Kanagi: An Unhurried Rail-Line Day Around a Writer's Memorial House

This guide covers the Dazai Osamu Memorial Museum Shayokan, the Former Tsushima Family Shinzashiki, the Tsugaru Shamisen Hall, the stove train and Ashino Park, with the routes, times and fares needed to put them into a single day.

The day works best in the order the line suggests: reach the junction town, ride the branch line north, give the middle of the day to the memorial house and its two neighbours, and keep the winter train for a separate visit.

The practical details sit in two short tables, one for the approach and one for opening times and prices, so you can set them side by side and decide how much of this fits into one day without checking several pages.

Getting to Kanagi

The approach runs through Goshogawara, where you change from JR to the Tsugaru Railway for Kanagi Station. From Aomori Station, the JR trip to Goshogawara Station takes about sixty minutes. From Hirosaki Station, the JR line reaches Goshogawara Station in about forty minutes.

The JR fare from Aomori Station to Goshogawara Station is nine hundred and ninety yen. From Hirosaki Station to Goshogawara Station the JR fare is five hundred and ten yen. The bus on the Hirosaki Station to Goshogawara Station route costs one thousand yen.

Tsugaru-Goshogawara Station, where the branch line begins, is open from seven in the morning to seven in the evening. Check the fare to Kanagi Station there before you board.

Route	Time and fare
JR from Hirosaki Station to Goshogawara Station	about forty minutes
JR from Aomori Station to Goshogawara Station	about sixty minutes
Bus from Aomori Station to Goshogawara Station	about seventy-five minutes, one thousand one hundred and ten yen
Bus from Hirosaki Station to Goshogawara Station	about seventy-five minutes
Airport bus from Aomori Airport to Aomori Station	about thirty-five minutes, seven hundred and ten yen
Shared taxi from Aomori Airport to Goshogawara Station	five thousand yen for one adult, booked in advance

The Dazai Osamu Memorial Museum Shayokan

The Dazai Osamu Memorial Museum Shayokan is a seven-minute walk from Kanagi Station. It is open from nine in the morning to five in the afternoon. Last entry is at half past four in the afternoon.

The one fixed closing day is the twenty-ninth of December. High school and university students pay four hundred yen. Elementary and junior high school students pay two hundred and fifty yen. The adult price is in the table at the end.

The Shinzashiki and the Tsugaru Shamisen Hall

The Former Tsushima Family Shinzashiki is closed on the first, third and fifth Wednesdays. Admission to the Shinzashiki is five hundred yen for adults and two hundred and fifty yen for elementary and junior high school students.

At the Tsugaru Shamisen Hall, live shamisen performances of about twenty minutes are held five times a day from April to November. The hall is closed from December to March. A combined ticket for the hall and the Shayokan is one thousand yen for adults.

The Stove Train and Its Summer Cousins

The stove train on the Tsugaru Railway runs from the first of December to the thirty-first of March. It makes only three daytime round trips. Riding it needs the ordinary fare plus a stove train ticket, priced in the table at the end.

In summer the same line runs the Wind Chime Train from the first of July to the thirty-first of August. The Bell Cricket Train follows from the first of September to mid-October, with dates that shift with how the crickets grow.

The stove train season and the hall's winter break cover the same months, so one visit cannot take in both.

Around Ashino Park

Ashino Park is described as bringing together hills, woodland, moorland, a pond and a headland in one place, a mix of landforms with few equals in the prefecture.

Kawakura Jizo is described in guidebooks as Sai no Kawara. Guidebooks describe its festival as having drawn people of every age from the nearby villages and from as far as Iwate, Akita and Hokkaido, enough to cover the hillside.

Hours and Fees at a Glance

Basic times and prices in one place.

Item	Detail
Shayokan opening hours	nine in the morning to five in the afternoon
Shayokan adult admission	six hundred yen
Tsugaru Shamisen Hall opening hours	nine in the morning to four in the afternoon, April to November
Combined ticket for the Shayokan and the hall	one thousand yen for an adult
Shinzashiki opening hours	nine in the morning to five in the afternoon
Stove train ticket	one thousand yen on top of the ordinary fare

For an overnight base, see places to stay in Goshogawara.