Ah, vacations. That time when you just sit back and relax. If you’re a normal person. If you’re me, however, you go full speed and come back more tired than when you left. For a variety of reasons, of course.
I knew, it being Obon time, that things would be crowded. Because of this, I headed out early and got to the station an hour before the train was supposed to leave. The early bird gets the worm! And apparently it does. It looked like people had been camped out for hours. Tarps, packed lunches, the works. I thought that I still had a small chance at getting a seat, though, so I took my place in line.
I spent the next five hours standing and talking to a guy from Indonesia who is studying in Osaka. Let me tell you, there’s nothing quite like standing up for five hours, shoulder to shoulder with other people who were hoping that they could find a seat. When we hit Hakodate enough people got off that we were able to dart for a seat, so I settled in and got about two and a half hours worth of sleep before I hit Aomori. Yay.
The train to Hirosaki was blissfully empty. Of course, it’s only a half hour ride, so I didn’t exactly get much of a chance to snooze. Hit Hirosaki and started looking for a bus. Not for an hour. As the castle was only a couple of kilometers from the station, I headed out and manged to not get lost! There is a first time for everything.
I got lucky. The second and fourth Sundays of every month admission to the castle grounds is free. Guess what day I happened to go. The castle, from what I was able to read, used to be the seat of the Tsugaru clan when they were the big shots in northern Japan. It’s a bit… small, but the grounds were quite nice. They had those red bridges that I love so much everywhere. Three or four of them. The ponds were covered with water lillies too. It almost looked as if you could walk on them they were so thick.
It was… a bit warm at this point. But, there was supposed to be a row of temples somewhere near the castle, so I bravely set forth. Now, on Obon, people love to go to temples, it seems. And while there were probably about 30 or 40 temples in a few square km area… well, the people. I could barely move. And so I gave up. But then… I saw a sign that said “Five Story Pagoda” with an arrow pointing the way, and I do so have a weakness for pagodas.
How you manage to hide a five story building in a suburban area, I have no idea. But the people in Hirosaki seem to have figured out how. Perhaps it’s an underground pagoda, I don’t know. Either way, I searched and searched, but it was nowhere to be found. It was about 10:00 by this point, and oh dear. I’ve been away from home too long. I felt like my skin was frying and my blood was boiling. I stumbled back towards the train station and passed a bank. 10:12AM, 36C, or roughly body temperature. This is the hottest I’ve been in over two years. I suppose the fact that there appears to be no trees outside the park in Hirosaki didn’t exactly help matters.
I have to wait about an hour before my train leaves (yay for air conditioned waiting rooms), then I was finally able to get some sleep. I enjoy slow trains for a reason, I suppose. Had to make a few transfers, but I make it to Fukushima around 11 at night. There was a net cafe right in front of the station, and as I was only going to be in town for roughly six and a half hours, well, it made financial sense. 1500yen for the night, including the towel rental fee. The chair was actually really, really comfortable.
The next morning, and I do mean morning, started way too early, but I headed out to Goshiki Numa. After the last day I decided to do most of my outside work during the mornings, to cut down on sweat and the chance that I might spontaneously combust. Thankfully, all the paths I hiked along here were very shady. Understandable since it was in the middle of a national forest, of course. Unfortunately, the place was a breeding ground for mosquitoes. I lost almost as much blood as I did sweat. The little things do seem to enjoy foreign food.
Goshiki Numa was very, very lovely, though. The lakes were amazingly vibrant (except the green one, which looked like nothing so much as traditionally made green tea). If you’re ever in the area (in spring or fall) I highly recommend that you stop by. The lake that I really wanted to see (the red one) was about a two hour hike (one way) so, sadly, I didn’t have the time to go see it (I like parentheses). After that it was back to the grind of train hopping my way to the next city.
Which in this case was Utsunomia. As I arrived at about 4:00 and desperately wanted a shower, I checked into a hotel for the night. The Toyoko Inn that I loved so much from my last Tohoku trip, if you’re wondering. If there’s one thing this trip taught me, it’s that the shower might be mankind’s greatest invention, closely followed by the air conditioner. But, I digress. I headed out and did a little shopping and ended up coming back with a Sandisk Sansa, which is an absolutely lovely little MP3 player. Highly recommended if you’re in the market.
