Aomori, Japan Cruise Port Guide 2025!

Aomori, Japan Cruise Port Guide 2025!

When I was researching Aramorei, Japan, the recommendation was stay at port. It’s a small place, but there’s plenty to do. And since we had a mixed age group, it would probably be ideal. But was it? Well, we stayed locked into one small area of town. So, was it a straight jacket or a pleasant surprise? But first, the usual port basics and some highlights that I think you really shouldn’t miss. No, really. I’m Troy and this is the port lowdown for Aroamorei, Japan, Port of Call. Amori is in Aramoy Prefecture, naturally the northernmost prefecture on Japan’s main island of Honchu. Outside of incredible natural beauty, the place has two big claims to fame. Number one, apples, producing over half of Japan’s crop. The climate and soil contribute to the cultivation of numerous apple varieties. So, when you’re here, you got to try them. And the site of Japan’s most spectacular and dynamic festivals, the Aamorei Nabutoa Festival, which takes place annually in early August. This vibrant celebration features massive illuminated lantern floats depicting mystical figures, historical warriors, and kabuki actors. So, if your ship is here then, especially if you’re doing it overnight, you are one lucky duck. But if you can’t join in the fun in August, there’s an alternative. So, let’s get port oriented. We docked at the base of town on a cool, foggy morning that was frankly a big relief from the rest of the summer. There’s a decentsized terminal building, but most of it wasn’t in use when we were there. Still, these kind folks were a welcome site. Next door was the main lobby, which was kind of prefab. Small everything, but thoughtful and thorough. Lots of free maps, charge spots with all the tech details, handouts for most attraction hours, very thoughtful. The tourist desk is English- speakaking, friendly, and super helpful. As you can see, there are taxi group rate tours, and apparently these folks can arrange it for you. So, folks here make things pretty easy if walking really isn’t an option for you or you want to see more distant sites. Great bathrooms, of course, Japan being high-tech toilet heaven. Pretty good souvenir tables, too. Not as much as other ports I’ve seen, but still quality. They were especially big on this item, so if I bought it, I could probably tell my wife it’s a cultural immersion exercise. And they take credit cards. Cash is still advised in Japan, by the way, but there’s no money exchanges or ATMs on site. Good news is there’s a bunch of ATMs scouted all over town. I’ll leave a link in my description with some map locations. Just outside the tour desk is I assume the line of taxis for the tourists. On the other side of the building, the independently called taxi stand using the Uber app as a calling app or perhaps the go app. And buses are at the other side of the building. But for most of us, this is a walking city. Clean, pleasant, flat as a pancake with most major sites within a roughly 2 km radius. If you’re the wandering type like me, the fun starts right outside the building with this small park facing the water. [Music] So peaceful with great views looking back at the ship. I kept walking down the parking lot and exited to Oyumi Park with a convenient public restroom right at the doorstep. I usually do early morning scouting before the rest of my family gets up. So, this was pretty early. The plan was to follow the pier, go along the boardwalk, and end my scouting at the main train station downtown. Then, I’ll hook up with my family. And since it’s early morning and certain things weren’t open, I’ll backtrack and do that at the end of my day, like Aspam or our Mory sightseeing products and mansion building where I hooked up with a really famous Apple product and learning my own lessons the hard way. More on that towards the end of the video. As you exit from the parking lot and go towards the park, you’ll be making a right. Either you’ll take the back street or take the park and pier route. Either way, you’re heading west. The peerwalk facing Aspam is pretty cool if a bit surreal like these sea lion sculptures hanging out in a vast space. This being early summer, the Nabuta floats were being built. And here are the tents where it happens. Just facing and past Aspam, the pierwalk rounded left and opened up to a huge boardwalk space. Ample seating, public art. Now see how the boardwalk veers right. You follow that towards the bridge. Keep going and then hang a left. You are now facing the entrance to the downtown area and a ton of cool stuff. Total walk time from the beginning of the park to here, I’d say about 15 minutes, 20 if you take your time. First place you’ll notice as you come off, the Almori Akimai Beach. It’s a swimming and recreation beach for the city’s residents and visitors during the summer months. [Music] It is tiny, but you do have that Aramorei sign for all your selfie needs. There were some places we didn’t get a chance to check out, but worth noting since they’re close by. The Sean Train Ferry Memorial Ship Museum with a full train inside and across the bridge and just a short walk, the Alamorei Museum of History. But we stuck to the immediate area and had more stuff to explore. Starting with this place, a factory, A for Apple, a modern marketplace selling local cers, juices, sweets, and crafts made from Aramore’s famous apples. They have this rather unique tasting bar upstairs and restaurant. Cider tasting. Now that’s new to me, although I didn’t try it myself. And to compliment your cider, a tower of canned nuts. Across the street is the Aamorei train station. Now for our purposes, it’s more than just a hub. There’s a big tourist information office and lockers right out front, [Music] public restrooms of course, and it’s adjacent to a really big shopping mall, Lvina, with lots of interesting food shopping and cruise passenger discounts. Upstairs begins the actual transit section of the train station. [Music] And I noticed these handouts for Nabutan Go, a tourist loop bus that goes to different parts of the city than were featured here, including the Aroamorei Museum of Art. Here’s some info off the pamphlet if you’re interested. But the unquestioned star of the show around here is in the Buddha Museum, Wasi, dedicated to the spectacular Buddha Festival. It was here I was going to meet my family for the 9:00 a.m. opening. And it helps to get here pretty close to opening time as it is one of the most popular attractions in the city for good reason. And no, it’s not because we got a cruise passenger discount, although that’s a nice touch. The museum just doesn’t want to show you history and artifacts. No, no, they want you to get absorbed and surrounded by this world. They first lead you through explanations and history with lots of cool tech support. Scare this and it will pull out this. Yep. So if you have, you know, you could actually play it. Obviously, you have to make sure you have a headset, right? And you could choose the language. Excellent. Yep. All the languages here. Yeah. And then this huge room opens up. Illuminated. Spectacular. Their provided context is awesome. This was the last year, so it changed every single year. Yeah, it changes every year with lots of video assist and English signage. Plus, you can peer underneath. Try your hand at pulling it. Oh my god. And it weights about 1.3 ton. So, they pull the car by hand. They don’t carry it because they have the wheels. They have to, but that’s how they maneuver. About 30 adults men stand at the front, back, and sides of the float. And this guy is the driver. He’s guiding them. Yeah. It’s like to the left, to the, you know, so it’s it’s crazy. Touching it, really experiencing it. And for folks with mobility issues, it’s probably one of the best museums I’ve seen. Lots of ramps, elevators, extra seating space for rest. Plus, it’s not a big museum, but thoroughly engrossing and enjoyable, something everybody can take in. And it doesn’t stop with the floats. At certain times of the day, the audience gets to participate. [Music] Anybody? [Applause] Okay. