Apples are pretty synonymous with Aomori-ken, and the souveneir hawkers are almost completely invested in apples being the singular omiyage item. Surprisingly, I didn’t find the specific apple item I was looking for – an old-fashioned steel can of apple jam. The apples are generally good, but not all of them are great. Most are grow around the city of Hirosaki, although the first experiments with growing apples were done on the slopes of Hakkoda-san to the South of Aomori City. The apple trees are fairly small and loaded with fruit, like one every 15-20cm. Reflective mylar sheets are placed under the trees to reflect the sunlight and make the undersides of the fruits change color to match the tops.
In addition to being the perfect season for tree-ripened apples, it is also time for the leaves to turn. I wasn’t sure if the timing would be right. Heading up toward Towada-ko, only a hint of yellow could be seen, but heading back after three days and a cold snap that brought the first dusting of snow completely changed the landscape to yellow, red, maroon, and rust. The rain that accompanied the cold front also deepened the colors. Timing was just right. Had the leaves turned a few days earlier as expected, the wind and rain would have knocked a lot of them off.
The main part of Aomori City adjacent to the original JR station is looking old and depressed, with a lot of unoccupied spaces and urban decay – not unlike the counterpart city, Hakodate, across the Tsugaru strait. The new urban core with new supermarkets and homes is out toward the JR Shin-Aomori station which was built to accomodate the extension of the JR Touhoku Shinkansen to Hokkaido. JR Aomori (again like JR Hakodate) is a dead-end station which was built for rail ferry use, so isn’t ideal for the Shinkansen through-service. Back before the Seikan tunnel, railcars at the end of the line were rolled aboard a sea going ferry that would carry them across the Tsugaru strait to the matching station on the opposite side, where they would be rolled out onto the tracks to continue. So far, there isn’t a whole lot of tourist-related retail development around the Shin-Aomori station, but maybe it’s being envisioned as more of a through-station with perpendicular service to either Hirosaki or the old JR Aomori station and their developed tourist spots – in other words, not much business beyond the wicket.
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