Hakkoda & Oirase Ice Falls Tour

Hello,

Just wanted to check this by here...

I am planning my Tohoku leg of my Japan trip and my base is in Aomori... I intend to take the JR Bus Tohoku to Mount Hakkoda Ropeway and spend the first half of the day there... and I have been reading of the Oirase Ice Falls tour that starts in Dec... and that the night tour with the lights would be most amazing... I was wondering if it was possible for me to take the bus back to Aomori to rest in the afternoon, then take the evening train to Hachinohe and catch the bus to Towada and get on this tour or better to go to Hachinohe in the afternoon and wait for the tour to start in the evening?

Not entirely clear how to book the tour though but it seems it's something run by the Towada Municipal Authorities or something like that...

Any thoughts or advice is much appreciated!

Note: I have 3 days in Aomori... first day spent at Hirosaki, second day Hakkoda and hopefully Oirase Ice Falls Tour and third day at Geibikei Gorge to take the river cruise...

I am not sure the tour buses run in December.

I know the buses don't run in Dec from Aomori to Lake Towada but I read on some Tripadvisor forum that the route buses do run from Hachinnohe to Towada... where I hope to get onboard the tour bus... there isn't a lot of information about the Ice Falls Tour cos it seems people don't write much about the details...

You might want to consider staying overnight in the Oirase area: https://hoshinoresorts.com/en/hotels/oirasekeiryu/

I guess you must be referring to this (this was for 2022 - 23 season, so not for this coming winter):

https://www.towada.travel/blog-posts/oirase-gorge-frozen-bus-tour

The tour bus goes by a few hotels to pick up participants (you need to be a staying guest there), then take you to see the ice falls. You�fd need to wait till they upload info for the coming winter I guess. The tour application link page is taken down after the past season ended.

Thank you AK... I sort of vaguely realised that the tour was meant only for guests at hotels in Towada... oh shucks... it looks really nice and I was looking to go there... but I won't stay there for one night just for this... looking at the link above, it seems that the tour ends really late... and I guess I won't be able to catch a train back to Aomori in time then... yikes...

Thanks liem for the hotel link... doesn't seem too expensive to stay at the Oirase Keiryu... but it would mean we have to move after 2 nights in Aomori... and then take multiple connections to Hokkaido thereafter... need to do some research and consider... but this is one possibility... thank you!

TME, the way I read it, the �gpick up�h from the hotels is only for the hotel guests. The bus starts from Towada city Chuo and goes via Towada city art museum, so others can sign up too.

Thank you AK!

Now for the next question... it seems really hard to get to Hakkoda and back to Aomori within the day... and then onward to Oirase... I'm looking to take a look at the ice falls in the day time by myself without the tour...

I was looking at the JR Bus Tohoku Timetable here: https://www.jrbustohoku.co.jp/route/detail.php?r=187&rc=11

I'm not sure if I am reading this correctly but this is for up to 5 Nov this year... it seems if I take the first bus at 8.10 am from Aomori Station to Hakkoda Ropeway, I will get there by 9.04 am. If I were to spend about 2 hours walking around the place, that will take me up to 11.00 am max and if I throw in lunch at the base station, probably up to 1.00 pm... how would I get back to Aomori then? It seems the only bus that returns to Aomori via Hakkoda is the Bus No. 5 at 4.48 pm and that's just it... does that mean I'm kind of stranded at Hakkoda until then?

Anyone knows?

Thanks!

Anyway, found this Aomori Taxi company that seems to do fixed price sightseeing tours... I wonder if I read the service cand pricing table correctly... was using Google Translate...

https://hk-grp.or.jp/files/libs/2513/202004211358175893.pdf
https://hk-grp.or.jp/files/libs/2514/202004211358189771.pdf

From what I seem to understand from the tables:
a. The costs in black are for a standard 4-seater taxi (Toyota Crown)
b. The costs in blue are for a 9-seater taxi.

1. The blue table records the costs of renting a taxi from Aomori City. And a ride from Aomori City to Hakkoda Ropeway costs 5500 yen. This price I got by reading the intersection between the line labelled ‡@ to the 6th column in this table.
2. The green table records the cost of renting a taxi from the Hakkoda Ropeway area. And a ride from Hakkoda Ropeway to all of the Oirase Stream costs 8500 yen. This price I got by reading the intersection between the line labelled ‡Q to the 6th column in this table.
3. Again from the green table - a ride from Oirase Stream back to Aomori City costs 14500 yen. This price I got by reading the intersection between the line labelled ‡Q to the 3rd column in this table.

I believe these are point to point prices. I have a few questions:

1. Would the taxi driver be following us if we booked the taxi for all 3 trips above? I don't know how this taxi service works. Any pointers would be most appreciated. I was hoping to have the taxi drop us off repeatedly at various of the ice falls along the Oirase Stream.
The mother website is here: https://hk-grp.or.jp/en/aomori/

2. If this was purely point-to-point, does this mean that I pre-book all the taxis beforehand, and just go to the correct place to wait for the taxi? I don't speak Japanese at all. If pre-booking is good, then I am good to go.

3. I am assuming that the taxi service works in winter as well. Will be there between 22 - 24 Dec 2023. From the website, it seems that route 103 is closed from 9.00 pm to 7.30 am the next day. So it would seem that the taxi is able to travel the roads since I am looking to get back to Aomori by 6.00 pm latest. Not going to do long trekking, or hiking... just simple viewing and short walks... got 2 little ones with me and my wife.

28500 yen for all these seems relatively reasonable given that you're chauffered practically from your doorstep to where you want to go.

Any advice or comments are most appreciated!

Thank you!

Hello,

Anyone can help with this itinerary? I am hoping to visit Oirase Stream sometime in late Dec (22 Dec 2023 actually). I'm about to leave for my month long winter sojourn in Japan.

So I thought I would revive this thread and ask if anyone knows if it is possible to visit Oirase Stream from Aomori City or Mt Hakkoda Ropeway Station via public transport? It seems that only JR Tohoku route buses cover the area and they don't run in Dec or winter for that matter.

Would it be possible to cover this area by private taxi? I was thinking of getting the driver to send us to Mt Hakkoda Ropeway first then to Oirase Stream and be back by latest 5.00 pm or so. Hopefully we can get in some sights around Lake Towada as well. Do private taxis operate in winter?

Anyone can help?

Thanks!

For what it is worth...

Some links for information:

1. JR Tohoku website that says their Oirase Go bus service is suspended for winter... boo hoo hoo!
https://www.jrbustohoku.co.jp/towadako-oirase/en/

2. There seems to be some kind of Lake Towada winter shuttle that covers Oirase Stream as well. The information here pertains to 2020, and the website was updated in 2022. So I don't know if this still applies. But from the information, it seems that the bus works only in the Towada area, and so I still have to get there and that seems my problem.
https://www.gltjp.com/en/directory/item/lake-towada-winter-shuttle-bus...

3. The private taxi company I bookmarked earlier seems also not to operate in Dec at the Oirase Stream area.
https://hk-grp.or.jp/en/publics/index/549/

So it seems I'm kind of stuck!