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] I’m going to go out on a limb here and say of all the attractions in Armory, this is probably the most essential one. It’s certainly the most unique we’ve seen in Japan so far. Speaking of unique and essential, there’s one more item to check off, the Furakawa Fish Market. It’s also way close, only a few minutes walk from the train station. Now, this fresh fish market’s been around for a long time, but they added this new concept in 2009 called the Nokon experience. It’s become a hot item with regional and international visitors, so expect crowds and yeah, tour buses. For a sushi lover, it’s like a kid in a candy store. You buy a set of tickets. They could only speak Japanese. It’s free Wi-Fi, cash only. Thank you. Yes. Number one. Okay. Okay. That’s for the rice. Thank you. Get rice. Where is number one? I hope I just saw the sign. Number one. Oh, okay. Okay. I’m going to go outside. Then choose your toppings by wandering the stalls. But first, tackling the big challenge of where to sit. As is typical for most Japanese markets in general, not a lot of seating. We just can’t find a seat first seat. And since this place gets super popular, way crowded. Sorry, Kevin is right. Let’s go find a place to sit. One person hunted for a table and secured it while the others were getting their food. Let’s try. [Music] Okay. Aramorei is renowned for its high quality seafood caught in the cold, nutrient-rich waters of Matsu Bay and Sugar Straight. And here they show off. Let’s see what we got. We got shrimp, tuna, and I guess this is a part of the scallop. Okay, so first the rice. It’s just regular rice. It’s not sushi rice. I mean, it is sushi rice as far as the material, but they do not season it. So, it’s not the sushi rice that you season. Let’s try the salmon. Definitely very good. After all, this is fresh. If you like sushi, the raw kind, this is definitely a place to go. Having said that, for $15, this is not exactly, I would say, a bargain. You probably could get um, you know, a cheaper sushi outside here, especially, I’m seeing that outside the market. But having said that, it is kind of cool to be able to build your own bowl and choose the kind of fish that you like instead of, you know, the one that’s already pre-made. By the way, the fish is delicious. I wish I had bought more coupon. Okay, they have sink with soap which is make it very very clean this place. The fact that you know you’re dealing with obviously fresh fish and blood. You also have napkins here. There is bathroom. They are very also again very clean. It is a very very tight space as you could see. So if you have any mobility issue, this might not be an easy way a place to navigate or definitely I don’t think uh you could do it with any kind of wheelchair. If you have a cane, my suggestion is to have a seat and have somebody else help you pick up your food. Other than that, it really is a great experience. You should try it. After lunch, we split up again and I decided to bum around town a little bit, leaving the newer shopping malls behind. Heading east, definitely get a feel of back to the8s kind of vibe. retro and slightly funky and I really loved it. There are also lots of shrines and temples in the vicinity. This one being the closest on route and actually one of the most important. Uto shrine dating back almost a thousand years. It’s known as the spiritual home of the Nabuda Festival. Participants and float builders come here to pray for safety and success. [Music] and finally made my way back to Aspam, Amorei sightseeing products and mansion. It’s famous for its of course ashaped distinctive building and was designed as a hub for tourism, shopping and cultural experiences. First floor is shopping, but they also have Japanese tea ceremony experience, great bathrooms of course, an experience zone on the second floor and an observation deck for a fee on the 13th. And this first floor display, naked apron fisherman, a regional promotion scheme that’s apparently been really popular on other social media and TV. I can imagine these guys as, I don’t know, baseball cards. Collect them all. And apparently each one is representing their own company and organization. I can just imagine the HR meeting. Who wants to be the naked apron guy? So, if you’re not lucky enough to have this on display when you show up, I thought I’d share some of the joy. You’re welcome. Now, remember when I said earlier in the video about learning an important lesson that I should have learned before? Well, here it comes. The first floor has lots of cool shopping, but this is one of the most popular. This famous place that sells naturally apple pies. This place is famous and came highly recommended, so I couldn’t wait to buy a full box to share with the family. Finally, everybody was going to get a taste of aloy. I was down to my last few hundred yen in coins, but I figured it’s a touristed area. They’ll take credit cards, right? cash only. I didn’t use my card at all. So, so I was only able to buy huh two. So, from then on, I was determined to have at least $20 US equivalent in my pocket always. It’s another reason for having cash on hand. So, you can go to vending machines and stay hydrated cuz a lot of cafes around here don’t have drinks included. Starbucks does, but they don’t have it in most of the pastry stores, food stores. So, anyhow, have cash ready cuz I couldn’t get the I couldn’t get this without cash and I couldn’t get my uh water without cash. With only two pies to spare, I took one for the team and handed it over to the family. I’m not sure what kind of which one this was. The famous apple pom pom. Apple pie. Yeah, I think it’s cheese. I think it’s cheese apple. Oh. Did you hear that? No. What? You need to make me Mikey. Why? Here it is. The pie is so scrumptious and the apple is so sweet and so easy to bite. Like literally. Oh my god, it’s so good. You could see here they don’t put a water I’m sorry, a sugar glaze on top of the apple. Mhm. So the caramelization is just pure the apple. The apple sweetness is just just on spot. It’s not too sweet, not sour, you know, it’s just on spot. So, staying put in a small area like this was hardly constricting. In fact, it was a blast. I could have spent another day here just hanging around this area. [Music] So, for a compact port adventure, our is hard to beat. If this video has been helpful to you, be sure to like and share with your shipmates. We aim to help the independent cruiser community with fun and informative port reports, ship tours, and tips. We also have a website, portlowdown.com. And as always, keep those comments coming. We love them and respond as soon as we can. Have great travel adventures, whatever you choose to do. And see you on the next cruise.

