We stayed in Morioka for about 5 nights, which is always a refreshing change from staying at a ski resort where everything is very curated.

Morioka has progressed somewhat compared to previous visits and there were lots of building works going on. As such the Sundance bar had moved, although sadly it wasn’t open during our stay, but we enjoyed exploring little whiskey bars and going to inexpensive restaurants.

We stayed at the Art Hotel which is right at the start of the blue light street in Odori, so this was a convenient spot to access lots of restaurants. The hotel rooms were modern and had reasonable space. Parking was a little bit clunky at the shopping centre across the road, but at least there was parking available. The highlight of the hotel was the breakfast room on the top floor of the hotel, and we sat at the tables along the windows to admire the views of the mountains.

As the snow gods were in a bad mood, we had more time to do a few extracurricular activities including a visit to the castle ruins and visiting a couple of onsen. The Hachimantai Heights Hotel onsen was lovely for an afternoon soak, particularly the outdoor baths, but the highlight was Osawa-no-yu in Hanamaki Onsen, with its mixed gender open air bath overlooking the river.
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We really enjoyed staying in Morioka as part of a multi-day guided tour with Japan Ski Tours as well as flying solo for a little while. Each day we headed out to different ski areas and cat skiing, and after an onsen on the way home, we then headed out to restaurants in the evening. When flying solo it was fun to wander the streets in search of the ideal restaurants, whilst when we were on tour it was also really nice that our hosts just took us to good restaurants that provided a variety of experiences and they interpreted for us, which made life a little easier.

Morioka had a huge array of bars. The nightlife tended to only really come alive on the weekends and we also enjoyed the cool Sundance bar during the week, which seemed to attract the only ski gaijins in town.
See our video here