Autumn Bliss in Aomori: A Vibrant Review of Japan's Hidden Gem
Entering Aomori
We Land in this beautiful City of Aomori and are excited to finally be in our 2nd city in Japan. Our plane was massive, but there were barely any passengers on board. Along with this, it was only a 40 minute flight. Once we got off the plane, we made our way to the exit and grabbed a taxi to get to JAL City Aomori Hotel. 20 minutes later, our taxi drive dropped us off, gave us each an famous Aomori apple, and we headed inside to get checked in. The receptionist had this really cool translator gadget. She spoke a long paragraph into it and it translated into fluent english. One thing that google translate can’t provide is translations that are faithful to the true language, but this device did it flawlessly at the press of a button. To summarize what she said: “You guy’s are checked in, you get 2 keys, and this is your room number.” Me and my friends were happy to be checked in, but more than anything we were blown away by this crazy device the lady used. We even mentioned possibly buy one because it would be extremely convenient for traveling abroad. If you are interested in buying one of these devices, you can do that right here.
No Light!
We get settled into our room and prepare to head out and explore the city and cross some things off my list of places to visit. We had previously stayed in an airbnb, so this was our first japanese hotel experience. We got a basic hotel room with your standard hotel amenities and 3 twin beds. There are a few things that we found out about Japanese hotels that you NEED to know before staying in one. We thought the electricity in our room was broken because we tried turning on the lights and nothing would work, including the bathroom and power outlets. After some investigating we found this little card slot and put our key card in… LET THERE BE LIGHT! We finally figured out how to turn the electricity on. You need to have your key card in this little card slot towards the entrance of your hotel in order for the electricity to work. We thought this was really dumb at first, but then we realized this prevents people from leaving lights on in their rooms and destroying their electricity bill. It sounds like a great Idea, but it is also very inconvenient when you want to charge your devices while you’re out of the hotel. I would recommend asking for an additional key card to avoid any issues. Another thing that is common in Japanese hotels is their unique faucet structure. Essentially you have to turn a handle on the sink in order for the shower to work. It is quite interesting and strange, but not inconvenient. Now that you know all that information for when you book your trip to Japan, let’s get on with how we spent the rest of our day. We got all our stuff together and I set my waypoints for what I wanted to see and we headed out.
Tourist Center
Our first stop was Aomori Tourist Center which is this massive triangular prism building overlooking the coast. We head inside and to be honest, it’s not the craziest thing. It’s your standard tourist center except there’s not a single tourist to be seen. Theres a little grocery store and a few small kiosks to the side, and escalators that take you to the 2nd floor. After investigating the 1st floor, we head up to the 2nd floor to see whats going on… Nothing. Then we try to find the observatory which for some reason was kind of hard when it really shouldn’t have been. We took the elevator to the top floor and paid a small fee to enter the observatory, perfect time to have a camera. I walked along the round glass edges and took pictures of the city and ocean. The building is 32 stories high so you can get a solid view of a good portion of the city. Out in the ocean, theres a pier that peaks out and has a small cone shaped structure at the end. I decided I want to see what’s at the end of it before I leave Aomori. After getting our fill of the observatory, we head down and exit the tourist center and walk around the other side to our next stop. Aoimu Park was nearly empty when we got there which surprised me ever with the knowledge that Aomori is small. Only saw a couple people here and there walking through. It’s a nice little park that is placed at the ocean shore and connected to a fairly long pier. We chilled by the water for a bit before heading on our way out.
Standing Out
We make our way towards the Lovina where there are more people and I will say that I wasn’t expecting to get as many stares as I did because I didn’t get as many in Sapporo. What you should know is if you go to Aomori as a foreigner, you will attract a lot of attention because Aomori doesn’t get many tourists. I learned that even Japanese people from outside of Aomori don’t often visit and theres a big reason for this. Aomori’s main language is called Tsugaruben or Tsugaru Dialect. It is so detached from the normal Japanese language that Japanese citizens that don’t live in Aomori would understand little to nothing of what they are saying. However, people who speak Tsugaruben understand standard Japanese because its in all movies and TV and any form of media. Since Tsugaru is only local to Aomori, no media is spoken in this language outside. Now that you have that information, that is the biggest reason we were one of very few tourists there. That being said, I heavily recommend visiting this city because it has a charm to it that I don’t think you would be able to find anywhere else. We make our way inside the Lovina and explore for a bit through the mall before leaving and hitting up a 7-eleven for some food.
