Aomori

The snowiest city in the world. An average of over 600cm of snow falls here per year, yes that's 6 metres. It's truly a sight to behold and hard to describe when literally everything is somehow covered in snow and metres of it no less. Many structures disappear entirely and you need to be careful wandering off into a soft seemingly innocent field of snow as you just don't know what is beneath e.g. a road drain channel. Some of the smaller alleys also to me resembled the inside of a college dorm freezer (see photo).

For vistas across this urban winter wonderland, the Aomori Tourist Information Centre situated right on the water in an somewhat bizarre but very modern triangular building is the place to go. Looks across the sea toward Hokkaido and back toward the mountains and the city.

A very memorable experience here was exploring the Showa Daibutsu Buddha complex, which again I was the only visitor at. The taxi ride there, my first taxi in Japan, made it clear why, the roads were completely snowed in and we were sliding all over the place. This seated bronze Buddha statue is the tallest in Japan and looks surreal covered in snow. You can also go inside. The associated temples and shrines are also very nice, as are the gongs and bells; the ringing sound of the bells within the silence of winter felt a little special.

Ferry to Hokkaido

Instead of catching the train from Aomori to Hokkaido, which makes use of a long tunnel under the sea, I decided to take the ferry. Travel time end to end is probably about the same. I'm a big fan of ferries, they're relaxing and often have great scenery; basically a cruise only much cheaper, and many have very comfortable onboard facilities. There's two ferries running regularly between Aomori and Hakodate, one primarily passenger (a big boat) the other mainly a car/truck ferry but also with good provision for passengers. I opted for the latter because it had a better departure time.

The ferry itself you walk into the car/truck hold and it's fair to say there weren't many walk-on passengers. The ferry itself was interesting as it had tatami rooms to lay down in and even suites if desired for the 4.5hr crossing. I counted maybe 20 passengers so she wasn't busy! Like many sea straits, the weather between the two islands was ferocious with a 3 metre swell and winds up to around 50-60kmh (temperature around freezing). We had some memorable movement on the boat including waves hitting the windows, which were situated a good 12 metres above water level. I ventured on deck a few times early on but definitely not during the worst of it.

Ending this blog here, photos below.