Each city and prefecture in Japan has its thing and if you have been here for a while, you may have learned that the Japanese go really hard for the Regional (or Seasonal) Thing. Aomori is home of APPLES. So many apples. Infinite apples. Apples are everywhere. It is apple season so the apples are REALLY REALLY everywhere.
We’re out in Asamushi onsen, a few train stops from Aomori station. The train only runs once every thirty minutes or so sometimes, but usually, once an hour.
The Aoimori line is also one that doesn’t take Suica, so we have to dick around in the station with tickets and the train station lady is like “oh no, if you don’t run, you won’t make the train!” and the next one is in an hour so we run. (We always take Station Workers’ advice seriously, because they are dedicated to getting you to your train)
Some of our elders almost died, but thankfully, nobody died, and I felt very bad about killing them a little. But we made it on the train!
After twenty minutes, we are in Aomori city! The world’s snowiest city, I guess. Today it is just rainy, and sleepy, since it’s before 8 on a Saturday and it is also fall and not winter.
Our breakfast stop is at Cafe Marron. I found this cafe while cruising around Japanese food influencer posts. It’s a Showa-era cafe with lots of little tchotchkes.
I got a thicc shokupan set with a tiny salad because I’m already desperate for vegetables. Why does this country hate the vegetable? WHY?? But the thicc shokupan is amazing and I am very pleased with my order.
It really wants to rain on us today, which is why we are doing semi-indoor things. It’s too early to go into the Nebuta museum that’s dedicated to a popular local festival, so we did a little stroll out to the harbor.
We wandered past some industrial-looking buildings. Lots of folks are brazenly fishing next to “no fishing” signs. We can see Aomori’s Illuminati Dorito from the pier. It’s a really lovely view of the downtown area, as well as lots of shipping-related thingies.
We moseyed back to the Nebuta museum via the shopping lane. It seems like it has cool shops, but because we are up at butts o’clock and it’s Saturday, the things are closed.
Nebuta wa rasse museum is dedicated to the city’s big August festival, the Nebuta festival. For the festival, local artists create huge lit floats that are pulled by hand through the streets. The floats weigh upwards of 4 tons, with the lighting and generators alone weighing over 1 ton.
The floats are made of painted paper, created over several months. They all glow in the night and often depict local folk stories, heroes, or other themes. Back in the day, they were lit by candles, so they kept brooms handy to extinguish the flames.
You get to see a few chosen floats up close in the museum, and you can even peek up and into the floats themselves!
At the end of the festival, a few floats survive in the museum, and the rest go in the garbage. Womp womp.
After the museum, we had a leisurely time at the A Factory, which sells mostly apple goods, drinks, food, and everything else apple-related right by the station. They have their own cider on tap and I have the best apple pie of my life here. This is really saying something, as I have a negative association with apple pie and drinking. The lack of cinnamon really makes this shine (and do not evoke painful college memories).
I added to my collection of stretchy cat children. Yessss these are still a fad.
We take a little stroll on the beach before going back to Yacchan for dinner. I think this place is probably poppin in the summer, but it’s just a quiet little town for now. I’m here for it.
But most importantly, I learn our inn cat’s name is Kuku (like black black but if that was cute). I love him.
