Aomori Fish Came Center is the original Aomori specialty bowl of rice bowls! Let's head to the ocean of food!

Have you ever seen or heard of "Nokkedon" on TV, in magazines, or on social media

Since I'm in Aomori this time, I'm going to try "Nokkedon" for the first time in my life. When I saw it on a travel program on TV, I always wanted to try it, like "If it were me, I'd do it like this!"

This is my first attempt! It will test my sense of style, but I'm going to enjoy it as I please! As luxurious as possible! Of course, I'll also touch on the history of Aomori's markets and nokkedon, so please bear with me for a bit

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Aomori's original topping bowl! Original? Topping?

This time I will be trying the Nokkedon at the Aomori Gyosai Center, a five-minute walk from the east exit of Aomori Station

Nowadays, the place is often crowded with tourists and has a prominent "Nokkedon" banner, but it was originally the Furukawa Market Fish and Vegetable Center, which has been bustling as the kitchen of Aomori citizens since the 1960s

The Aomori Gyosai Center's Nokkedon began when the Aomori Chamber of Commerce and Industry started the Nokkedon as a tourism promotion initiative following the opening of Shin-Aomori Station on the Tohoku Shinkansen in 2010

The interesting nature of the project has attracted attention from the local media, and it has now grown into a hugely popular spot visited by many visitors to Aomori

Nowadays, you can experience "Nokkedon" in various places across the country, but the original place is the Aomori Gyosai Center in Aomori City

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A taste report of the "Original Nokkedon"!

The Aomori Gyosai Center, where you will experience the Nokkedon, is open from 7:00am to 4:00pm

Because it's a market, the stores open early in the morning and close at 4:00 p.m., but because the ingredients are fresh, many stores close as soon as they run out of stock

If you check in advance, you'll find that some popular restaurants close before noon, so it might be best to go early in the morning with the intention of having breakfast or lunch

Currently (March 2023), the store is closed every Tuesday, but be sure to check the opening days in advance

Previously at the Aomori Gyosai Center, you would first purchase a bowl of rice for 100 yen and then use cash to purchase your favorite ingredients at each fishmonger, but now you purchase a ticket first and then exchange the ticket for ingredients at each fishmonger

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First, buy your ticket

You don't need a ticket to purchase fresh ingredients, but if you're looking to buy the Nokkedon, you'll need to purchase a ticket first

First, purchase the ticket you want at the information desk inside the Aomori Gyosai Center

Tickets can be purchased individually or in sets of 10, with 10 tickets costing 2,000 yen and individual tickets costing 200 yen

If you have already purchased ingredients with 10 tickets but still don't have enough, don't worry, you can purchase additional single tickets to make your own luxurious Wagamama Donburi bowl more luxurious than anyone else's

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You can also purchase tickets! First, have a bowl of rice!

First, you need a bowl of rice to serve as a bowl. There are currently three shops in the Aomori Gyosai Center where you can purchase rice bowls

After purchasing your ticket at the information desk, you will be given the "Rice Exchange Location (Information Card)" shown in the photo above along with your ticket, so head to the rice exchange location with the number written on the information card

What's great is that the staff at the information desk don't just hand out the "rice exchange location (information card)" randomly

The staff at the information desk will check the cooking time and the amount of rice left, and will hand out information cards to guide customers to the quickest and fastest restaurant so that they can get their rice bowls as quickly as possible

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Aomori Gyosai Center store map

The inside of the Aomori Gyosai Center is as shown in the attached map. There are five rest areas, large and small, where you can eat your Nokkedon, and about 20-30 stores where you can purchase ingredients

The ingredients sold are not just seafood, but also Aomori's specialty "Ikamenchi" (minced squid), and you can eat the ingredients you purchased over a charcoal fire. They also sell alcohol, so you can have the ultimate luxury of drinking beer with some "Ikamenchi" as a snack and eating a "Nokkedon" (rice bowl topped with squid)

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Let's go to the vast ocean of seafood!

First, use one meal ticket and exchange it for a regular-sized bowl of rice

You can also order a large portion, in which case you will need to exchange two meal tickets

Now we're ready to go! Grab a bowl of rice and head out to explore the market

Oh yes, the miso soup of the day is also displayed in front of the information desk

If you order miso soup first, it will become loose as you eat, so order it last. Miso soup can also be exchanged for a meal ticket

Each store has a wide variety of ingredients on display, so it's really hard to decide

There's no end to the decision, so I'll start by choosing one slice of fatty tuna (two meal tickets) and two slices of flounder (one meal ticket) as shown in the photo above

All ingredients will be prepared by the store staff, so you can rest assured

For the third dish, we will choose the luxurious extra-large wild prawn

I'm not very knowledgeable about food or cooking, but this extra-large size only requires one meal ticket to be exchanged

One meal ticket costs 200 yen, isn't that cheap?

