We really enjoyed staying in Morioka as part of a multi-day guided tour with Japan Ski Tours as well as flying solo for a little while. Each day we headed out to different ski areas and cat skiing, and after an onsen on the way home, we then headed out to restaurants in the evening. When flying solo it was fun to wander the streets in search of the ideal restaurants, whilst when we were on tour it was also really nice that our hosts just took us to good restaurants that provided a variety of experiences and they interpreted for us, which made life a little easier.

Morioka had a huge array of bars. The nightlife tended to only really come alive on the weekends and we also enjoyed the cool Sundance bar during the week, which seemed to attract the only ski gaijins in town.
See our video here