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Aomori is the capital of Aomori Prefecture, a city of about 265,000 people at the northern tip of Honshū, facing Aomori Bay with the Hakkōda Mountains rising to the south. It is one of Japan's core cities and one of the snowiest cities in the world, and the Tōhoku Shinkansen ends at Shin-Aomori Station on its western side.
People lived here long before the city: the Sannai-Maruyama Site was a large Jōmon village some 5,000 years ago. The Hirosaki Domain founded the port of Aomori in 1624, and from 1908 train ferries linked Aomori with Hakodate in Hokkaidō until the Seikan Tunnel opened in 1988. An air raid in July 1945 destroyed most of the city.
Visitors see the Jōmon site and the Aomori Museum of Art, walk the harbour from the Nebuta Museum Wa Rasse to the old ferry Hakkōda Maru, and come back each August for the Nebuta festival. In winter they ride the Hakkōda Ropeway and soak at Sukayu Onsen or seaside Asamushi Onsen.
The Sannai-Maruyama Site is the largest Jōmon village found in Japan, on some 40 hectares in the south-west of Aomori, lived in about 5,900 to 4,200 years ago. Excavated from 1992, it is a Special Historic Site and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with a rebuilt three-level pillar tower.
The Aomori Museum of Art is the prefectural art museum in Aomori, opened in 2006 next to the Sannai-Maruyama Site in a white building by architect Jun Aoki. Its best-known works are Yoshitomo Nara's giant Aomori Dog, about 8.5 metres tall, and Marc Chagall's huge backdrops for the ballet Aleko.
The Komakino Site is a late Jōmon ritual site in the hills south of Aomori, about 4,000 years old, whose stone circle is some 55 metres across, its stones laid like a wall. It is a National Historic Site and since 2021 part of the UNESCO World Heritage Jōmon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan.
Shōwa Daibutsu is the great bronze Buddha of the temple Seiryū-ji on the southern edge of Aomori, Japan. Unveiled in 1984 to honour the war dead, the seated Dainichi Nyorai is 21.35 metres tall and weighs 220 tonnes, the largest seated bronze Buddha in Japan, beside a 39-metre pagoda of hiba wood.
The Aomori Nebuta Matsuri is the summer festival of Aomori, held each year from 2 to 7 August, when huge lit floats of warriors and gods made of paper on wire frames parade through the city. Thousands of haneto dancers jump around them shouting Rassera, and over a million people come to watch.
Nebuta Museum Wa Rasse is the museum of the Nebuta festival on the waterfront next to Aomori Station in Aomori, opened in 2011. Inside the building, full-size nebuta floats from the latest festival are shown all year, with displays on the festival's history and makers.
Memorial Ship Hakkōda Maru is the old Seikan train ferry moored at the port of Aomori, which carried trains and passengers between Aomori and Hakodate from 1964, the longest-serving ferry on the route. Kept as a museum since 1990, it still holds railway wagons on its train deck below.
The Aomori Bay Bridge is the cable-stayed bridge across the port next to Aomori Station in Aomori, 1,219 metres long and the longest bridge in the city, fully opened in 1994. Its white towers and cables are shaped after the letter A for Aomori, and it is lit up at night above the harbour.
The Hakkōda Mountains are the group of volcanic peaks rising south of central Aomori, topped by Mount Ōdake at over 1,580 metres and listed among the 100 Famous Japanese Mountains. They are known for deep winter snow, rime-coated snow monsters on the slopes, and bright red and gold autumn leaves.
The Hakkōda Ropeway is the cable car in the Hakkōda Mountains of Aomori, opened in 1968 and running some 2,460 metres up to the summit of Mount Tamoyachi in about ten minutes. Its large cabins carry skiers in winter past snow-coated trees, and hikers in summer and autumn to the high moors.
Sukayu Onsen is the old hot-spring inn high in the Hakkōda Mountains of Aomori, open since about 1684 and named one of Japan's first national health spas in 1954. Its very acidic water fills the great Hiba Sennin-buro bath of hiba wood, and in winter it lies under some of Japan's deepest snow.
Asamushi Onsen is the seaside hot-spring town on the eastern edge of Aomori, facing Mutsu Bay at the base of the Natsudomari Peninsula. Once called the Atami of Tōhoku after the famous spa south of Tokyo, it has inns along the shore and the Asamushi Aquarium, the most northerly in Honshū.
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