Apple Harvest Festival

Our several apples were poured from the wooden basket into a large paper bag that I offered to carry around for the rest of the journey while she carried the Apple House bag. After leaving the orchard, we were on our way to the third attraction – The Old Farmhouse.

On the path, Ringomori spoke to her camera at a considerably low volume, perhaps not wanting the people that walked by to hear what she said.

"Harvesting those apples was lovely! It made me remember the times we used to do that at home, remember? I hope that tree is still producing apples."

For the entire trip so far, she wasn't wearing a mask of false happiness. Everything she said was with true emotions of bliss and not of deception in a depressive state. I wondered if she realized that herself.

We had to take off our shoes and use customary slippers to enter the house. She didn't record this part out of respect to the other people peacefully and quietly taking in the ancient architecture and farming equipment. The house in its entirety was impressively preserved for centuries, and the walls sealed the interior from the modern noise of the festival outside. We toured the building at our own pace, seeing an open view from the porch to the meadows further east, and a large mountain to the west. At the exit of the building, we bowed with respect and equipped our shoes to leave.

"That house was enriched in history. Sometimes we [I] wish we [I] could live in a house like that, at least for a year."

"We could," I replied.

From my left peripheral, I could see her turning her head towards with a tilt. She must have been wondering if my "We" was meant as us, or if I was using the joke to refer to her. I'd let her imagination answer it for her as I raised the left corner of my smile. She giggled and returned her eyes ahead.

We traveled to the southeast corner of the park where there was another apple orchard called Waikaringo or Dwarfed Apples. A surfeit of people roamed the paths picking apples, since we already had our harvest, we agreed to not join and head towards the left of it where there was a solitary tree atop a hill.

"Ah, we [I] heard about this tree. That plaque will say that this lonesome tree is titled, 'Newton's Apple Tree.' This tree produces the extremely rare variety of apples called the 'Flower of Kent,' which was the apple that assisted Sir Issac Newton's discovery of gravity."

She was indubitably correct, and asked for a picture with the tree. She treated these things like celebrities, which I found adorable because there's not many people that would idolize pieces of nature over humans.

On the way to the final attraction, we took a diversion up a concrete staircase to the Suribachi Observation Hill, where we had an awe-inspiring view of Mt. Iwaki – far northwest of the park. One could use the several coin-operated binoculars to see the peak of the mountain, and there were benches where people could sit and soak the view. With time on our hands, we decided to take a break as I replicated the view onto paper.

I have a lot of special drawin's, but this one has reached a new level. A drawin' of Aomori is somethin' I never thought I'd treasure.

The path down on the other side of the hill directly led to our final attraction, the Apple Park Fureai Square. It was the venue for the festival we saved for last.

The Apple Harvest Festival was always held for a couple of days in early November since it was just past the peak of the harvesting season in the ripened autumn. Along with the harvest, the park held many events that got people involved in other apple-infused activities.

The activities were sectioned in booths, similar to those summer festivals I'd see in anime and the game's event stories. The first booth that caught the eye and lens of Ringomori was wreath-making.

Like a child wanting to visit the park, she asked, "Can we go? Can we? Can we?"

"Well, with Christmas climbin' to the top of the tree, we might as well get our practice in early."

"Yay~!"

A few workers taught us – and a few other attendants – how to make a wreath of multiple sizes using natural tree branches. We opted for small wreaths. It was safe to assume that I did horrendously while Ringomori held her own for the majority of the lesson.

"Look Vieira-kun, we can decorate them with fallen leaves or flower petals, we [I] think we'll [I'll] go with red and green. Do any colors catch our [Your] eye?"

"Well, they have a rainbow of petals here, but yellow and green are callin' to us [Me], they'll do just nicely."

"It says if we want to take them home with us, we can purchase a box to keep them from breaking. Should we do that? If we leave them here, they'll hang it up around the park."

"Let's take them," I suggested. "They should fit inside the apples' bag and it'll be our own souvenir."

She vocalized an "Un~!" and nodded her head, then ordered the boxes.

A few booths over was another activity that piqued our interests. We had our personal souvenirs, but we needed something for a few other people back in Sapporo, so we participated in apple candle making. We were able to melt wax into the shape of an apple and were given the liberty to choose the color and smell of the candle.

"Who're we [You] buying for?" she asked.

"The vanilla one will be for Daishi-kun, though there's a high possibility he'll never use it. He'll probably give it to his mom, in which case she'll have vanilla and this thing called Angel's Wings. She loves stuff like this. What about us [You]?"

"These are for the Shizuko family. Delilah gets lavender, Shizuko-sensei will get orange, and Takashi-sensei will get cherry blossom petals."

There was another scent, Heaven's Door, and we individually selected it for our parent's grave.

Once we finished and paid for the candles, we perused more of the booths where people competed in apple quizzes and pie contests. A slight growl in both of our stomachs indicated that it was time to transition from the booths to the food trucks.

Menus posted on flyers and signs of the different trucks offered apple-jellied pastries, apple brûlée, candy apples, and more of the sort. There were also trucks with actual food. She ordered yakisoba while I would only partake in a candy apple.

We sat at a table and we ate while taking in our surroundings once more.

"It's still unbelievable that we really decided to do something like this on a whim. Who would've guessed we had this sort of mischievousness in us?"

"Yeah, we're rebels alright," I said sarcastically. "They're so goin' to kill us when we get back."

She placed her right hand on her left shoulder as she leaned in for another bite of the noodles. She was in seventh heaven, elated with an amount of euphoria that I never suspected her of having. Years must have gone by since she expressed delight this bright.

"This is definitely the best birthday I've ever had post accident, maybe even through all my life, by far."

"Sounding rather confident there, but I'm certain you've had some birthdays that are just as nice. However I do want to ask this, is this better than last year?"

"Well, I spent most of the day with my parents at the cemetery, it was a nice little family reunion. The whole family tree was there, which was just, y'know, a stump. It was like any other birthday, except I moved to a new place. But, in this moment now, I realize how special that day's become since it was when my life with you started. We've developed quite the bond in the last year."

I had thought that answer would make her smile, but she looked rather crestfallen by it, and I had no idea about which part she was focusing on.

I attempted to reassure her that things were better now, to which she said,
"No…that's not what… It's okay, thank you for answering."

After a brief silence and a shift of gazes to the sun aligning with the mountain peaks, we finished our meals and I promptly checked the time on my phone.

"Oh, the park is goin' to close soon, Ringomori-san. We should get goin' now if we want to beat the foot traffic to the buses."

"Ah, then let's do that."

We gathered our belongings and properly threw away any trash and rushed out of the exit to catch the latest bus. Our next activity in the city would be a quick stroll around Hirosaki Castle in Hirosaki Park. On the way to the castle, we received an alert that planted some worries. A typhoon that originated in the Kanto region had migrated north to the east of Tohoku, where Aomori is located.

It was projected to come across the strait.