A second journey to Japan usually begins with the places that were left for later. For travellers who already know Kyoto and Tokyo, the far north of Honshu and the southern tip of Hokkaido answer it well. Aomori and Hakodate sit on either side of the Tsugaru Strait, linked by a tunnel under the sea and by a prehistoric culture that lived on both shores, and between them they hold a gorge of moss and water, three museums built for their places, a castle town of brick and apples, and an onsen town with the lights of a harbour city below it.

This article sets out how to shape five or six nights across the strait: what draws travellers with a taste for food, contemporary art and nature, which months to choose and which closures to plan around in 2027, and where to stay. We read Japan's tourism agencies, the pages of the museums, the heritage sites, the inns, the railway and the two regions' official guides, and contacted none of them; the sources are at the end. For the rest of Tohoku, from Ginzan Onsen to Dewa Sanzan, see Tohoku: Japan's Quieter North →.

Key points

LET US SHAPE YOUR JOURNEY NORTH →

WHY THE NORTH ON A SECOND JOURNEY

Italy's interest in Japan is rising quickly. JNTO estimates 309,400 visitors from Italy in 2025, 34.6% more than the 229,785 of 2024. Its handbook on the European markets, published in 2024, divides Italian travellers by household income. For the top 20%, with a disposable income of 10.5 million yen a year or more, it lists local food and cooking, museums and contemporary art, scenery, eco-tours and gardens, and notes that their interest in regions such as Hokkaido and Tohoku is high, beyond the cities.

The north answers all three interests at once, and on a scale that suits a second visit. JNTO's Italian site introduces Aomori as a land of primeval forests, apples, rice-field art, sake, seafood and snow, still close to a hidden gem. Our reading is that this is what many of our Italian guests look for after Kyoto: the same refinement, with more space and fewer people around it.

THE OIRASE GORGE AND LAKE TOWADA

The Oirase Gorge flows for about 14 km out of Lake Towada, through thick woods, moss-covered rocks and many waterfalls. It is a national Special Place of Scenic Beauty and a Natural Monument, and Aomori Prefecture's official guide places the peak of its autumn colour around the end of October and the beginning of November. A walking trail follows the gorge, and the walk is best taken slowly, in the morning, with a car waiting at the far end. On Lake Towada itself the colour comes slightly earlier, from the middle to the end of October, and the excursion boats that cross it give a view the shore does not.

Oirase Keiryu Hotel, run by Hoshino Resorts, is the only resort hotel on the bank of the gorge, inside Towada-Hachimantai National Park. Its hot spring rises from the Hakkoda mountains and its open-air bath looks over the stream. The Keiryu Suite measures 120 square metres with its own open-air bath, and four twin rooms of 44 square metres have a semi-open-air bath. Among its restaurants is a French dining room facing the stream. The hotel runs a shuttle from Hachinohe and Aomori stations; we prefer a private car, so that the gorge, the lake and the museum in Towada fit into the same day at your pace. Note that the public JR bus to the gorge is suspended in winter, from mid-November to mid-April.

TOWADA AND AOMORI: ART MADE FOR ITS PLACE

Towada Art Center opened in 2008 on the town's long avenue of government offices, as the heart of a project to bring art back into a street that had emptied. Ryue Nishizawa designed it as separate rooms joined by glass corridors, with windows facing in different directions, so that the works are also shown to the street outside. Nishizawa and Kazuyo Sejima, his partner in SANAA, received the Golden Lion at the 9th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2004 and the Pritzker Prize in 2010. The collection holds 41 works commissioned for the building from 36 artists, among them Yoko Ono, Yayoi Kusama, Choi Jeong Hwa and Ron Mueck. It opens from 9:00 to 17:00 and closes on Mondays.

