Aomori, Go Deeper
Japan's deep north, where summer erupts in the giant paper floats of the Nebuta festival and autumn sets the Oirase gorge on fire. Between a Jomon village older than the pyramids, a moated cherry-blossom castle and a sulphurous 'mountain of the dead,' Aomori feels like the edge of the map.
- Tap Open in Google Maps on any place for live directions, transit, hours & reviews.
- Get an ICOCA / Suica IC card — tap on/off trains, subways & buses, no ticket needed.
- Carry some cash (¥) — many small shops, shrines & old streets are cash-only.
- Go early: the famous spots are calm and beautiful before ~9am.
Nebuta Museum Wa-Rasse
Home to the towering, glowing paper-and-wire floats of the Nebuta festival, kept year-round so you can stand beneath their fierce warrior faces. The finest introduction to Tohoku's wildest summer night.
Hirosaki Castle & Park
A small original keep in a vast moated park that becomes Japan's most famous cherry-blossom scene each spring, petals carpeting the water. Autumn brings apples and fiery maples instead.
Oirase Gorge
A mountain stream tumbling for 14 kilometres in waterfalls and mossy rapids from Lake Towada, with a flat walking path following every bend. Impossibly green in summer, aflame in October.
Lake Towada
A deep-blue crater lake in the mountains where Oirase begins, ringed by forest and best seen from a boat or the lakeside 'Maiden' statue. Still, vast and quiet in a way only the far north is.
Hakkoda Mountains
A range of volcanic peaks and marshes reached by ropeway, famous for autumn colour and for winter's 'snow monsters' — trees swallowed whole by frost and rime. Wild hot springs steam at its feet.
Aomori Museum of Art
A stark white museum built beside the Jomon dig, home to Yoshitomo Nara's giant 'Aomori-ken' dog and Chagall's huge stage backdrops. Modern art rooted in the region's own soil.
Sannai-Maruyama Site
A reconstructed Jomon village inhabited 5,900 years ago, its great timber pillars and thatched pit-dwellings now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Proof of a settled, sophisticated stone-age north.
Mount Osore (Osorezan)
A bleak, sulphur-steaming caldera long held to be an entrance to the afterlife, where blind 'itako' mediums are said to call the voices of the dead. Bubbling pools and a jade crater lake — otherworldly.
Nokkedon Seafood Bowl
Build your own seafood rice bowl at the Furukawa market — buy tickets, then pile on scallops, uni, tuna and salmon roe stall by stall. Aomori's cold seas make its scallops and tuna some of Japan's best.
Crafts of this region
Authentic pieces made near here — learn the story, then bring one home.
Tsugaru Bidoro
津軽びいどろ · Aomori
Aizu Lacquer
会津塗 · Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima
Nambu Ironware
南部鉄器 · Morioka, Iwate
Odate Magewappa
大館曲げわっぱ · Ōdate, Akita
Tsugaru Nuri
津軽塗 · Hirosaki, Aomori
Naruko Kokeshi
鳴子こけし · Ōsaki, Miyagi
Ogatsu Inkstones
雄勝硯 · Ishinomaki, Miyagi
Plan this trip
Curated experiences (tea ceremonies, guided walks) and places to stay for this route.
Coming soon