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AOMORI |
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Honshu's most northerly city, AOMORI , sits at the bottom of Mutsu
Bay, sheltered by the two claws of the Tsugaru and Shimokita peninsulas.
It's a spacious, but rather characterless, city which has lost a good
deal of its Hokkaido-bound visitors now that trains run straight through
to Hakodate via the Seikan Tunnel . However, the crowds still turn up
for Aomori's Nebuta Matsuri (Aug 2-7), one of Japan's biggest and
rowdiest festivals , featuring giant illuminated floats and energetic
dancing. It takes less than a day to cover Aomori's main sights, of
which the most appealing is a park displaying nebuta floats, followed by
a couple of decent museums of history and folkcraft.
Southwest of Aomori, the small town of Hirosaki has a number of
interesting historical sights around its once magnificent castle, which
can be covered on a day-trip. Allow at least two days, however, to
explore the Shimokita Tono , the axe-head peninsula lowering over Aomori
from the east. Shimokita is dominated by the sacred Osore-zan, an eerie
wasteland where souls hover between life and death, but the region also
has some excellent coastal scenery and a hardy wildlife population,
including the world's most northerly population of wild monkeys.
Out of the centre
The city's remaining sights are all in the southern suburbs, of which by
far the most rewarding is an exhibition of festival floats at Nebuta-no-sato
(daily: June to mid-Sept 9am-8pm; mid-Sept to May 9am-5.30pm; June-Sept
¥630, Oct-May ¥420). JR and Shiei buses (1-2 hourly; 30min; ¥450) drop
you on the main road, from where it's a short walk to the ticket gate.
One of Japan's great summer festivals, the Nebuta Matsuri, is named
after the gigantic bamboo-framed paper lanterns ( nebuta ) which take
the form of Kabuki actors, samurai or even sumo wrestlers in dramatic
poses. The features are painted by well-known local artists, and the
lanterns - lit nowdays by electricity rather than candles - are mounted
on wheeled carts and paraded through the night-time streets of Aomori.
According to the most popular local legend, the lanterns originated in
800 AD, when local rebels were lured out of hiding by an imaginative
general who had his men construct an eye-catching lantern and play
festive music. You can see several of today's magnificent nebuta in a
darkened hall, on the hillside to the left as you walk through the park,
alongside photos of early festivals and of the construction techniques.
On the way out take a look in a smaller hall, just before the river,
which contains a fan-shaped float from the rival Hirosaki festival,
known as the Neputa Matsuri .
On the way back into central Aomori, ask to get off at the Kami-Tamagawa
bus stop. This rather unpromising area of pachinko parlours and drive-ins
is also home to an interesting folk museum, the Keikokan (daily except
Thurs & last day of the month 9.30am-4.30pm; free), dedicated to
documenting the daily life of the "snow country" - Japan's mountainous
interior. The museum has a valuable collection of local crafts, from
fine lacquerware to heavily embroidered textiles and sturdy wooden
furniture. If you're not going to Hokkaido, the display of Ainu clothes
and jewellery is also worth a look.
One of Aomori's most famous citizens, a woodblock artist inspired by Van
Gogh, is honoured in the Munakata Shiko Memorial Museum (Tues-Sun
9am-4.30pm; ¥300). The small museum shows rotating exhibitions of his
bold, almost abstract scenes of local festivals and Aomori people.
Though best known for his black-and-white prints, Shiko also dabbled in
oils, painted screens and calligraphy. To reach the museum, take a bus
from Aomori Station bound for Koyanagi and get off at the Munakata Shiko
Kinenkan-dori-mae stop (15min; ¥190), from where it's a four-minute walk
west, in front of the NTT building.
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