The Aomori Museum of Art, opened in July 2006 to a design by Jun Aoki, stands beside the Sannai-Maruyama site, and its ground is cut in geometric trenches that recall the excavation next door. Its central Aleko Hall shows Marc Chagall's backdrops for the ballet Aleko, in cooperation with the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Outside stands Yoshitomo Nara's Aomori-ken, a dog 8.5 metres high and 6.7 metres wide; the passage that leads to it closes in winter once the snow settles. The prefecture's guide lists the museum as closed on the second and fourth Monday of each month, and the museum has announced an extended closure for renovation from September 27, 2027 to April 14, 2028. For an autumn journey in 2027, we place it before the end of September or leave it for another year.

A red bridge over the water among cherry blossoms at Hirosaki Castle

HIROSAKI: THE BRICK WAREHOUSE AND THE CASTLE PARK

Hirosaki, west of Aomori, keeps the third museum. The Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art occupies a brick warehouse built by the sake brewer Fukushima Tosuke, whose main hall dates from 1923. In 1954 the building became the Hirosaki factory of Asahi Cider, which, with technicians invited from France, began what the museum describes as Japan's first large-scale production of cider from Aomori apples. Yoshitomo Nara, born in Hirosaki, showed here three times from 2002, and the first exhibition drew about 60,000 visitors. Tsuyoshi Tane restored it for its opening on April 11, 2020, and developed a way of laying the brick that he named after the city. It closes on Tuesdays.

Hirosaki Park, around the castle, holds about 2,000 cherry trees and is among the most celebrated places in Japan for the blossom in spring. In autumn it has its own festival of foliage, and in winter a festival of snow lanterns. One point to plan around: from November 24, 2025, the interior of the castle keep is closed to the public for several years, for the relocation of the keep, preservation repairs and seismic reinforcement. The grounds stay open.

The apples are the other reason to stop. Hirosaki City Apple Park grows about 2,300 trees of some 80 varieties on 5.2 hectares facing Mount Iwaki, with picking from August 1 to mid-November and cider to taste on site. Taken with the museum's history, it shows a region that turned one fruit into a culture. We usually give Hirosaki one night between the gorge and the strait, with the museum in the afternoon and the orchard the following morning.

THE JOMON ON BOTH SHORES OF THE STRAIT

On July 27, 2021, UNESCO inscribed the Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan: 17 sites and 2 associated sites, 9 of them in Aomori and 7 in Hokkaido. Sannai-Maruyama, on the edge of Aomori city, is the best known. The official Jomon site dates the special historic site to about 3900 to 2200 BCE; excavation began in 1992, and reconstructed pit dwellings and pillar-supported buildings now stand on the site. It opens from 9:00 to 17:00, until 18:00 from June 1 to September 30, and closes on the fourth Monday of the month. With the Aomori Museum of Art next door, the two fill a morning.

Across the strait, two components lie within Hakodate. Kakinoshima, beside the Hakodate Jomon Culture Center, was settled from about 9,000 to 3,000 years ago and keeps a U-shaped mound 190 metres long and 120 metres wide; Ofune, about ten minutes away by car, shows dwellings more than 10 metres across and more than 2 metres deep. Both are about an hour's drive from Hakodate station. Seen on consecutive days, Sannai-Maruyama and these two sites show one culture that lived on both shores of the strait.

ACROSS TO HAKODATE

The Hokkaido Shinkansen opened on March 26, 2016 between Shin-Aomori and Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto, and the prefecture's guide puts the crossing between Aomori and Hakodate at about an hour, through the Seikan Tunnel. The same line reaches Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto from Tokyo in 3 hours 57 minutes at its fastest, and the city's tourism office gives about 4 hours 30 minutes from Tokyo to Hakodate station with the connecting Hakodate Liner. For the return, a flight from Hakodate to Haneda takes about 1 hour 20 minutes.

The view from Mount Hakodate, over the city and the sea on either side, carries three stars in the Michelin Green Guide Japon, and the ropeway reaches the summit in three minutes. In late October and the first half of November, the Japanese garden of Kosetsuen is lit at night for its autumn leaves.

