191026 to 191103 Aomori Japan

It is end of October again!!! The best time to visit Japan for autumn leaves season.

Looking at our available dates, Northern Honshu may be the best place to visit for the season.

We reached Aomori on Oct 27 2019 and we are a little early to view the maple leaves at Hirosaki Castle. However if we go later, we may miss the apples picking season. 

Hirosaki and Aomori. From apple farms to beautiful streams and lake. Plenty to explore in the country and time to breathe in fresh air for "city people" like us.

Japan is made up of 4 main Island. While Tokyo is located in the central region of Honshu Island, Aomori is located in the northern region of Honshu Island.
This trip, I explored Hirosaki, Kuroshi, Lake Towada and Aomori itself. Most of the travellers would use Hachinohe as a based as most would use Japan JR pass to travel there from Tokyo. For me, I prefer to explore one place slowly and get to know the culture of that place. I do not like to do the touch and go kind of travel. Also, I read up and find that there is nothing much at Hachinohe. So I left this place out. I have also done a estimation on my itinerary, most not covered under JR pass. So I did not buy the pass at all. 

We fly to Aomori via Korean Air. A wise choice. Going for Japan but yet enjoying a brief moment of travel to Seoul.
We were so impressed with Korean Air and really enjoyed our transit time in Incheon International Airport.
Click here for more about 
Korean air
and Incheon International Airport.

At Aomori International Airport
We have learnt that it is always better to travel via airport bus to our hotel and vice versa. This is because when you travel via bus, we can have our bags place at the luggage compartment area in the bus. We can sit comfortably until we alight, the bus captain will help us retrieve our bags for us. Unlike train, we need to lug the bags while travel or some train has limited space to place our bags. 

This is the JR bus station and train station. Annex to the JR train station is a small shopping mall. Sobadokoro Kogin(below), the Japanese noodles store and the Tourist Information counter is located at the ground level of JR train station. Mr Donut is located at Applese Shopping Mall.
Click here for my experience towards Hirosaki Station from Aomori Airport

Sobadokoro Kogin. This eatery is located at a place where you will never miss it.
Our 1st bowl of comfort food when we arrived Hirosaki after the long flight.
Check out here on what we ate.

Most of hotel in Japan allows you to check in only at 3pm.
Glad we got a room with good view.
191027 to 191030 Stay in Art Hotel Hirosaki

191027 - For today, we just have a simple dinner from 7-Eleven as we are too tired to continue.
Not too bad for dinner from 7 Eleven
We also stock up some breakfast and snacks from 7 eleven just incase we are hungry in the middle of the night. Bear in mind, Hirosaki is also a small town. Most of the shops will close by 8pm.
Click here to find out what I love about 7-Eleven snacks.

191027 - Our trip started with a visit to Hirosaki Apple Park. Our first time experience in a apple orchard. Though it is managed for tourist, we still have fun coming here.
Check out here on this tourist apple park
We have managed to follow to our plan to leave the park by 11.40am bus so that we can reach Hirosaki Station at 12.20pm. This allow us to take a rest, have lunch before going out again to the Hirosaki Castle for night lights.  Since we are still early, we decided to have a walk at Hiroro shopping Mall.

Click her to see whats for Lunch
at Hiroro Shopping Mall
Here are the only shops that we visited at Hiroro Shopping Mall.

191028-Hirosaki Castle Park
We read about the night illumination and decided to pay a visit at about 3pm so that we can enjoy the normal view with sunlight and at 4.30pm when sunset, we can enjoy the night illumination. A little let down because the night illumination were just for a few places and not for the whole park.
Hirosaki Park, click here for our experience

191028-Cafe Gusto
While traveling to Hirosaki Castle, we passed by this place. Restaurant looks like family restaurant. Since our bus will pass by the same route while going back to our hotel, we decided to stop here and check out if we can have dinner here. Above picture was taken at 6pm. Look like 8pm correct?
Click here for their menu and our meals

191029 Our initial itinerary was to visit Mt Iwaki to hike the mountain. I wanted to experience the chair lift. I have to change my plan since I have not recover from my toe fracture. Came across an article Nakano Momiji Mountain and decided to check with Tourist information on how to get there. 

191029-Click here on what we see at Nakano Momiji Mountain
We love the autumn leaves here.

Our side trip before returning to Hirosaki town.
Click here to see this quiet town.

191029-Our last dinner in Hirosaki town

191030-Before departing to Aomori, we have our breakfast at Mister Donut at Hirosaki Station. Our experience this time was different.

It is time to take a train from Hirosaki to Aomori
It was quiet an experience. Click here to find out more.

Since we are too early for checking in to our hotel, we spend our time walking around Aomori Town. We check out Aomori most recommended places.

191030 - Managed to find a good place for lunch while walking around Aomori Town.
The one and only sushi meal this trip.
Sushi-bar-asuka-shinmachi-shop

191030 to 191103 Hotel Select Inn Aomori
Click here for our love hate relationship of this place

191030 - Dinner at Ramen Ajinon Sapporo
Age is catching up. We felt very tired with the transfer from Hirosaki to Aomori and walking around Aomori. Perhaps the sea breeze? Felt so tired and decided to rest early. We were too tired to even go out for dinner. Decided to force ourselves to this ramen place after reading the review from google map. There are pictures with a piece of butter on top of the noodles and we thought it was tofu(bean curd) and decided to try this hoping to eat tofu. So crazy right?

191031 Thursday, Finally, the day to visit the main attraction is here. Our objective to visit Aomori is to visit Oirase Stream other than picking apples.
 Lake Towada and Oirase Stream. Best to visit during Autumn. Enjoy the colours of the leaves and breathe in fresh air. Hike up the mountains, take a ferry ride.
Click here to see more pictures and my hints on how to get there.

191101-What is holiday without shopping?
My must do in Japan is to hunt for GU store. My favorite shopping place in Japan.
Check out here on where can you shop in Japan
If you check out the google map, there are other places like Aeon that we can shop too. But due to our limited time, we only been able to do our shopping here for 1 day.

191102 Sat, our last day in Aomori. Lucky my hubby spotted the faded poster at the bus stop. We are able to enjoy the real apple farm, orchard experience. Seikoen at Tamogina Aomori. Click here for more of the apple orchard.

We found a family Japanese Restaurant located just at JR Aomori station. Had dinner fort he last 2 days of our trip in Aomori.
Click Tsugaruji to find out why we dined here twice.

191103-We end our trip on Sunday. Hotel check out time is 10am.
Found this coffee vending machine rather interesting at JR bus station.
You can select the level of coffee and sweetness. Cool!!!

I have a wonderful trip. Like I usually tell my friends, simple trip makes my holiday less stressful and more enjoyable and relaxing.