Aomori is quite a distance away from Sendai, being that it's the most Northern prefecture of the main island. I got up at around 5:30 to prepare for our 7:22 AM train. We booked tickets ahead of time since it would be aboard the reserve-only Hayabusa train. After transferring to a local train, we finally arrived at our destination: Aomori City, which is the capital of Aomori prefecture.
Our first stop was for Furukawa Fish Market. It's known for allowing you to create you own Seafood Bowl by purchasing tickets from a stall and proceeding to different fish mongers/stalls (that are participating) to see what they have caught for the day. It was a pretty fun event, walking up and down the market surveying the fresh catch from different stalls. Most stalls had something different -- very little overlap with stalls. After wandering around for nearly 15 minutes, I finished constructing my bowl.
The fish wasn't as fresh as I thought it would be, but I enjoyed my meal greatly. The miso soup and pickled vegetables were a nice touch to the meal. I would definitely recommend anyone who travel to Aomori to give it a try! The only issue was we went on a Saturday, so it was somewhat busy. After finishing constructing my bowl, it took another five minutes to look for an empty seat to eat my meal.
After breakfast, we ventured to Hirosaki. We did have to wait about half an hour for the train to Hirosaki, so we found a farmer at the station selling apple pie. I regret not buying the different varieties he had for sale.
Once we got onto the train to Hirosaki, we literally had 120 minutes to find the castle and explore. I was worried that we weren't able to get seats back to Sendai since it was nearly Obon and people usually travel home during this time. I booked our return tickets back, thinking five hours in Aomori prefecture would be more than enough. I was sadly mistaken, meaning that we only had 90 minutes or so to explore Hirosaki castle. We didn't enter the castle grounds because of the time crunch, but we managed to catch a "early" bus back to the station.
Once we were back at Shin-Aomori station (to take the shinkansen back to Sendai), we had about half an hour before our train would arrive. I ended up buying an ekiben to enjoy on the ride back. I ended up eating it, along with a crust less peanut butter sandwich for a meal.
After arriving back at Sendai, we rested at our hotel for a little bit before heading out to find dinner. We found a Ringer's Hut, which has Champon -- a noodle dish inspired by Chinese cuisine. We ventured to the Pokemon Centre near the station before shopping for breakfast for the next day.
Two days in Tohoku so far and I'm quite enjoying the atmosphere this region provides in comparison to Tokyo. Sendai is busy, but no where as crowded as Tokyo. Aomori has a really rustic feel that makes it feel like "authentic" Japan. After digging my head (for the last minute or so), why I find it authentic, could be traced back to when I first went to Japan at the age of 9. I was with my dad and we were visiting his parents/my grandparents in the countryside.
So far though, waking up extremely early has led to productive days! I wonder how long it'll last though...
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