Four people were found dead after a fire gutted a farmer's house Monday in Aomori Prefecture, police and firefighters said. The fire broke out at the wooden two-story home of Mitsuhiro Yashiro, 77, in Hirosaki at around midnight. The blaze was put out six hours ...
Ukiyo-e master's print remade with 30,000 apples in giant Aomori castle display
A giant ukiyo-e replica made of some 30,000 apples is being displayed at a castle in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture, to promote the nation's top Apple-producing city. Using five different colors of apples, the fruity replica of a famous woodblock print by ukiyo-e master Toshusai Sharaku ...
Views both old and new of Aomori's Tsugaru
Cut off by the Ou Mountains to the south and far removed from any center of power, Aomori Prefecture's remote Tsugaru Peninsula was largely left to its own devices until the Azuchi-Momoyama Period (1573-1603). In the Battle of Sekigahara (1600), different factions of the Tsugaru ...
Enterprising Aomori apple farmer pivots to boutique hard cider
On a steamy June afternoon, the apple trees in the Tsugaru region of Aomori Prefecture are laden with fruit. Now, the young apples are hard green spheres the size of golf balls, but come autumn they will be plump, sweet and ready for harvest. While ...
Apple growers are increasingly going into the cider business, often with government assistance aimed at revitalizing regional economies that are grappling with the prospect of aging and dwindling populations, especially among farmers. As is the case in many agricultural areas in the country, the graying ...
Aomori city sees bitcoin as way to attract overseas tourists
The castle city of Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture, has moved into the digital currency age with the launch of a project to use bitcoin to lure international travelers and preserve the city's historic attractions, an apparent first by a Japanese municipality using a cryptocurrency. The main ...
Aomori's moving castle and other architectural tales
Once every century, Hirosaki in Aomori Prefecture experiences an unusual event — the Hirosaki Moving Castle Project — when the city relocates an entire castle using manpower only. This year is that 100th year, and from Sept. 20 to 27, more than 3,200 travelers gathered ...
A man in his 40s who was participating in the Hirosaki Neputa Matsuri Festival in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture, was found apparently crushed to death Tuesday evening while getting a huge Neputa lantern ready for the parade, it was reported. The man was from the city ...
This year's sakura (cherry blossoms) took many people by surprise — especially in the Kanto region. Unusually warm weather in March hastened the peak of the blossoms by a couple of weeks, and by early April, when all the parties by and under the ...
