Remoteness is not without its attractions, especially in crowded Japan. And on the main island of Honshu, you would be hard pressed to find a place of human habitation further from the baying crowds than Aomori Prefecture. Curled like a pincer around Honshu's northern tip, Aomori, the capital, is a characterless town, without a great deal to recommend it -- except the road out of it to Hirosaki. Some places you find yourself liking from the outset, and Hirosaki falls, for me, into that happy category.

Hirosaki is a charming spot that seems agreeably out of sync with the rest of the country. Stepping off the bus in this city on the Tsugaru Plain is like stepping into a different age. Here you find yourself back in a place where the Japanese possess black hair. A place where the loose sock has yet to be invented. One time of year when sleepy Hirosaki does find itself a center of attention, however, comes when visitors descend in great numbers during the festival of Neputa. Similar to Aomori's Nebuta Festival, Neputa is distinguished by huge, illuminated, painted floats, which are paraded through the streets of town to the accompaniment of a strident drum beat.

Held in the first week of August, the festival certainly has all the jolly character you would expect, but there is a darker side to Neputa. Swords, combat scenes and grim faces are prominent in the figures depicted on the floats. The origins of the festival are obscure, but one story links it to the time when the Japanese were expanding into Tohoku some 1,300 years ago and assiduously clearing this northern region of its original inhabitants.