My Trip to Japan: Aomori Update!

Actual date Oct 30th

Hey Everybody!

So I'm in Aomori! I had originally only booked two nights here, but I've decided I'm going to stay one more, to figure out my plan for the next few days, and to update my blog! The boat ride out here was pretty good. Ha, there was 1 table with benches to sit and smoke at in the area inside with the vending machines, the outside deck, and then the rest of the area for people consisted of 2 carpeted rooms, with no furniture! (a couple rectangular Naugahyde (go spell check!) pillows though) It felt a little weird, and maybe a little uncomfortable there on the floor, but it is the custom around here! The boat itself was primarily a sealed enclosed ferry for vehicles, and then there were like 10 or 15 other people. It probably could have carried 40 or 50 people. I was able to catch a bus almost to the ferry terminal when I left Hakodate, then on the boat I pretty much read my lonely planet guide, but then when we reached the Aomori terminal, I discovered that at that point there were no more buses! I was actually warned though that there might no buses, so I wasn't to disappointed or anything. The pamphlet published by the ferry company claims it takes only 25 minutes to walk to the Aomori JR train station from there, but when I checked that there were no buses, the guy I talked to said it takes 40 minutes to walk! So I decided I would just have to find out who was right.

It was night and pretty cold, but I really feel like I lucked out because it was a clear night. Theres actually a typhoon sweeping across south and central Japan right now wreaking havoc delaying trains and grounding planes all over the place, among other things, and after that sleet storm the other day, taking a long walk through the clear night didn't sound too bad.

So I walked fairly quickly, and it actually took like, 37 minutes to reach the train station! So it looked like the guy was right. That was the part of the station on the wrong side of the train tracks though, and I couldn't go through without a ticket, so I had to walk around and up and down foot bridge to get across the tracks then back up the other side of the station to get where I wanted to. I then thought I was there and I needed a map so I looked around for an information center. The only one I found was a desk mostly for JR, because I guess the actual Tourist Information Center had closed a little over a half hour ago. They did have Japanese Aomori maps though, and were able to point me to my hotel. So after that it was about another 15 minutes or so. In all I walked around with all my stuff for maybe almost an hour an a half. It wasn't too bad, but maybe its how the straps are set up, or the weight distribution, or just my left shoulder joint, but when I wear my duffle for very long my left shoulder joint starts hurting. (not my neck or chest or arm, but like, the joint I belive) I think I hurt my shoulder a few years ago and its now a little funky. So the walk was kinda tiring. I still don't think I really have too much stuff though.

Today I went to Nebuta-no-Sato. Or the Nebuta festival float museum. I don't think thats actually how it translates, but thats what it was. The floats were pretty amazing though. Huge platforms with wooden and wire scaffolding coverd in colored paper dipicting heros and heroins and epic moments in stories, legends, and literature. Ha, I also like, volunteered/ got volunteered to participate in trying out wheeling one of the floats around, while a guy with a fan and a whistle directed us, and a couple drummers played the festival beats. There was a dancer dressed up too, in addition to the directions guy and the drummers, like at the festival. So it actually felt like a teeny slice of the real thing! It was fun! Almost like I was there for the real thing. I think I can attach a video I took of a movie playing about the floats and parade. I might not be able to so I might not send it at all though. Either way I'll attach some pics. I'm still not sure what the Nebuta festival is necessarily for but it still looks pretty good and is pretty famous.
I also thought about also going to an onsen about an hour away today, and to a giant outdoor Buddha about half an hour away from here, but the busses were infrequent, and it would have cost about 3500 or 4000 yen in total for the onsen, which was also supposed to be pretty good, but I wanted to see the float museum and didn't have time today.

So I'm thinking maybe I want to go to Morioka next, then maybe Niigata and southward, but I'm gonna do more research tomorrow. Along with trying to take these emails and turing them into blog posts! But anyways, I dunno, not a whole lot has been going on other than arriving here and going to the float museum. I took the ferry, and that was interesting. It was a little rolley, but I was okay. (I also ate a relatively large lunch, had my seabands on, and mostly was laying down) I'm tired today. I ate a salad and a vegitable-juice box in addition to a normal convience store bento for dinner and will go to sleep soon I think. I got to the bus stop coming back from Nabuta-no-sato like, 1 minute late, so I waited at the bus stop for almost an additional hour. My room is pretty good. It actually does have LAN internet, but the shower is really narrow. And the desk is high but the seat is low. It's still relatively nice though. I still want to see everything there is to see everywhere I go, so its hard to pick and choose because of my budget and time. I guess it's not soo bad having tons of things available to do though. I'm still having a great time, even though I am tired tonight. I still wish everyone could see and do all the things I'm seeing and doing! Okay, guess I'm gonna get going! Love you everybody!

My boat from Hakodate to Aomori

The inside, plenty of room for trucks

The no-smoking carpet!

A fairly epic painting, with some dude protecting some swan or goose, and some other guy attacking with a sword

And the finished product! I don't think these are actually the same, but probably relate to the same story and such. I do think though that they start with the painting as like, concept art and turn them into these amazing floats and this shows how they can turn a cool picture into an amazing float.