Trip to Aomori (青森)

We just had an amazing 10-day deep dive into the Aomori prefecture of Japan. It’s my 4th time in Japan and my wife’s 8th (maybe 9th?), and we know we will be back many more times, so we are fortunate to be able to stay in a less touristy region for a longer time. Aomori prefecture’s biggest city is the same-named Aomori city. It’s an agriculturally rich area famous for its apples, rice, seafood, and the Nebuta summer festival.

This is Takayama Inari Shrine in the Tsugaru (津軽) region, from the same branch of Inari shrines as the famous Fushimi Inari in Kyoto. Most of the torii were donated in the last 5 years, so they are very new. The day we visited, it was drizzling and there was almost no one else besides us — a very quiet and serene feeling. Author Osamu Dazai, who’s famous for his novel No Longer Human and his multiple suicide attempts, was born in this region too — into a very rich family!

Yoshitomo Nara was born in Hirosaki, a city in Aomori, and he has helped cultivate an art culture in the region that feels warm and connected to the local population. We visited 3 museums — in Aomori, Hirosaki, and Towada city — that feature pieces from Nara and other local artists. One piece in the Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art was a reproduced model of an American-themed local bar that Nara frequented as a student and that later closed. The bar features 70s-80s rock ‘n’ roll music, Maker’s Mark and Suntory whiskey, and memories of young Nara and other Hirosaki boys.

When we took the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Aomori city, Hachinohe was the last stop before Aomori. Only later did I learn that Hachinohe was the northernmost stop of the Tohoku Shinkansen line until it was extended to Aomori city in 2010 (then to Hakodate, Hokkaido in 2016). Because more people live in Aomori city, Hachinohe used to be a lively city — people would take the fast train from Tokyo, get off there, and visit local businesses before continuing their trip to Aomori city. After the Shinkansen extension the city became much less popular (the hotel we stayed at there was terrible!).

Nevertheless, Hachinohe is still a major fishing city known for its mackerel and squid. We woke up at 5am to visit the largest morning market at the Hachinohe port, and the self-service seafood restaurant in the Hasshoku Center was super fun and delicious (you pay a rental fee to get access to a charcoal grill, and then buy fresh seafood from the market).

A little east of the Hachinohe morning market is the Kabushima Shrine. It was a small island that was later connected to the mainland by land reclamation. The island and shrine are famous for being the breeding ground of black-tailed gulls (umineko, 海猫), A LOT OF them — it has been a designated national natural monument for over 100 years!

When you go to the shrine there are umbrellas you can borrow to prevent bird shit from falling on you, and if you actually get hit by bird shit, you can get a certificate from the shrine for having good luck! Fortunately and unfortunately, we didn’t get hit by bird shit!

We spent 4 days in the Towada-Hachimantai National Park, which features the amazing Lake Towada and Oirase Stream, and great hot spring hotels. Staying in the traditional Tsuta hot spring hotel, canoeing on the lake, and hiking along the stream was an amazing detox from the busy city life and, uh, the AI stress.

Finally, the highlight of the trip was the Nebuta festivals. It’s a local tradition where giant warrior floats (nebuta) are paraded with traditional flute music and dance during a week in summer, to expel the sleep demon so that people can work hard and produce more agricultural output. Every city has its own special nebuta: Hirosaki’s (called neputa there) are fan-shaped, Goshogawara’s are very tall, and Aomori’s, the largest festival in the region, are wide and mighty.

All the nebuta are built by local businesses and organizations, with participation from their employees, employees’ relatives, and local people. Many kids and older people are also involved, sometimes multiple generations of the same family. On the days of the festival people dress up in traditional clothes, restaurants open carts along the street to sell delicious street food, and people cheer and have fun as the nebuta pass.

We saw all three cities’ parades. For the Aomori one we reserved good seats for the 2-hour-long parade, but Goshogawara’s was the most impressive for me. In Goshogawara the nebuta are tall — actually 23 meters tall and almost 20 tons heavy — and they are called Tachineputa. The craft of making Tachineputa was almost lost after two big fires in the city, but after a blueprint was rediscovered in 1993, three guys who were proud of their hometown tradition committed to recovering the craft and restarted the tradition. I am jealous that they have a local tradition that’s worth being proud of and can be passed down through generations.