Azaleas seem to be a favorite flowering bush in May and early June in Aomori. You find them growing everywhere in both people's gardens and in the mountains. They even have a festival celebrating the ones at a shrine in a nearby town where you can also admire bonsai-style azaleas as well as a hillside covered in flowing bushes.

The ones here are blooming close to the town hall. I noticed them on my drive to work, and I had to get out the next morning to get some pictures.

Azalea hill

I did not know what you were

until you bloomed there