Japanese nightlife in a Hachinohe izakaya bar

Back in February, when British people could a) visit Japan, and b) go to bars, we went to Bar Prince – an izakaya (Japanese pub/bar, often serving food) in Hachinohe in Aomori prefecture in Northern Japan.

Watch as we attempt to speak Japanese with the lovely owners and other customers, talk about what Japanese specialties we’ve eaten or like, and get a delightful surprise from one of the patrons.

Hachinohe is quite a quiet town, but it comes alive at night with lots of yokocho – alleys full of tiny izakaya, many doing amazing food. Between April and November, it’s also famous for having a lively morning market.

After a delicious izakaya dinner on Miroku Yokocho, we popped over to Bar Prince. Izakaya are famous for their hospitality as well as their food. The owners and bar staff make an effort to talk to everyone, and if they can’t speak any Japanese (or can’t speak much in our case), there’s always Google Translate!

We stopped off in Hachinohe on our way up to the Sapporo Snow Festival. I think the more common stops are at Hakodate (which we visited coming back) and Aomori, but we’d seen some Abroad in Japan videos that made the izakayas look really good. We’d also heard of the Hasshoku Center – an indoor market that while aimed at tourists, was supposed to do really good fresh food.

NB: Bar Prince doesn’t normally serve food other than otoshi (snacks with drinks), but we were just lucky!

Unfortunately because of coronavirus, many izakaya can’t open at the moment – I’m hoping all the owners and staff are able to reopen before too long.

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