【2025青森〜函館のサクラを追う旅路】

　この４月はまことに「東奔西走」の時期。仕事あり、夫婦での観桜の旅あり、であります。
　で、東京では仕事でビッシリ行動していましたが、その帰還寸前の寸暇をみつけて、興味分野を深くえぐられる国立科学博物館の「古代DNA展」参観していました。しかしその行動記録を明瞭にブログで記録として記す間もなく、この時期の夫婦旅の定番「道南のサクラを追う旅」の拡大バージョンとして、弘前・青森県を加えての観桜ツアーであります。
　ちょうどすべての予定が４月に集中してしまったという状況であります。
　そのなかでも今進行の「サクラを追う旅」は、去年までは道南だけだったのですが、今回は青森県にまで範囲を拡大して、弘前まで観桜を拡大して移動中であります。
　しかしさすがに青森県まで予定を拡大すると日程もギュー詰め気味。
　わたしたち夫婦は行動派なので、つねに「あそこもここも」と移動についてはなるべくクルマで移動したいタイプ。そこで今回もフェリーで函館から青森へ移動しています。やっぱり自分の普段慣れ親しんだ「足」でその地を味わうのが、いちばんしっくりくる。
　なんですが、青森県内での行動予定時間に合わせるために最初の移動は結構な過密日程になってしまう。難関をなんとかクリアできていま、青森県をあちこち移動中です。この時期は「弘前のサクラ」時期と言うことで、青森のホテル群にとってはねぶたの時期と並んで、最高の「かき入れ時」。普段からは考えられない状況になっておりますが、半ば諦め（？）の心境で行脚中。
　青森県地方は、やはり北海道をベースとするわたしとしても、東京と並んで多くの行動の記憶残滓が各地に残っている地域。その地域が「もっとも輝く」時期について半ばは、敬意を込めてその季節感を味わっておきたいという動機であります。
　写真は十和田市の図書館。安藤忠雄の建築作品。分棟的な配置計画によって「中庭」空間が取られているのですが、その配置計画は周辺に保存されているサクラの景観に配慮したと思えるもの。みごとな色彩・光度で中庭に咲き誇るソメイヨシノが安藤建築の内部から対置されていました。
　瀬戸内海地域で安藤作品群と接する機会が増えてきて、温暖地域ニッポンでのかれの仕事に接することが多くなってきて、その魅力との対話が増えてきています。写真のような光景はその印象の一断面を表していると感じております。


English version⬇

[2025 Aomori - Hakodate's journey in pursuit of cherry blossoms
Traveling as a couple amidst an ageing population as well as concentrated work. I want to experience both while I am still physically healthy. With Basho-san as a distant guide. ...

　This April is truly a time of ‘eastbound and westbound’. There was work, there was a trip to see the cherry blossoms with my husband and wife, and so on.
　I was busy with work in Tokyo, but I found some spare time before returning home to visit the Ancient DNA Exhibition at the National Museum of Nature and Science, which deeply interested me. However, before I had time to write a clear record of my activities on my blog, I decided to go on a cherry blossom viewing tour in Hirosaki and Aomori Prefecture as an expanded version of our regular ‘Cherry Blossom Chasing Journey in Southern Hokkaido’.
　The schedule for all of these tours has been concentrated in April.
　The ‘Cherry Blossom Chasing Journey’ that is currently underway, which until last year was only in southern Hokkaido, has been expanded to include Aomori Prefecture and is now moving to Hirosaki as well.
　However, as might be expected, when you expand the schedule to Aomori Prefecture, the itinerary is packed.
　We are action-oriented people, so we always want to go ‘here and there’ and travel by car as much as possible. That's why we took the ferry from Hakodate to Aomori this time as well. I feel most at home in Aomori when I can experience the area with my own familiar ‘feet’.
　However, the first leg of the journey is quite overcrowded in order to fit in with the time scheduled for activities in Aomori Prefecture. I managed to clear the hurdle and am now travelling around Aomori Prefecture. This is the ‘cherry blossom season’ in Hirosaki, and along with the Nebuta season, it is the best time of year for hotels in Aomori to get in on the action. The situation is unthinkable, but we have given up halfway (?) and are now travelling around Aomori. The Aomori region is also a major tourist destination in Hokkaido.
　The Aomori region is also an area where, as a Hokkaido-based person, I still have as many memories of my activities as Tokyo. I am halfway through the season when the region is at its ‘brightest’, with the motive of respectfully savouring the sense of the season.
　The photograph shows the library in Towada City. Architectural work by Tadao Ando. The courtyard space is arranged in a building-block layout, which seems to have been designed to take into account the cherry blossoms preserved in the surrounding area. The Someiyoshino cherry trees blooming in the courtyard in splendid colour and light were set against the interior of Ando's building.
　As I have more and more opportunities to come into contact with Ando's works in the Seto Inland Sea region and his work in the warmer region of Nippon, I am increasingly interacting with its charms. I feel that the scene shown in the photograph represents a cross-section of this impression.