Night Photography
After hitting 7-Eleven, we made our way back to the hotel to relax a bit before I go out to take night photography. Isa and I head out to take some night photography before trying out the shisha bar. We walked around for hours just taking really cool shots while I taught Isa the camera settings and what not. Isa was new to cameras so I taught him about f-stops, iso, and shutter speed, essentially the bare basics that you should know. He managed to get some cool shots and I did as well. We were ready to see what this shisha was all about because we’ve never been to one. This is where the confusion hit because we struggled to find it with google maps. We were walking around place to place further and further away from the hotel not knowing how dumb we would feel soon. We then decided to hitch a short taxi which dropped us off at a location that was 10 minutes away from our hotel by foot.
Yuragi Shisha
After looking around a bit on this obscure side street, we finally spot an open door with a sign outside that said “Yuragi Shisha.” We were very hesitant at first because when we entered this building, we just saw some equipment and a staircase. We reluctantly walked up the staircase and walked though a lit up door. The moment we walked through the door, we immediately saw the lounge that I had been searching for. The pictures from the website matched perfectly and surpassed my expectations. The best way to explain this place was “Vibes” and from the pictures, you will see why. Along with me feeling relieved that we finally found the spot, we were so happily greeted and they let us sit wherever we wanted. We get seated and they bring us an english menu for us to choose from a large array of shisha flavors. For those who don’t know what shisha is, its hookah, and if you don’t know what hookah is, google it haha. The kind lady came over and used english as best as she could to help guide us with what we needed. We ended up getting sake in honor of our first time at a bar in Japan. We also ordered 2 different Shisha flavors: Lemon, Icecream, and Cherry. We waited for a short bit before she brought out a bowl of water and ice with a pitcher of Sake and 2 glasses for us to pour our drinks into. I really enjoyed the Sake. It wasn’t the greatest taste, but I’m not someone who partakes in alcohol ever. I was only drinking for the occassion of being in Japa, or so I thought. Later, another girl came out and gave us our 2 shishas. We enjoyed these as we talked about the rest of the trip and the trip we’ve had so far. They had a projector screen with music videos playing and the very nice owner came over to us and let us control the music for the rest of the night. I decided to play Nujabes and some other chill artists. We finish the night really happy and somewhat buzzed, but mainly just feeling really good. I loved interacting with the Yuragi Shisha staff and I decided I wanted to stay in touch with them and I still talk to them this day. If you want to follow them, click here. After such an amazing experience from generous people, I broke a Japanese taboo and decided to tip them. We left at around 2:00AM and we knew we had a tour the next day. I stopped at the lawsons to grab a quick snack, at it on the way back and got to the hotel and fell asleep ready for the amazing tour we’d have the next day.
The Pier
Fast Forward after the tour, this is the day that we are leaving for Sendai. I am speaking about this because I want to review Aomori as a whole and our day trip as a whole. I woke up early and headed out to finally walk the pier. I made my way past the tourist center and towards the pier. It was raining lightly throughout the whole day and I just wore a hood for protection. As I walked, I talked to the gopro because I was alone and I don’t feel comfortable talking to a camera with people around me yet. I finally make it to the entrance of the pier and walk along it. As I do this, It is very windy, but very peaceful and just looking at the water and cityscape from the ocean is so calming. I finally make it to the end of the pier to the cone shaped hut and chill out for a bit, I then take pictures of the ocean and the view from the pier. After this, I make my way back so that I can pack up and get ready to head to Sendai.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, Aomori is a very quiet, but very beautiful city. I would love to revisit for a longer period of time next time because I didn’t really get a chance to truly explore all it had to offer. I highly recommend you go as well and book the tour that will be talked about in the next blog. You can find the full first day in Aomori here. If you have any questions about anything regarding this blog, make sure to comment. Stay tuned for Hakkoda Tour and thank you for reading! Love Y’all!
