Have you considered giving yourself a relaxing break in the middle of your Tohoku Trip?
Aomori city is definitely a place where you can do everything with a slow pace!
With a relaxed pace, you can experience cultural activities, try famous local food, understanding the local history of the city, experience the beauty of Aomori, and end your day with a beautiful sunset!
Let's start!
Start your day with a breakfast buffet at your hotel!
There are quite an amount of hotels in Aomori, and most of them offer breakfast buffets!
I stayed with APA Hotel Aomori Ekihigashi and man thanks to the peak sakura season my room was almost 10,000 JPY per night. Thankfully, the staff speaks perfect English and were very helpful throughout my stay.
APA Hotel is a chain hotel that is very popular throughout Japan. For this particular branch, the breakfast is mainly Japanese style, with a little mix of western style. It is not a huge variety of selections, but definitely had a wider selection range compared to Toyoko-inn (but Toyoko-inn's breakfast feels just like home). From pasta to salad, there were seafood such as squid and scallops. The breakfast was great to start my day!
Grab an ice-cream from ASPAM building - Hotate flavored!
Hotate-flavor soft cream
What comes after a meal, you asked? Desserts, of course!
While the majority of the places are open from 10AM, head to ASPAM at 9.30AM to buy the uniquely-flavored soft cream!
For those that have loved the Tohoku region, you might have known Aomori being famous with Nebuta lanterns and apples, but this region is actually one of the largest producers of sea scallops, or hotate.
So, while you enjoy the view of the clear waters along the bay, try their scallop-flavored soft serve! With only 200 yen, you get to experience the milky flavor and texture, while enjoying the uniquely delicious saltiness and sweetness of scallops.
For those with a less-brave heart, they offer scallop, vanila or mix flavored soft cream, though I can guarantee that it is a flavor that you will not regret, and definitely would miss after heading back to your country.
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| Hotate-flavor soft cream |
Getting to know Aomori's traditional craft
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| A smaller-scaled Nebuta |
Though you can technically stay at ASPAM for the observatory view, but I continued with the next destination. There's a 3-location entrance ticket fee that will save you some yen that you can purchase it at any one of the locations where you could visit ASPAM's observatory, Hakkoda-maru and Nebuta Wa Rasse at only 1,300 yen.
When it comes to seeing the Nebuta, you definitely wouldn't want to miss the Nebuta Warasse museum! On every August, there is a Nebuta festival where Nebuta masters compete to make the best Nebuta every year.
The Nebuta Warasse museum portrays the spirit of the festival and gives visitors a taste of its lively atmosphere, history and traditions. You will be welcomed with lots of Nebuta goldfish while understanding the 300-year history via its exhibition. You can feel the tension and excitement of the festival with the background music as you walk too!
If you arrive at the right time, you get to participate workshops from playing the music instruments used in Nebuta festival, or to try pasting washi on a Nebuta lantern. Do check out at their entrance for the schedule!
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| Award-winning Nebuta |
While being amazed at the beauty of the lanterns, I managed to participate the available workshops of the day.
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| All participants were allowed to choose one part to paste washi paper |
The pasting was not exactly easy! You had to trace the outline by pressing the paper on the wires, cut them out carefully while leaving enough space (but not too much) so you can paste the washi paper with the glue onto the wires.
It wasn't easy to paste the paper neatly without wrinkles for sure!
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| This was the best I could do for that day |
If you noticed the white patch on the image above, that was where I 'repaired' the Nebuta lantern. I'm pretty content with the result as a first-timer.
Nebuta is a field dominated by males, until recent years, Master Kitamura Asako (her father was also a Nebuta Master) joined. I saw her video on winning in 2017 thanks to JAL, and I was absolutely in love with her designs.
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| Written: Kitamura Asako |
I hope people will visit the Nebuta Museum yearly to check out the beautiful Nebutas that were competing each year. Usually, except the days of Nebuta Festival, you will see the winning Nebuta of the past year in the exhibition :)
Enjoy lunch with the local produce of Aomori
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| My light |
Apples! You can't go to Aomori without trying their apple products!
And the best way to do so is just a short walk from Warasse!
After spending two hours at Warasse, I have decided that my stomach is hungry and I needed food, so obviously, I've walked myself to A-Factory.
Here, you can find lots of apples, and apple-related items. From pies to biscuits, juices to cider and even stronger alcoholic beverages, from cream puffs to cakes, and so much more! There is definitely something that will suit your taste buds!
Oh and if you are into large apples, definitely get one from Aomori. Just a head's up: don't be so surprised at the price tags, though!
Aomori's trade history with Hakodate
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| Hakkoda-maru |
When Shinkansen (bullet trains) weren't a thing, ferries are common to transfer between Hakodate and Aomori, especially for trading purposes.
Here in Hakkoda-maru, you can walk into the ship and look around for the internal structures, and learn the activities through the statue displays and videos. At the entrance, there are staff that would ask you where you're coming from. Be proud to mention that you're from Malaysia! :D
If you are tired of walking, there are definitely some cushioned seats that you can rest a little while watching the videos here.
From time to time, they also have limited time exhibitions! Though you might find it difficult to understand the exhibitions without Japanese reading skills.
End your day with a beautiful sunset in ASPAM
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| Waiting for sunset |
If you are hungry before sunset, there are a few restaurants that sells scallop just around the JR Aomori Station! Otherwise, if your stomach is good, head back to ASPAM!
Before heading for the observatory, if you do have a combination ticket, you are entitled to watch one free 360 degrees clip of Aomori in ASPAM itself! Different showtimes have different video clips so if you are keen to watching more you can always buy another ticket after your free show.
Of course, if you miss the taste of the scallop-flavored soft cream, try your luck and see if they are still selling it! They don't sell all-day, because once it's sold out, you'll need to head back on the next day - which is why I recommend you to start your day from ASPAM.
Oh and if you love observatories, your combination ticket actually allows you to re-enter the ASPAM observatory! So if you are up for the day view before heading to Warasse, purchase your combination ticket and enjoy the observatory before heading to Warasse!
If you absolutely love pamphlets, there is also a tourist information center before the 360 degrees movie theater that you can get lots of information as well.
Last but not least, end your day with the beautiful sunset from ASPAM's observatory, or maybe even a drink or two in the nearby izakaya later!
It was definitely a good break for me to spend my day casually in Aomori like this, especially after days of walking around in Iwate!
Until next time! :)
