(EDIT: Sorry about the 'not able to comment' thing - fixed!)I did not sleep well last night, as in, I've been awake since 3am. Tonight I will sleep well, though. I spent a good amount of time trying to make sense of the Shinkansen timetables, and I must say, learning the advanced rules for Battletech was easier. We decided to just do the right gaijin thing and ask someone at the tourist info booth. So our breakfast that morning was, literally, iced coffee and half a tamago-yaki each. We checked out of our hotel, hurried to the Yamanote line, got lost in the Tokyo station more then once, and finally ended up in the right place to exchange our Rail Pass vouchers for real passes. We booked reserved seats on the next Shinkansen to Hachinohe and had about 7 minutes to run to the platform, find the right train, and board. The Shinkansen is fast, but Sandy and I had to sit apart from each other, flanked by strangers and hungry. I tried to sleep but couldn't. Three hours later...
Ahem... Three hours later found us lost in the Hachinohe station, eventually finding our way to an empty platform, and boarding what looked like the correct train. There were maybe 20 other people on board, and about three in our train car. Empty. This was a tiny local access train, so there was less and less English to be seen, all the announcements were in Japanese, and stops were mostly little hick towns and dirt roads - not on any of our maps. In my opinion, this was perfect.
We saw awesome little farm towns, dreary villages, lots of water and mountains, and all the locals stared at us when they thought we weren't looking(and lent a hand if we made understandable mistakes).
(Note:the JR info desk people are very helpful and patient.) We finally rolled into Aomori city, in the Aomori prefecture, after two more hours on the local express. It would have been warm, but it was very windy, which was good. Aomori is tiny, quaint and adorable. It is very "small town", and we saw lots of old people and kids. Every other person is on a bike, which looks like suicide to me, judging from the way folks drive over here. After checking into our nice hotel room (of which I give a tour), we were on a hunt for curry. We had only eaten the tamago-yaki and iced coffee that morning, and we were famished; a kind of hunger only Japanese curry can quench.
We did a bit of shopping afterwards, just a tiny bit, and wandered around, mentally planning our activities for tomorrow. I bought a crazy awesome delicious dessert, and Sandy got some stuff too. All-in-all, the day was a major success.
Labels: Aomori, Japan08, Shinkansen
posted by tangentbot @ 2:41 AM
You said you did a tour of the room.... post it! Unless I missed something and don't understand, then...post it!
Also, getting lost on trains is what travel is all about. That sucks about the not eating thing, but the next train ride will be better. I read about Aomori on wikipedia and there's seriously not enough information, but it mentions ruins!
Go see ruins!
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