Welcome to our first post! As an intro, we are a Japanese-Indonesian couple living in Yokohama, Japan. Having been recently married, we started this blog to journal simple little things in our ordinary life. Here you could find (mainly) our travel diaries and places we frequent for dates. Occasionally, we would share our experience in navigating life as an international resident and couple in Japan.
Traveling has become one of the few routines we keep in our relationship. Our weekend dates usually include a day trip to museums or natural landscapes nearby. Of course, while visiting local restaurants in the neighborhood. Most times, we discovered some awesome spots that might not make it to the famous travel guides and journals. Hence, here we want to share with you our excitement when finding these hidden gems in Japan. We hope our itinerary may inspire your next trip. Especially if you’re interested to find more sides of Japan, beyond the ordinary.
See also: Ultimate Guide for the Best Hakone 5D4N Itinerary
Aomori Travel Guide: 2 Days 1 Night Trip Itinerary
In this first article, I’m inviting you to travel to the countryside of Tohoku region: Aomori Prefecture. Aomori is located at the northernmost of Japan’s mainland. Home to high-quality apple and a unique summer festival: Nebuta Matsuri, Aomori also provides some attractive spots and stunning landscapes for nature and cultural lovers. Aomori is nothing like Tokyo or Osaka, where the sky scrappers and neon lights reside. But if you are in for natural beauty and landscape, Aomori could be an option for your slow summer trip.
Day 1 – From Hachinohe Station to Towada Lake
How to Get to Aomori
For convenience, I have adjusted this itinerary according to the route of JR Tohoku Shuttle Bus Aomori – Hachinohe – Lake Towada. The bus schedule for 2022 is available here. To use the JR Shuttle Bus, you can easily tap your IC Card upon getting on and off.
They also offer a free pass ticket for JPY 5,800/person (JPY 2,900 for children). The ticket is valid for 2 days ride. This fare is waived for JR East Pass and Japan Rail Pass holders by showing your pass upon riding.
Since the access to travel to Aomori is pretty limited, I recommend you to take the shinkansen to save time. The ticket should be covered by the JR Pass, yet if you’re looking for other (and cheaper) alternatives, you may want to take a look for some highway bus options here:
- Japanese only: Bus Hikaku Navi
- Japanese/English/Korean/Chinese/Vietnamese/Thai: Willer Express
We really recommend to get to Aomori early. In our case, we time our arrival around 9 a.m. to catch the bus for our first stop: Towada Art Center.
A Visual Treat at Towada Art Center
Address: 10-9 西二番町 Towada, Aomori Prefecture 034-0082, Japan (Google Maps).
Starting the day early, we arrived at Hachinohe station and quickly jumped into the JR Tohoku Shuttle Bus to Towada Art Center (十和田市現代美術館). The museum is open from 9 to 5. The entry fee is JPY 1,200 for both permanent and temporary exhibitions. Note that the facility closes every Monday.
Towada Art Center is home to 38 permanent commissioned artworks exclusively made for the center by 33 artists around the world. While they do exhibit incredible installations indoor, you can also enjoy plenty of installations outdoor; for free! These include installations by the renowned artists Yayoi Kusama, Erwin Wurm, as well as Inges Idee. The outdoor permanent collection also features The Flower Horse by Choi Jeong Hwa, a signature installation that is almost like the identity of the art center itself.
Among many art spaces and exhibitions I’ve seen in Japan, I rate this art space as my number one so far. Instead of an extravagant, excessively large art space, Towada Art Center gives off a humble atmosphere via its contemporary artworks. It’s also successful to utilize all corners into exhibitions. Yet, still giving enough space for the visitors to interact comfortably and merge with the art itself. Located in a small town 60 km away from the city center, the white building (and the open space surrounding it) feels so warm and modest, and thus is enjoyable even for kids. A kind of unusual when most art galleries showcasing elegance and sophistication.
By the time we visited the art museum, photographs were not allowed at all inside the exhibitions. A sneak-peak of the collections can be accessed here. But by the way, this rule has changed! So feel free to take photographs of you and your favorite installations!
Easy Trekking Along the Oirase Gorge
Address: Okuse, Towada, Aomori 034-0301, Japan (Google Maps)
After a quick artsy brunch and souvenir hunting in Towada Art Center’s Cube Café & Shop, let’s switch the adventure mode on and prepare yourself for a humbling trekking experience along Oirase Gorge, one of the designated natural monuments in Japan. Spanning from Yakeyama (焼山) to Nenokuchi (子ノ口) in Towada Lake, you might want to take the recommended trekking route. This route follows the entire stream, which is a 14 kilometers walk.
