A person holds two tickets featuring traditional Japanese artwork in front of a building with a sign. The building has dark wooden facades and appears to be part of a cultural or historical site. Blossoms and decorations are visible around the entrance.
Gail Schulz

Day 20 - Hirosaki to Aomori

The last leg of cycling for this tour and our final destination will be reached.  This has been the longest tour we've undertaken, in terms of both distance covered and number of days on the road.  Right now, we both agree that we are glad to have had the experience and also pleased that it is complete.  

Route

I think in the best of circumstances, today would have been a boring ride.  With a strong wind blowing in our face the whole way, it was something to be endured.  

It took some time to clear the outskirts of Hirosaki on busy, bumpy roads.  Once we crossed route 7, the suburbs were behind us.  Our planned route avoided the busy No 7 road and opted for secondary roads.  These were still busy and had no shoulder or cycle path to work with.  Lots of long straight runs into a strong headwind.  The wind speed was over 30km/hr around the middle of the day and still close to 30 km/hr around 3-4 when we rolled into Aomori.

Getting over the low ridge between Hirosaki and Aomori required briefly joining Route 7 which was a horrible experience.  There's absolutely no provision for cyclists and traffic speeds are high.  The climb proper is about 2km long and has an average grade of 2-3%.

Map of the route from Hirosaki to Aomori
Elevation profile of the route

Stay and Eat

Aomori marks the end of the cycling tour.  We're unlikely to be back this way, so we've booked ourselves in for four full days of sightseeing.  With an extended stay it's always nicer to have a bit of room and the option to prepare your own meals. There's not much in the way of serviced apartments available so we've opted for an AirBnB even though the company is a shower of bastards. 

Restful Tsukuda was very clean, comfortable and offered all the amenities we needed.  In terms of location, nothing was really in easy walking distance, but after spending some time in Aomori, I'm not sure anywhere would offer that.  Convenience stores, supermarkets and Higashi-Aomori station were all within easy cycling distance.

The primary attraction of Cafe Bar Playful was its proximity to our accommodation. After a tougher ride than expected and snacks in lieu of a proper lunch, we were in need of refuelling.  The outcome exceeded our expectations.  This is a tiny cafe - 2 tables and a counter.  We chose the cafe plate with drinks set.  The meal was delicious with a small slice of very tasty quiche, some fried chicken pieces, pickled carrot, a large serve of green salad and rice served with a vegetable soup.

See and Do

Knowing we had a shorter distance to cover today, we allowed ourselves to linger in Hirosaki before hitting the open road.

There's a few sights around the municipal tourist information centre.  The miniatures of the historic buildings around town have all seen better days.  You're probably better of walking around town and seeing the full size versions.

There's free entry to tour the building where the festival floats are stored.  Along with the floats there is a small collection of related displays and historical artefacts. An English language fact sheet is offered by the friendly staff.  It's certainly worth poking your nose in, if you are in the area.

Our final stop on the way out of town was Tsugaru-han Neputa Village.  It's a thoroughly commercial, but well executed presentation of the neputa festival.  The enthusiastic staff will explain the basics of the festival in multiple languages, provide a demonstration of the flute and drumming that accompanies the floats and invite you to take part in the drumming.  There's a display of the illuminated neputa floats, a maker's market and a lovely small garden to also explore.  On balance we were happy to have stumped up the ¥600 entry fee.