Tohoku 東北, Japan

1 night lay-over in tokyo before we travel north. Excellent dinner opportunity to enjoy 十四代 in a tokyo izakaya

Check-in to the SUPER HOTEL スーパーホテル八戸天然温泉.
Quite a walk (15 mins) from the hon-hachnohe station, but was a great hotel with 10 choices of pillows and free breakfast.
Glad that we decided to stay at the hon-hachinohe area, which was nearer to all the food and shopping sites.

A good recommendation by a hotel staff who eats there twice a week.
We had 2 rounds of grilled scallops, tempura shirako, a merticulously labelled grill fish platter. Outstanding sake... 陸奥八仙 華想い (Mutsu Hassen hanaomoi)
Address: Japan, 〒031-0089 Aomori-ken, Hachinohe-shi, Nagayokochō, 青森県八戸市大字長横町14−2

We took a trip to the morning market in-front of Mutsu Minato Station 陸奥湊駅, unfortunately most of the shops were closed and the morning market operates on Sunday only.

Made our way to Hasshoku Center instead ... all-in-one shopping and lunch venue, lots of local products, seafood, sake, oysters, grilled prawns and boiled shirako ... etc

Serves great grilled chicken dishes (using southern "red" chicken of a specific lineage). Fantastic takoyaki, which had more tako then flour. Also to note are their grill ribs and grilled aomori garlic.

Was trying to find a dinner place along the yatai lanes in hachinohe but seems quite difficult to host our group of 6, so we stumbled upon this place.

2 hours drive from hachinohe.
Nice hike along the river with lots of waterfalls along the way. We were late in the season but I can imagine when it is in full autumn colors. The tourist maps says 8.9km but my garmin recorded 14km ?

After a day's hike, nothing is more welcoming that a traditional onsen ryokan with more than 100 years history set in the tsuta mashland area.
Dinner awaiting after a nice soak in the hotspring and waking up to one of the best breakfast spread of this trip ...

Very refreshing morning hike to the nearby lakes in the mashland.

2-hour drive from Tsuta to Hirosaki the city of apple farms.

Enroute the Jogakura Ohashi Bridge and stopping by highway rest stop for some garlic shopping.

Around Aomori City ...

DIY Chirashi. Walk around the market with your bowl of rice and select the fresh sashimi to be added on

Around Morioka City ...

Serving you unlimited soba in small mouthful bowls. I managed 67 bowls, Dad did 45 and Roland did 101. We were told that the record stands at 570

Visiting the World Heritage site of Chusonji 中尊寺, golden temple of Fujiwara
Saikojitakkokuiwaya
達谷西光寺, a cave temple
Eating the flying dango of 郭公屋 in Geibikei Gorge 厳美溪

Seeking serenity at Kanjizaiō-in 観自在王院 and Mōtsū-ji 毛越寺. Eating the famous mochi set meals of hiraizumi and admiring the lacquer woodcraft of ooitya

The home of cast iron pots

Semi-modern ryokan in a seculded old onsen town

Definitely the BEST dinner of this trip ... private room with Irori, wagyu sukiyaki, chacoal grilled iwashi trout and hanamaki's yoemon ginginga sake was outstanding

From Shin-Hanamaki, we travelled to Narita via Tokyo. Decided to explore Narita for the lay-over of our outgoing flight

Exploring the temples compunds, sitting in the cedar wood burning ceremony and photographing the gardens of the temple in full autumn colors