Dec23 - Aomori

We were up at 6am and had checked out of the hotel at 7:15am. We then walked in the -5 degree weather to the station and grabbed breakfast from the 7-11 on the way. Using the under passes we arrived at the station shortly after and made our way to the platform where we only had to wait a few minutes before the Shinkansen arrived.

Our train departed at 7:59am, arriving at Shin-Aomori at 9:02am. We made the same mistake we did at Sendai and had a look around the station before going to the platform, only to discover we missed the connecting train, and had to wait another 30mins for the next train. So at 9:45am we rode the train for about 5 mins to Aomori.

Here we visited the tourist info, stashed our carry-on luggage in a locker and hit the sites. First up was A-Factory, for all things apple, the kids each had an apple ice cream, one a gelato, the other an soft serve milk/apple combo.

After this we went to the Hakkoda-maru museum which was a huge ship that used to ferry people and train cars. It was pretty big, with the highlight being the lower deck with the train cars. We also walked out to the point where the ship was housed for a nice view of the harbour.

After this it was 12 noon and we decided to get some lunch. We went to our fallback option Saizeriya, where Jason was able to get some GF options. Daiso was above so of course the kids wanted to go there. Snacks and trinkets acquired we headed to the Nebuta Museum.

Arriving at 1:10pm we just missed the live performance, so after looking at the amazing floats and watching the video Dale really wanted to see the performance, so we hung around for the hour and half. We got to have a go at Taiko drumming which was fun.

We then walked the 1km to our hotel where we are all together in a large quad room on the top floor. We rested until 6pm doing the 'where are we going for dinner' fun. We settled on Haroka, a soba noodle place. Dessert was gathered from 7-11 on the way back to the hotel. Where we arrived back just before 8pm.Read more