The first port of call for the first cruise in Japan.
Below is the port guide for Aomori.
Activities onboard the ship:
I had set up my GoPro for a time lapse as it would be dark (11PM) when the ship left.
The building closest to the port is in the shape of an A for Aomori.
If there is any day that you can be comfortable going off on your own to adventure it is a day where the ship not only stays in port until 11 PM, but the next port is actually very close by and in the same country. You would need to try and do something very stupid to miss the ship, like taking a Shinkansen to Sapporo which isn’t even on the same island as Aomori.
I got off the ship a few minutes later than I should have, but I thought I would have time to catch the first train. I took a couple of pictures along the way, including a couple of trees as I was worried I wouldn’t see any cherry blossoms.
I got to the train station a minute or two before the train was supposed to leave only to find the IC card system wouldn’t be implemented until May 27th! I had to buy a paper ticket – with cash. I bought a round trip ticket (680 Yen each way) to Hirosaki so I wouldn’t need to mess with the machine when I returned.
With all that sorted I walked down to the platform and already saw a large amount of people in the queue to ride the train.
The train ride itself was uneventful. It made a stop at the Shinkansen station where a significant amount of people got off and towards the end of the trip it was possible to see Mt Iwaki in the distance Because I didn’t know if the train would change directions I took a picture of the mountain from the train.
I found these in the Hirosaki train station…
I could have / should have taken a bus for 100 Yen to Hirosaki Park, but I enjoy exploring so I walked 30 minutes to the park. Along the way I found some trees with blossoms.
And here is an interesting western styled church, which is apparently the Hirosaki Church of Christ. Link to more information about the church below.
I finally arrived to Hirosaki Park at the East gate. Links below to the park website.
I arrived to the park I found a bunch of cherry trees in blossom. I took a few pictures before moving on. It was just dumb luck as I hadn’t researched that at all. I wasn’t expecting to see any cherry blossoms as I knew when I booked the cruise they were 2 weeks early this year.
I bought a combination ticket for the botanical garden, Fujita memorial garden and the Honmaru with the castle. The Fujita memorial garden was much nicer than the botanical garden and included a waterfall, so visit the castle and the Fujita memorial garden and if you must, just have them stamp your entrance ticket at the botanical garden, but there wasn’t much spectacular there.
A few pictures around the entrance of the Honmaru.
Next I walked to the super secret heart sakura in the park. Unfortunately there were no more cherry blossoms, but the heart was still visible. It is shown on Google Maps, but only in Japanese which is not very helpful – and you have to know where to click to see the description. I had to spend a lot of time researching the location as the park’s official website doesn’t publish the location and makes visitors wander the park to find it.
Here’s a link to the location on Google Maps.
Pictures inside the Honmaru:
I entered the castle and there was an exhibit on how they relocated the castle.
A few more photos inside the Honmaru
I walked around the park and found a few more cherry trees, but nearly all the blossoms have already disappeared. I also did find a shrine.
Pictures in the Botanical Garden:
I was very rushed at the memorial garden as I checked the train schedule and founf the last train that would get me back to Aomori in time for the live presentation at the Bebuta museum was at 13:46. Not only that, but the next train would be an hour later. I rushed to take a picture of the waterfall before rushing to get to the train station with about five minutes to spare. And that was with me running through a couple of crosswalks with the flashing green guy.
The train back was full, but not so full that anyone had to stand. After another uneventful train trip I was back at Aormari station which was next to the Nebuta WA RASSE museum.
The museum looks larger than it is because most of it is a space for four large floats from the Nebuta festival.
The entry fee was reduced for Diamond Princess guests and I was able to use my IC card here (unlike the train). The cost to enter with the discount was 550 Yen, which isn’t expensive at all.
At one place they had a projector set up so you could create your own face on a screen. It was pretty impressive.
The parade floats have a generator under the float to power the lights that light up the colorful designs. Paper is glued to the wire structure before it is painted. The floats on display were quite impressive, with one even having fish. They also had a small section you could actually touch.
The surprising part is except for the design winners every float is destroyed at the end of the festival and new ones are built every year.
Each float has two tires on it and are pushed and rotated around by people pushing it. It was pretty impressive seeing them move the floats in the videos.
The live presentation was short, but interesting. The Japanese kids at the museum were having fun chanting and dancing.
I continued to explore the museum after the live demonstration.
After the museum I wandered over to the tourist shop next to it, but didn’t find anything I really was interested in. I did however find a nice Aomori sign to take a picture of.
I got a picture of the poster in the cruise terminal – it required flash to see the fireworks.
Because the ship was due in port until 11 PM I didn’t make a dinner reservation for tonight. I had dinner at the buffet and then had another late night pizza.
Today’s timeline:
