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Tatehana Wharf Morning Market

Little knownBarely documented in English. This is the kind of place the site exists for.

Researched and written by Hinato

Tatehanamorning marketHachinoheSundaystreet food

Photo: くろふね / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0) · original

Tatehana Wharf Morning Market sits in a part of Aomori's food scene that doesn't need a translation to be understood.

Every Sunday from March to December, more than three hundred stalls set up on a quay in Hachinohe fishing port and run from before dawn until nine in the morning. It is the largest morning market in Japan and it is not a tourist installation — it is where the city buys fish, vegetables, plants, tools, secondhand clothes and breakfast, and it has been happening for decades.

Getting there in the dark is the correct approach. Stalls are lit by bare bulbs, steam comes off the grills, and you eat standing up: grilled scallops in the shell, senbei-jiru, fresh doughnuts, coffee from a converted van. By eight o'clock it is packed and by nine everyone has gone home. Hachinohe has three morning markets and this is the big one; Mutsu-Minato station's daily market is the older and smaller counterpart ten minutes away.

Plan your visit

Hours

Dawn until 9:00 AM on Sundays

Closed: Sundays only, mid-March to December | No market in deep winter

Time to allow

1.5–2.5 hours

What it costs

Free | Food and goods priced individually

Best season

March–December, Sundays | Late April–June for the special market train

Getting there

Directions

Shinminato, Hachinohe, on the Tatehana wharf. Held every Sunday from mid-March to December, from dawn until 9:00 AM. About a short walk from Mutsu-Minato Station on the JR Hachinohe Line, by car from Hachinohe Station, or by the Sunday morning market circular bus to the Tatehana Gyoko-mae stop. A special train, the Tatehana Ganpeki Asaichi-go, runs on Sundays from late April to June. Free to enter.

Insider tips

**Arrive before six.** The market runs from first light and is finished at nine. Turning up at half past eight means watching people pack away. Before six is dark, cold, steaming and at its best. **Eat, do not just shop.** Grilled scallops, senbei-jiru, doughnuts and coffee are all cooked on the quay. Breakfast here is the reason a lot of locals come. **It is Sundays only, and seasonal.** Mid-March to December. There is no market in deep winter and none on any other day of the week. **The other markets are the weekday answer.** Mutsu-Minato station's market runs on most mornings and is smaller and older. If you are not in town on a Sunday, go there instead. **Cash.** Three hundred stalls on a quay at five in the morning is not a card environment.

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