Hirosaki Lantern Festival

We decided that this year we are going to get in as many local festivals as we can. We have had the opportunity to attend some pretty cool festivals and celebrations while we have been living in Japan such as the Nabuta festival but not so many local ones. Hirosaki is about a 2 hour drive from home and is a town built around an old castle, at the festival they have many lantern made out of ice that are lit with candles during the evening bringing a beautiful picturesque seen to the landmark. They also had a large group of small igloo looking structures grouped by the hundreds that you could see as you looked down from the hilltop which where kind of magical.