How the nature makes art with Ice

In Aomori you can see Ice everywhere I even saw Ice that was many meters long.

My fiances family cat called Charo.

Dragon ice sculpture in a small shrine

The first days of the new year we visited a lot of shrines and I found this amazing dragon ice statue! it is the year of the dragon after all.

Iwaki-san mountain

Two steps out from the door and this is what I saw. The day before it was snowing so badly that I did not notice it! was a bit shocking but all of that area is surrounded by mountains like this this.
Lake Towada in Aomori/Akita

Beautiful crater lake which is the 12th biggest lake in Japan.

Towada lake beach in winter

One of the many shrines near Towada lake

Dragons is now everywhere in Japan

Even vending machines were struggling with the snow

To lighten up the mood here is a delicious Onigiri (rice ball)

I truly recommend people to visit this area of Japan, such a beautiful nature and hundreds of amazing shrines. Aomori has it all!

Also if you want to go to Onsen cheap go to Aomori, my usual onsen I went was about 300yen :)

iIf you want to see more photos and read about my trip there and life in Japan check out my site www.arihelminen.com :)

Thank you for reading and I hope all your trips to Japan will be as awesome as mine have been!