191102 Apple Picking-Seikoen Apple Farm Aomori

Heard of Apple Blossom? 

Experience Apple Picnic in the Apple Orchard before?

The immigration officer at Aomori International Airport laughed when I told him that I visit Aomori specially to pick apples and it was my dream when he recommended me to try Aomori Apples as it is very delicious

Dear Aomori Immigration officer, do you know how awesome the Aomori Apple tree is? This is my dream come true. 

Do you know the Apple orchard has a big orchard with so many apple trees and the trees are old and beautiful like the Cherry Blossom trees at Hiroshima River? Now I prefer to view apple blossom then Cherry blossom. At least whatever I am viewing is edible. 

The hanging huge apples from the apple tree, are just like the beautiful Weeping cherry blossom. How wonderful if I own 1 of these trees. 

The tree for us to pick apples has plenty of big apples. Unlike the one at Hirosaki, there are hardly anymore apples left in the tree.

Seikoen. A humble tourist farm compared with the one located near the main road. This farm is owned by a couple. Speak only Japanese and very kind.
I also prefer this farm compared to the one at Hirosaki. The Hirosaki farm is too touristy.

The lady owner handed me a apple cutter, 2 trays, a basket full of wet tissue after I paid  600 yen to pluck my own apples. Later we realised the utensils and wet tissues are meant for all visitors to use when they visit the farm. Not only for us. Anyway, there is not limit how you use them. When new visitor arrived, we automatically pass our utencils to them.

Lady owner recommended me to buy the smaller yellow apples instead of the bigger yellow apples which I initially wanted to buy. Look at the red apples that we plucked. It was that big. The yellow ones are the size of China Fuji apples that we bought from NTUC.

You will see this building at the entrance of the farm. You will see the apples displayed for sale. Lady owner even let me taste the 2 types of yellow apples so that I am convinced the smaller yellow apples is more sweet. But to me, both are sweet compared to apples we bought in our home country.

This is the faded poster that my hubby spotted at bus stop 3, in front of Hotel Select Inn Aomori while waiting for our bus to GU at Dream Town Ali, Aomori. Lucky for us, we have another day left before flying back, so we were able to find out more about this place from the Tourist information.

How to get there

I will always check with the tourist information on public transportation details before I plan for the next destination the day before. Even I have the details, I will re-confirm just in case internet information has been outdated or there is a change. In Aomori, there are no bus number. We need to read the plate name in Japanese when you take a bus. Luckily, the name are all written in Kanji (Chinese) though it is read in Japanese. For eg. if the bus stop at Aomori, the bus plate will show 

青森駅 --田茂木野 meaning from Aomori to Tamogino. Bus in Japan follow its time quite accurately. It is always good to get the bus time table. Go to the bus stop at least 10 minutes before arrival. You will not miss your bus and will definitely take the correct bus if you follow the time correctly. 

Tourist information told us there are 3 apple farms located at the foot of Hakkoda mountain. Tamogino Kominkan area. It is 30 to 40 minutes ride from Aomori Station. The bus will depart from Bus stop number 3 at the allocated time.
We need to spot for the bus with 青森駅 --田茂木野..  Do note there are different timing for weekdays and weekends. You will never go wrong if you go to the correct bus stop and follow the correct timetable.

Taking bus in Aomori do not come cheap. If I am not wrong, it starts at ¥170 and the fare will increase after a few stop. Easily hit ¥250 for any short ride. Tourist information recommended us to buy the day pass for unlimited use for the day at ¥500. This is really good for us because it cost more than ¥250 for one way. So it is definitely savings for us.

This is the look of the Aomori City bus. Smaller than those SBS buses. When you are in the bus, you feel real.... country. We were actually not very sure when the bus arrived. So we alighted one stop after the supposedly correct bus stop. The bus stop looks like a deserted bus station. Guess what, the toilet is lock and has weed grown over it. No toilet!!!!

This is the surroundings near the bus stop we alighted. We thought we were given the wrong information and the apple farms do not exist. Luckily, after walking around we found Seikoen.

The bus we took to get back to Aomori. We need to wait for the bus to turn one round before we board the bus.

Top Left - The correct bus stop should be here. You can see 2 apple farms here. But, it has the tourist tourist look. So, it is a blessing in disguise that we stop 1 stop later and get to the farm we went to. 

Actually, 1.5 hour is good enough to be here. We took the 9.12 bus and has no choice but to wait for the return bus at 13.08. This gives us 3 hours to roam about. Assuming there are restaurant here, it should be fine. But we were wrong. It is the farm. What they sell is apples only and there are no toilet or cafe. Lucky for us, it is not raining that day. So we spent our time exploring the country. 

I would recommend that we tourist visit another attraction in the morning, get to Aomori Station to take the 12.05 bus. Then take the 14.30 bus back to Aomori. So there is 1.5 hour to explore the Apple Orchard.

Another thing to take note of planning your trip in Aomori during Autumn. Sunset starts at 4.30pm. So we must make sure we leave the place before this time. There are no street lights for your information. So it is very important that we plan carefully.

I like to explore the place though my objective may be just apples. It is always nice to explore the local area especially farm. These are things that local think it is nothing, but for us, it is something we cannot find and enjoy when we are back in our home.

Noticed these farms are not big. Look like it is planted more like a hobby. While mushroom found. Not sure can be eaten. 

Top left - planting radish, Top right - planting lettuce
Bottom - drying radish under the sun. I believed the  radish are dried for the white pickle in Aomori. 

This is the while pickle I am talking about. In other parts of Japan, rice were normally served with yellow carrot pickle. While in Aomori, the white pickle is quite common. Something like the white kimchi, but with a lighter taste. I like it especially after eating fish. It can clear the fishy taste in your mouth.