1
Tatehana Quay Morning Market

This mammoth morning market appears on Sundays only on the quayside of Hachinohe Port. It is one of the largest in Japan and is one of Hachinohe's most popular tourist spots. About 300 stalls line the 800-meter-long street. The best thing about this place is the wide variety of takeout food.
The seafood menu offers a dizzying variety, including mackerel croquettes, mackerel sushi, sea squirt rice, grilled sea urchin, and more, and with prices starting at less than 100 yen, it is the perfect place to enjoy a quick breakfast.

Robata-yaki seafood restaurants are also popular.

The morning market begins at sunrise and attracts tens of thousands of visitors every week. At the famous food stalls, people start lining up in the dark to get in.
Fish Kobo Katsura has been operating a stall for more than 25 years. Using a revolving hearth with a base that moves like a merry-go-round, they demonstrate how to grill fish and seafood over a charcoal fire. Grilled saury and hokke (hokke) are dripping with fat and full of sizzle. The plumpness of the char-grilled fish is very popular, and the area around the restaurant is packed with people waiting for their turn to eat and watch.

For more information on how to enjoy the Tatehana Quay Morning Market, see this article.

Tatehana Quay Morning Market

• Tatehana Quay Morning Market, 3 Shinminato, Hachinohe City, Aomori Prefecture MAP
• 20 min. by cab from Hachinohe Stn. 10 min. walk from Mutsu Minato Stn.
• Sunrise - 9:00
• Monday-Saturday from mid-March to late December, January to mid-March, and the day of the Umineko Marathon (mid-May). Temporary events are held during Golden Week, Obon, year-end, etc. In 2018, August 11 (Sat., national holiday) and December 29 (Sat.)
• 080-5734-3251 (Minato Sunday Morning Market Association Office)
• Free of charge

2
Hachinohe City Gyosai Retail Market

The Mutsu Minato Ekimae Morning Market is held every day except Sundays on the street in front of Mutsu Minato Station. The Hachinohe City Fish and Vegetable Retail Market is the main spot of this morning market. Women in kappo-gowns, called "isaba no katcha" (fish seller's mothers), set up booths to sell seafood and prepared foods.
Each booth offers a wide variety of seafood, from fresh sashimi to steamed sea urchins, crabs, and sujiko (string roe), as well as boiled fish. Because it is a market, of course, the seafood is freshly caught, freshly processed, freshly prepared, and reasonably priced.

Asameshi Restaurant Gyosai is the perfect breakfast space!

Inside the market, there is a free eat-in corner called "Asameshi-dokoro Gyosai," where you can eat your purchases right away. Hot rice and miso soup are also available. You can buy as many ingredients as you like and enjoy your original rice bowl or set meal.
Grilled fish is also a must-try item here. As Hachinohe is famous for its delicious mackerel, you can enjoy a generous portion of half a piece of fatty mackerel for one person.
The type of fish changes from day to day, so other ingredients such as saury or tuna kama may be used, but all are selected by fish professionals, so you can be sure to enjoy the best of the season in this luxurious breakfast dish.

Hachinohe City Gyosai Retail Market

• 38-1 Kubo, Minato-cho, Hachinohe City, Aomori Prefecture MAP
• Short walk from Mutsu Minato Station
• 3:00-15:00 (closing hours vary by store; fresh fish and sashimi stores close before noon), Asameshi Restaurant Uozai 5:00-10:00
• Sundays, 2nd Saturdays, Jan. 1-2 *Special hours during Obon and year-end and New Year's holidays
• 0178-33-6151 (Hachinohe City Fish and Vegetable Retail Market)
• Not available (use the nearby private parking lot)

3
Hachishoku Center

A huge food market with about 60 stores, mainly fresh fish stores. As an indoor market, it is one of the largest in Japan. There are also a variety of restaurants where you can taste seafood, making it a great all-around place for everything from shopping to dining.
Among them, "Shichirinmura" is a Restaurant where you can bring in fish and meat you bought at the market zone and enjoy them grilled over charcoal. The restaurant is popular with both children and adults, as it allows visitors to barbecue their own choice of ingredients while they are still fresh.
Knives and other cooking utensils can be rented, but if you tell the store where you buy your ingredients that you want them for Shichirinmura, they will cut them into bite-size pieces for you.

Be sure to check out the "standing food corner!

The Hachishoku Center is a market located about 10 km from Hachinohe Port. Taking advantage of its perfect location, many fresh fish stores are lined up inside the building. The stores are lined with fresh fish, and it is fun just to look around. Some of them have a "stand-up eating corner," where you can choose your own food items and have them served to you on the spot. The contents depend on the season, but you may find oysters too large to eat in one bite, or taste sea urchins and sweet shrimps that are full of sweetness. Occasionally, you may even come across such delicacies as octopus milt.

Hakko Center

• 22-2 Aza-Kamisai, Kawaraki, Hachinohe City MAP
• Approximately 8 minutes by cab from Hachinohe Station
• Approx. 11 min. by 100-yen bus from Hachinohe Stn. bound for Hachishoku Center, short walk from the last stop.
• Kitchen Stadium 9:00 - 21:00 (Ichibatei from 10:00), Aji Yokocho 9:00 - 18:00 (L.O. 17:30), Market Building 9:00 - 18:00 *Subject to change during Obon and New Year holidays.
• Wednesdays (open on national holidays and during peak season), 1/1, Kitchen stadium open daily (except 1/1)
• 0178-28-9311, Ichibatei direct 0178-28-8748
• Free of charge

4
Minato Shokudo

Kaisen-don restaurant near Mutsu Minato Station. The owner recommends the "Fisherman's Pickled Rice Bowl," a gorgeous bowl of rice topped with nine kinds of seafood. The bowl is filled with plump crab meat, large scallops, crunchy Hachinohe squid, octopus, sweet shrimp, salmon roe, tuna, salmon, swordfish, and other ingredients all lined up in a row, all shiny and fresh.
Before serving, the ingredients are dipped in a secret soy sauce sauce sauce, which gives the dish a slightly sweet flavor that pairs well with the white rice. When the yolk of the egg on the center of the rice is mixed with the sauce, the texture on the tongue becomes rounder and the umami taste is enhanced, giving the dish a different flavor.

Don't miss the famous bowls of rice topped with seafood that will make seafood bowl fans from all over the country swoon!

This restaurant is well known among those in the know, and gourmets from all over Japan come to enjoy the "Hirameki-don," which won the gold medal in the seafood bowl category at the National Bowl Grand Prix in 2014.
Taking a cue from fishermen's rice bowls, the restaurant has created this dish by aging flatfish at low temperatures and researching tare sauce that goes well with the dish.
In addition, the restaurant offers other attractive menu items such as "Shiawase-don" topped with four types of seafood recommended for the day from Hachinohe and "Hon-tuna chu-ochi-don," both of which are full of the ideas of the owner, who has experience as a fishmonger.

Minato Shokudo

• 45-1 Kubo, Minatominato-cho, Hachinohe City, Aomori Prefecture MAP
• Approx. 2 min. walk from Mutsu Minato Station
• 6:00 - 14:00
• Sunday, Monday, Year-end and New Year holidays
• 0178-35-2295
• None