I went and burned some pictures to free up some memory cards, then headed for supper. Utsunomia is famous for two things. One is being close to Nikko. The other is gyoza. And boy do I love me some gyoza. The retaurant I went to had nothing but gyoza on the menu. Baked gyoza, steamed gyoza, fried gyoza, gyoza soup… it’s like I was in heaven. They need one of these place in every city.
I made it an early night since the next day was, of course, an early start. Nikko is an interesting place. As you can see from an earlier post they seem to have a rather high opinion of their little city. I got there before buses started running, it seems, but I, once again, found my way without getting lost! There is a rather large and famous temple complex there, but if you want to see it be sure you come with some cash. They have a combined ticket, but it only combines to get you into a little less than half the temples and not the entire temples for the ones you can get into.
It sorta works like this, you give the person the ticket and you go in. You can see one or two buildings, but the really interesting places aren’t included in the price! That’s an extra 500yen, sir, thank you and come again! So I ended up paying more for entrance fees than I did to stay the night in Fukushima or Sendai. Lovely, that. And I thought Buddhism was supposed to reject worldly matters like wealth.
It really was interesting, though. Most Japanese temples (with some notable exceptions) are rather reserved, unassuming places. Not so for Nikko. Bright might be one way to describe them. Gaudy might be another. The carvings on Toshogu were worth the trip, though. Intricate doesn’t begin to describe them. To think they were made almost 400 years ago, all carved by hand. I can’t even imagine how long it took to make one, and the entire wall was covered with the things.
By contrast, the grave of Tokugawa Ieyasu was surprisingly simple and very unassuming, though the climb there was more than a little steep. If you like history, worth the trip. Otherwise, save your legs.
This night was Sendai. Once again a net cafe, and once again quite comfortable. Seeing as how even business hotels charge almost $50 for a broom closet, I can see why these places are so popular. And why so many have showers. I was planning to head out for another day of hiking, but I was just so tired and work down at this point that I didn’t want to bother. So I took the day off and spent most of the day playing the new King of Fighters game at an arcade next to the station. I think they really had the difficulty cranked up, because I’ve played it a few times since and it was never as hard as the one I tried there. It’s a really, really fun game, though. Highly recommended if you’re into that sorta thing.
That afternoon I headed out to Hachinohe for the night. If you’re looking for an interesting tourist destination, I recommend that you stay far, far away from Hachinohe. I was looking for another net cafe to stay at, but the place I had found apparently shut down a couple of months earlier. I did see a sign that pointed to “Downtown Hachinohe” so I went in that direction for a couple of miles, but the downtown area reminded me vaguely of a more neon Farmerville. So I found a cheap little hotel to spend my six hours at.
The next morning I headed out to Mt. Osore, which was quite a bit smaller than I was expecting. Ah well, at least I got to listen to the Tsugaru dialect a bit more. And I do mean listen, as I don’t understand a word of it. After a short stay there I headed to Aomori City. With the exception of the Nebuta Festival (long over) and Darth Vader behind bars, there is nothing of note. There is the pyramid, I suppose, but it’s a disaster of modern architecture and really not worth the time it takes to glance at it.
As I had nothing to do in the city, I decided to head home a day early to rest and recuperate before I had to go back to work. As Obon was over, I figured that I’d have no trouble finding a seat this time, but just to be on the safe side I got to the train station an hour and a half early.
There were more people waiting (on a Thursday night! Don’t these people have jobs!!) than there were when I left. No chance at a seat. No chance at all. I ended up sitting on the floor and half dozing all the way back to Sapporo. For comfort, I don’t recommend it. My back was killing me for a couple of days after that.
Thus ends my tale of heat and exhaustion. It was nice to get out of Sapporo for a while, but I don’t think I can survive in that kind of environment anymore. At least, not without getting used to it again in stages. It was interesting, though. And most likely the cheapest vacation I’ve ever (and probably ever will) take.
Some pictures already up, the rest to follow in a few days!
Hello. Welcome. Salutations. 