At this point, I think to myself, "This is a good start."

The fourth item can be exchanged for scallops (1 meal ticket)

I love shellfish, but they are expensive inland and hard to find, so I thought, "I'll definitely put scallops on it."

I was so worried about which ingredients to buy that I must have spent about 15 minutes wandering around the market

In the midst of all this, I found a particularly shining golden omelet in the back of the market, so I put it on without hesitation

The fifth item, Golden Tamagoyaki, can be exchanged for one meal ticket

At this point, I have used 7 meal tickets and only 3 left..

One of the tickets will be exchanged for miso soup at the end, so the remaining two tickets will essentially be exchanged for ingredients

I was already worried

I considered purchasing additional meal tickets sold individually, but there was no point in doing so so I decided to hold back and use up all the meal tickets to finish the trip, but then I set sail for my final voyage across the open sea

Along the way, we gazed upon the fresh fish, drooling

As I was looking at it, I suddenly remembered, "That's right! I haven't chosen those ingredients yet!"

That was a close call, but yes, it was squid (one meal ticket). Don't forget that

I remember being amazed at how delicious the squid was when I visited Aomori on a club trip in junior high school

I think this seafood bowl is a good choice for me

There are other ingredients I would like to add, but I will finish it off here

To finish it off, add some salmon roe (one meal ticket) to finish it off

Take a look, I think I've created a very stylish "Nokkedon" (rice bowl topping)

If there was a "Your Nokkedon Grand Prix 10 Meal Ticket Category" then this would definitely be ranked highly for its appearance and balance, and not only does it look good, it also has a great balance of umami, sweetness, saltiness and spiciness, making it the perfect seafood bowl

I'm quite proud of myself

Finally, I exchange the meal ticket I had saved for a bowl of mozuku seaweed miso soup in a stylish, elegant, and relaxed manner

perfection

All you have to do is sit down in the rest area and eat. Soy sauce and wasabi are provided on the table

It takes 20 minutes to choose the ingredients and 10 minutes to eat

I was very, very satisfied. No explanation needed, it's a bowl of rice topped with fresh ingredients, so you can't go wrong! It was the best

Later, I heard from locals that it used to be cheaper

But I still think it's a very satisfying price. Or maybe it was just too cheap back then

This time I only had the "Nokkedon" and wasn't able to enjoy any other side dishes, charcoal grilled food or beer, but next time I'd like to enjoy not only the "Nokkedon" but also charcoal grilled food, squid mince and other dishes to my heart's content

If you have a chance to visit Aomori, please be sure to stop by. It may be a classic, but I highly recommend it

This time, I purchased a set of 10 meal tickets for the "Nokkedon"

Regular-sized bowl of rice (1 meal ticket) / Fatty tuna (2 meal tickets) / Flounder (1 meal ticket) / Extra-large wild tiger prawn (1 piece) / Scallop (1 meal ticket) / Golden omelet (1 meal ticket) / Spear squid (1 meal ticket) / Salmon roe (1 meal ticket) / Mozuku seaweed miso soup (1 meal ticket)

A total of 10 pieces were used for the meal

The trick is to walk around the market first and get a clear image of what your "nokkedon" will look like

Speaking of which, I saw a couple waiting in line behind me at the information desk buying a set of 10 tickets and sharing them between them, and I was impressed, thinking, "That's certainly an option."

Aomori Fish and Vegetable Center <Information>

• Name: Aomori Fish and Vegetable Center
• Address: 1-11-16 Furukawa, Aomori City, Aomori Prefecture, 030-0862
• Business hours: 7:00-16:00 *Nokkedon business hours
• Closed: Tuesdays (open during tourist season)

Google Map

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TikTok videos

@neft_tohoku I had my first experience with "Nokkedon" at the Aomori Gyosai Center near Aomori Station! #AomoriPrefecture #AomoriStation #AomoriGyosaiCenter #SeafoodRiceBowl # Nokkedon ♬ Get You – Official Sound Studio

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