Mineko Nomachi is a Japanese writer, illustrator, and manga artist. She was born in and raised in Ushiku City in Ibaraki Prefecture. In 2005, Nomachi started writing a blog titled オカマだけどOLやってます (Okama dakedo OL yatte masu). The title translates into English as I’m a Gay Man but Work as an Office Lady. The following year, a book based on the blog with the same title was published officially starting Nomachi’s writing career. Nomachi is also known for having gender-affirming surgery, still known to older generations as sex-change operation, shortly after her book was published.

デッドエンドで宝探し (Dead End de Takara Sagashi) which has the English subtitle of Treasure Hunt at the Dead End is her collection of essays compiled from a column she wrote on a blog titled まるごと靑森 (Marugoto Aomori) or Amazing Aomori in English. The blog is operated and managed by the Aomori Prefectural Office. Its purpose is to provide information on tourism, regional products, and local cuisine.

Before Nomachi started writing the blog, she would come and live in Aomori City to escape the hot and humid summers of Tokyo. She fell in love with the city when she would visit the place on vacation but became even more enamored of it when she decided to live there for a few months of the year.

She would tell whoever would listen to her that Aomori is such a beautiful place and how much she loves it. However, she said the ninety percent of the Aomori citizens would ask her, “Why?” or laugh and say, “There’s nothing here”. Still others were more harsh in their criticisms saying things like, “You’ll realize how hard it is once you live here” or “Try living here in the winter”.

Nomachi realized that what many of the citizens said were true. Although she has visited Aomori in the winter, she has never lived through an entire winter season and since she only lived in Aomori during the cool summers, she came to realize that she was cherry-picking the best of what the city had to offer. Heeding the word of many Aomori citizens, she packed up her things and began to live in the city full time.

She thought once she starts living in Aomori, she would get to know the city and prefecture more deeply and wants to share her appreciation of it with others. In her column, she started writing about the “dead ends” of Aomori Prefecture.

Pictured above is a map of Aomori Prefecture. It is the northernmost prefecture on the island of Honshu. There are two distinctive peninsulas. On the east side of the prefecture sitting between Mutsu Bay and the Pacific Ocean is the Shimokita Peninsula. On the west side sitting between the Sea of Japan and Aomori Bay is the Tsugaru Peninsula.

Nomachi has alredy been to the ends of both peninsulas - Cape Oma in the Shimokita Peninsula and Cape Tappi in the Tsugaru Peninsula. In this book, she focuses on going to other “dead ends” of the Prefecture. She starts by going to a place called Oshima, a small island that is located at the ends of the Natsudomari Peninsula located in Hiranai City and lies between Aomori Bay and Mutsu Bay.

Her local travels also take her to Metoki, the last station on the Aoimori Railway line located in Sannohe Town near the border of Iwate Prefecture. She goes to Itagai, a small settlement in Fukaura Town near the border of Akita Peninsula. She often rides the bus to the final stop where she would meet a couple of her co-workers who would then take her to her chosen spot by car.

As with Nomachi, I am also a transplant from Tokyo to Aomori City and like Nomachi, I have also fallen in love with the most northern of prefectures on Japan’s main island. My wife and I also drive to places in Aomori Prefecture that are often not listed in any guide books. However, I am not quite as manic as Nomachi. My wife and I choose places where there are things to see and are not so far off the beaten path.

It doesn’t matter how long you have lived in one place. One person’s perspective is going to be different from another. I have been to many of the places Nomachi has featured and yet, I have also found that there are more places in my adopted prefecture to discover. I believe getting to intimately know the place you’ve chosen to settle will make living in that city, town, or village even more special.