If you opt for shorter trekking, you can take the JR shuttle bus from Towada Art Center until Makadoiwa (馬門岩) stop and start your adventure from there. There are a number of gorgeous waterfalls along the gorge, but you may not wanna miss these two:
- Kumoi (雲井の滝) – falls from 20 meters above the ground in three steps, said to be the best waterfall
- Choshi (銚子大滝) – the most popular waterfall in the area, with a height of 7 meters and a width of 20 meters
Sunset by Lake Towada, Aomori
Address: Yasumitai-64-1 Towadako, Kosaka, Kazuno District, Akita 018-5511, Japan (Google Maps)
Now comes our final stop for the day: Towada lake. Located in the border between Aomori and Akita Prefecture, Towada lake is the world’s largest double caldera or crater lake. The national park is well-reserved, where you can easily spot wild birds and white-tail ducks.
To get to Towada Lake from Oirase Gorge, we hopped on the JR shuttle bus from Nenokuchi (子ノ口) all the way to the final stop: 十和田湖(休屋). Once stepping out of the bus, we noticed several hotels and ryokans nearby the lake. Here are our recommended lodging around:
After checking in, we decided to explore the area to wait for the sunset. If you have more energy to spare, you can try water sports activities or boat tours in and around Lake Towada in Guriland / グリランド.Guriland offers a 22 kilometers tour course (~50 minutes), but they also have a shorter course which takes only 15 minutes. They will bring you around the lake where the steep cliffs and ancient caves are located for JPY 3,000 to 6,000.
More info about Guriland:
- Official Site: http://guriland.jp
- Reservation (Japanese Only): jalan.net
Day 2 – Cultural Experience around Shin-Aomori Station
Time to use the JR Bus Pass again to get to Shin-Aomori station from Towada Lake bus terminal. But we’re not going home yet. I mean, we can’t just leave Aomori without immersing with the historical and cultural experience, can we?
A Must-Visit Historical Site in Aomori: Sannai Maruyama Ruins
Address: Maruyama-305 Sannai, Aomori, 038-0031 (Google Maps)
Sannai Maruyama Ruin is a designated archeological site dedicated to preserve the settlement of Jomon people. If you are a history nerd (like me), the exact location of what might have been the hub of Jomon settlers 3000 years ago should definitely make it to your itinerary.
Besides the remains of structures and reconstructed houses, you may also learn all about Jomon period in the museum.
More info about Sannai Maruyama Site:
- Official Site: https://sannaimaruyama.pref.aomori.jp/english/
- Ticket: JPY 410
Nebuta Festival in a Glance at Nebuta Museum WARASSE
Address: 1 Chome-1-1 Yasukata, Aomori, 030-0803, Japan (Google Maps)
Have I told you that the best time to visit Aomori is during summer? Not only that it has the iconic Oirase Gorge or Lake Towada, but also because they sure know their festivals. So if you’re a fan of Japanese festivals, be sure to come around the first week of August (August 2 -7) to witness the famous Nebuta Matsuri! Or, if you happen to miss it, you can drop by the Nebuta Museum WARASSE for a proper cultural experience.
Located across Aomori station, Nebuta Museum WARASSE is the sanctuary for Nebuta floats of various sizes. There, you can try decorating your own Nebuta face and joining in the festival dance simulation. Also, you can watch the video footage of the year’s parade and witness full-sized floats that participated the parade itself. The entrance fee for adult is JPY 620.
Last Hunt for Artisan Goods in A-Factory
Address: 1 Chome-4-2 Yanakawa, Aomori, 038-0012, Japan (Google Maps)
To summarize our trip, we stop at A-Factory for a quick souvenir shopping. From apple jam and apple cakes to apple cider and apple beer, you can find any kind of apple products in A-FACTORY. Inside its scandi-industrial style facility, there are various local tenants you can explore. My favorite is definitely their fruits-flavored gelato!
Sadly, we were too busy shopping that we did not take any pictures 🙁 But you can find all information about the facility here. Also, a wine-tasting bar on the second floor might be attractive to you.
And, That’s It!
That’s all about our last Aomori visit. We hope you could enjoy Aomori the way we did!