This Aomori cruise port guide is not just about what to see, but also how to prepare for a smooth, stress-free day. Many cruisers wonder if Aomori is a walkable port. How much you can see and do within a very small area right near the cruise terminal? Join us for a DIY shore excursion as we explore the incredible Nebuta Museum WA RASSE, build our own seafood rice bowl (Nokkedon) at the Furukawa Fish Market, and visit the iconic ASPAM building. But the most important part of this video is the hard lesson I learned about using money in Japan—a tip that could save you a lot of hassle. If you’re planning a Japan cruise, check this out!

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Intro
1:16 Port Info
3:20 Walking from the port to downtown
4:35 Beach, Museums, A-Factory and train station
6:25 Nebuta Museum / WA RASSE
9:25 Furukawa Fish Market
13:24 Downtown walk, Utou Shrine and ASPAM
14:57 Important MONEY LESSON!
15:58 Apple pie tasting

HELPFUL LINKS:

ATM locations
Google Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/rEGRM2J8tU733kwk9

Aomori Ekimae Beach
Google Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/6TyZ3ksnPXY1vxYi9

Seikan Train Ferry Memorial Ship
Google Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/h5uXnDRSG5Zu26UWA

Aomori Museum of History
Website: https://kitanomahoroba.jp/
Google Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/BVmCJMyUyAkxDeod6

A-Factory
Website: https://afactory-abc.com/
Google Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/yAj9ywY8fMhnSiLW7

Train Station
Google Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/ptCAWiuGnmmTsZ5R9

Nebutan-Go Shuttle Bus
Website: https://www.tohokukanko.jp/en/transport/detail_1010955.html

Nebuta Museum / WA RASSE
Website: http://www.nebuta.jp/warasse/
Google Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/aZYyrBUfNE5U3eAn7

Furukawa Fish Market
Website: https://nokkedon.jp/
Google Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/s8fBusAL1Tgo9zJ67

Utou Shrine
Website: https://utojinja.sakura.ne.jp/
Google Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/BSHqgshM3pnPfVBN9

ASPAM
Website: https://www.aomori-kanko.or.jp/aspam/
Google Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/EM4JASM1aeeBBg7J8

Pam Pam Apple Pies (at ASPAM)
Google Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/qw5jpgSK16rsj2dW6
https://tabelog.com/en/aomori/A0201/A020101/2000859/

#aomori #japancruise #cruisetips #portofcall #japantravel #nebuta #nokkedon #theportlowdown

*****************
Finding value and getting some tips from our videos? 
Support us: Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLdrgdmwIf5Z1qhRf5HIq-g?sub_confirmation=1
and share with your shipmates.

🎹Theme music by Rafael Deo  🫶

Connect with us  Web: http://www.portlowdown.com  Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557696962794