Experience the best of Aomori

Aomori faces Mutsu Bay at the northern end of Honshu, Japan's main island, in a region of apple orchards and mountains. The Nebuta Warasse museum houses the huge painted lantern floats paraded each summer in the Nebuta festival, and the Aomori Museum of Art, with white walls inspired by excavation trenches, shows modern work including a giant dog sculpture. The Hakkōda Maru, a retired ferry, is moored by the bay as a museum.

Sannai-Maruyama, a large village site of the Jōmon people more than five thousand years old, has reconstructed pit houses and a tall wooden tower and is part of a World Heritage listing. Inland lies the Hakkōda mountain range, where a ropeway rises to views and trees are coated with snow in winter, while Lake Towada and the Oirase stream form a national park to the south-east. Hirosaki Castle, famed for its cherry blossoms, is a short train ride south-west.

Aomori grows more apples than any other prefecture in Japan, and apple pies, juice and cider fill the shops. Scallops from Mutsu Bay and fresh seafood are best at the market, where diners assemble their own rice bowls from stalls, and local ramen is made with miso, curry and milk. Summer is cool and festive, and winter brings very heavy snow.