To stay, we look first at Bourou NOGUCHI Hakodate in Yunokawa Onsen, a hot spring town with some 350 years of history. Its open-air bath on the top floor is the highest in Yunokawa, looking over the city lights, the fishing boats' lamps at sea and the airport. Its SUITE rooms are duplexes, and its creative kaiseki uses the produce of southern Hokkaido, with local place names written into the menu. It does not accept children aged 12 and under. The hotel is closed for maintenance from August 20, 2026 and reopens with check-ins from April 20, 2027. From April 1, 2026, Hokkaido and Hakodate levy an accommodation tax per person per night, 2,500 yen in total for a room rate of 100,000 yen or more, paid at the hotel.

WHEN TO GO AND HOW TO SHAPE THE NIGHTS

October is the month we favour. The Hakkoda mountains colour from the end of September, Lake Towada in the middle and late part of October, the Oirase Gorge at the end of October, and Kosetsuen into mid-November, so a journey that moves from the mountains down to the coast follows the colour. In 2027 that same autumn falls after the Aomori Museum of Art has closed; Towada and Hirosaki remain open. Spring brings the blossom in Hirosaki and the reopening of Bourou NOGUCHI Hakodate, and early August brings the Aomori Nebuta Festival, held every year from August 2 to 7. In winter the gorge belongs to snow, and the bus to it does not run.

JNTO's handbook also notes that Italian travellers prefer to lunch after 13:00 and dine after 20:00. Inns in the north serve dinner at set times, often earlier than that. We ask each inn whether a later sitting is possible, and where it is not, we place the long lunch on the travel day instead. In a Signature journey of 7 to 21 days, Aomori and Hakodate take five or six nights: two at Oirase, one in Hirosaki or Aomori, two or three in Hakodate. We arrange the inns, the cars between stations and the museums around their closing days, so that each morning begins where the previous evening left you.

SOURCES AND HOW WE CHECKED

We read the pages below on November 5, 2026. Travel times are those given by the operators and tourism bodies and are rounded. We did not contact any museum, inn, railway or other body.

QUESTIONS TRAVELLERS ASK

How many nights do Aomori and Hakodate need?

Five or six: two at the Oirase Gorge, one in Hirosaki or Aomori, and two or three in Hakodate. That leaves time for the gorge in the morning, the three museums on their open days and the Jomon sites on both sides of the strait.

When is the best time to go?

October, for the autumn colour: the Hakkoda mountains from the end of September, Lake Towada in the middle and late part of October, and the Oirase Gorge around the end of October and the beginning of November. In 2027 the Aomori Museum of Art closes for renovation from September 27, so an autumn visit centres on Towada and Hirosaki.

How do you cross from Aomori to Hakodate?

By the Hokkaido Shinkansen, which links Aomori and Hakodate in about an hour through the Seikan Tunnel. From Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto the Hakodate Liner continues into the city, and the flight from Hakodate to Haneda takes about 1 hour 20 minutes.

Can dinner be served late, as at home in Italy?

Inns in the north serve dinner at set times, often before 20:00. We ask each inn whether a later sitting is possible, and where it is not, we make a long lunch the main meal of the day.

On which days are the museums closed?

Towada Art Center closes on Mondays, the Aomori Museum of Art on the second and fourth Monday of the month, the Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art on Tuesdays and Sannai-Maruyama on the fourth Monday. We set the route so that each one falls on an open day.

LET US SHAPE YOUR JOURNEY NORTH

Tell us when you would like to travel and what draws you, the art, the forests or the table. We will set out the nights, the inns, the order of the museums and the crossing to Hakodate, side by side with the reasons, so that you can choose.

Begin planning →

We reply within 24 hours, in writing

Some of the restaurants and bars we arrange seat guests only by introduction or membership. We ask on your behalf; the table and the evening are the house's decision. We do not publish their names.

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Tohoku: Japan's Quieter North → Japan First Trip vs Second Trip: Routes, Days and Ryokan → Hokkaido Honeymoon: Summer or Winter, and Where to Stay (2027) → Cherry Blossom vs Autumn Leaves in Japan: Which to Choose → How to Choose a Ryokan in Japan → Japan's Onsen Culture: What to Know →