Leaving is definitely a bittersweet feeling. I learned to love so many things about my placement in Aomori including its dialect, scenery, music, and handmade crafts. Most of all though, the thing making my departure so difficult was the children that I helped teach. It's hard to believe that just over a year ago I arrived here because time went by so fast. It's also hard to believe how much there is to Aomori City besides snow, the Nebuta Festival, and apples.
To list a few of the specialties of Aomori and Aomori-ken, here's a short list of my discoveries.
- Winters of Never ending snow. I learned to love this - granted this past winter was supposedly a relatively mild one. What's great about Aomori's snow is that, while you do get a WHOLE LOT OF IT, it's not really cold enough to freeze over for the most part, and since it continuously snows, there's enough traction for you not to fall - but you still can't be careless. What's more is that winter is great for several reasons.
- Winter Sports like snowshoeing, skiing, and snowboarding. Aomori had a lot to offer in terms of places to go for these things, but I only ever got around to going snowboarding once at a place called Moya Hills.
- Nabe (pronounced Nah-beh), which is basically hot pot cooking style. sukiyaki and shabu-shabu are both examples of Nabe. It's great to do with friends around a heated table called a...
- Kotatsu! I loved my Kotatsu. I slept under it on many winter nights - on workdays and weekends! It's an electrically-heated table with a 2 layered tabletop. The top layer's removable so that you can put a thick blanket between the layers in order to have a nice, warm, enclosed area for your lower body.
- ONSEN. I love onsen. That love stems from it being my savior from the winter cold. The onsen that I frequented was called machinaka onsen. It wasn't anything special, but it was an easy busy ride that took less than 10 minutes and required no transfers. Even on hot / normal days, onsen is great because it really refreshes/ relaxes the body, but imagine if you will - a blizzard's going on. you're hiding yourself from the cold by wearing 2-3 layers and a heavy jacket on top of that. It's windy. It's snowy. It's cold. THEN you reach the onsen and submerge yourself in a hot bath that's even warmer than jacoozis back home. ON TOP OF THAT, you can submerge yourself into a hot bath that's OUTDOORS. in the cold. The sharp contrast of the super cold/snowy weather and the steaming hot onsen make for an interesting feeling, but it is definitely enjoyable. I remember one time, that at a further but nicer onsen called gokurakuyu, which was more of a spa, I went to the open-air bath (露天風呂;rotenburo), and after just a minute or two, our hair was frozen solid as if it was gelled, but I was super warm because of the bath.
- FOOT BATHS. In the actual city of Aomori, there weren't any foot baths, but after an ~25 train ride east to a onsen resort town called Asamushi, there were a few of them that were easily accessible. I knew of two - one was right outside the station - like LITERALLY in the parking lot. The other was an 8 minute walk away and included a station where you could soft-boil eggs in onsen water (called onsen tamago) and another station where you could drink a small bit of the actual onsen water that smelt of egg (aka sulfur).
- Delicious delicious regional food specialties besides apples that include but are not limited by:
- scallops (raw or grilled in its own shell. Other products include Scallop ice cream, which is tried, but isn't really widespread as something tasty)
- black garlic (takko-machi - sister cities with our very own Gilroy. Foods with garlic include Garlic Ramen, Garlic Soysauce, Garlic Soda etc.)
- Black Currant (or Cassis, Products include Cassis Jam, Cassis Icecream)
- sea urchin
- the world's most expensive tuna (oma-machi)
- Aomori's Niboshi Ramen (Ramen whose broth comes from dried sardines)
- Aomori's Miso-Curry-Milk-Butter Ramen (probably more of a Hokkaido thing, but rare nonetheless)
- Aomori's Nokkedon (super fresh build-it-yourself sashimi rice bowl), and more. In terms of fame, though, SCALLOPS are right behind apples, and I was also able to go scallop fishing at one restaurant in the city.
- The DROP DEAD gorgeous scenery. Depending on where you are in the city, you may not get the whole trinity which include vibrant green rice fields (in summer), lush tree-covered mountains, and a blue bay with a clear enough view you can see the coastline opposite of where you are. LUCKILY I was fortunate enough to have schools that were all along the west side of Aomori Bay's coast. My furthest schools were so removed from the city and so far up the coast, that I would be forced to take a picture of the scenery every time I visited them.
- The handicrafts. Aomori is famous for a handful of different handicrafts. It hasn't made nationwide fame, because the laquerware, for example, is too expensive to really be marketable to the masses (or so I've heard), but they're still a sight to behold and you seriously ought to buy some of this if you ever visit.
- Tsugaru-nuri (Tsugaru Laquerware. Read this for more info http://japan-brand.jnto.go.jp/crafts/lacquer_ware/6/) - This may come in the form of dessert plates, lunch boxes, pens, tea leaf containers, etc., but it most commonly comes in the form of chopsticks that cost around 2000 yen. It's a kind of laquerware that has abstract designs and takes over a MONTH to complete since they paint on layer by layer. There are three types of tsugaru-nuri. If I recall correctly, the most famous and most common is kara-nuri. Without a photo, I think I'd best describe the pattern as abstract and speckled. I was able to get a few Tsugaru-nuri as going away gifts from my generous Board of Education, and actually got these beautiful dark blue ones from the school clerks in one of my elementary schools! (Thanks Masato-san and Mirorin-san)
- Kogin Embriodery - An embriodery that originates from Hirosaki, a city about 45 minutes from Aomori by train. I've seen it mostly in diamond shaped patterns and includes products like cloth coasters, and hanko cases (aka your personal steal stamp for official documents).
- Tsugaru Bidoro - it's a beautiful glass style whose products typically seem to include glass cups with beautiful colorful speckles at the base.
- Aomori Hiba Pine Products - Aomori hiba pine is Aomori's prefectural tree (or city tree) and its mountains are chocked full of 'em. It's not as widespread in the prefecture or popular, but it's quite easy to run into a gift shop offering hiba cuttingboards, hiba-derived beauty products, these aromatic wooden hiba spheres that are probably used for the bath, and may even include hiba wardrobes, but I've never seen that in a gift store or any store for that matter.
- It's underadvertised sightseeings spots including:
- Summer / autumn's tanbo art (detailed, intricate rice field art made out of different kinds of rice that depict a scene) in Inakadate Village
- oirase gorge (beautiful valley creek leading to the equally beautiful Lake Towada known for it's autumn foliage and also snow festival) in Towada City.
- Hirosaki Castle (a city known for its cherry blossom viewing scenes in Spring) in Hirosaki City.
- etc. etc. including onsen, world heritage sites, beautiful unique-looking cliff formations (just comment if you'd like to know more.)
- The dialect which I have a whole section of my blog about. It's TOTALLY different form standard Japanese.
The list goes on. I'll also go ahead and plug in this brand new anime that is actually BASED in Aomori, and includes many different aspects of Aomori culture including the dialect, lifestyle, scenes, etc. http://gogoanime.io/category/flying-witch
This was supposed to be a plug about me reflecting about my goodbyes at the end of my term, but that'll have to be saved until another post. I will make sure to write more soon. Hopefully this was informational though. :)
