In the sticks
I've been offline for a few days owing to being located in the sticks to varying degrees. After leaving Sendai I did indeed stay in a Youth Hostel located within the grounds of a Buddhist temple in the quiet town of Hiraizumi. Although I was able to closely watch the morning prayers (which incidentally just involves the one chap rather than anything group based) there was no meditation class offered. I suspect this was due to the hostel being sparsely populated with guests; as far as I could tell there were just the three of us in all. I opted for the "Japanese breakfast" offered at the hostel given the general lack of other eating options in town, and this turned out to be an interesting if rather bemusing experience. Much of it looked entirely foreign to me and I spent a good while prodding parts of it until one of the other two guests arrived and I followed her lead in tackling the various dishes and bowls of who knows what. I suspect it's something of an acquired taste which my Western tastes buds aren't attuned to, but at least I've tried it! I'll post a photo of it when I get the chance to see if anyone else can help deduce what it comprised.
The alternative breakfast option in many places I've discovered is more familiar but no less challenging in that you have a poached or fried egg or two and a sausage but you're also given chopsticks with which to tackle them. The best solution I've found thus far is to use the knife-like implement to chop it all up into chop-stickable size portions. I've tried to see how the locals do it but I don't like to stare while they're having their breakfast and so far I've not noticed any looks of disapproval resulting from my efforts in breakfasting, although for all I know the Japanese might be too polite to do so anyway!
Hiraizumi offered a temple complex or two, generally enough it fill an afternoon, especially when the main set of temples is up a seemingly endless hill (although curiously the hill seemed a good deal shorter on the return journey, as so often hills do.)
The following day I left my bags at the area's main railway station I'd be passing through again later in the day and took a local train to Kakunodate which boasts a street of former Samurai houses lined with cherry trees. Although cherry blossom isn't in season, and having seen photos I feel coming to Japan in the spring for this reason would alone would be wholly worthwhile, one of the houses did contain an interesting museum of exhibits from the Samurai era ranging from blades and armour to tools, crockery and even toys. Otherwise little Kakunodate wasn't a terribly interesting town, but it filled a few hours pottering about.
Last night I stayed in a particularly out of the way Youth Hostel in (or rather vaguely near) the city of Aomori, right at the top of the island of Honshu. It was a fine place, but as with other recent youth hostel stays it was quiet, to the extent that I was the only guest! This did have its advantages though, as the kind chap running the place drove me to the local convenience store (which would have otherwise been a VERY long walk or a night without dinner) to pick up a microwavable Japanese meal and this morning we had a good chat over breakfast about all manner of things. It turns out he's a member of a Japanese-Irish association, has visited the Emerald Isle on a good few occasions and is quite attached to the place. Indeed breakfast was accompanied to the relaxing and in fact ideal morning tunes of Clannad no less.
I dumped my rucksack in the lockers at the train station as has become something of a daily ritual, owing to Youth Hostels chucking out early but not admitting until late, and had a wander about the town. Unlike the previous day though the weather was grey and despite the smiles of the friendly tourist information staff my heart wasn't in it. So after looking around a former ferry that once did the run to Hokkaido island and around a building built in Expo '88 that shows off the local wares and offers both a wonderful 360 degree film of the area's countryside and of course the obligatory top floor view I decided to cut short my tour of the city and head for, what in the brochures at least, looks like the far more attractive city of Hakodate across the water in Hokkaido, but now reachable by 'Super Hakucho!'* train through the world's longest tunnel.
*The exclamation mark isn't strictly necessary but I think it somehow adds the exciting name of this train, which in reality isn't very exciting aside from the fact it does have a nice illustration on the carriage displays showing where the train is between stops including a nice rendition of the tunnel when we were travelling through that, and when the train changes direction at Aomori all the chairs are made to swivel round to face the direction of travel - what a great idea!
Indeed it is from the lobby of one Hakodate's hotels that I type now. Why a hotel? Well the sole Youth Hostel and cheap Japanese guest houses in town are all full today; it seems to be something of a trend I'm noticing that everywhere's pretty quiet except on Saturdays when you have to look out. However being Captain Spontineity (a new Manga character I'm making efforts to promote while I'm in Japan) I turn up and expect a budget-priced bed waiting for me. Not so here though, and as a result I'm staying in a reasonably priced but decently appointed hotel near the train station. It makes a brief change from the funny ways of the hostels I've been experiencing in the past few days. Aside from never really being sure if I've arranged my futon bed correctly or not, it's common to have really restrictive bathing times; in one place you had just a 90 minute window in the evening to bath and shower. Being a prudish Englishman I'm also a bit hesitant at using these communal washing facilities too, but when in Rome...!
I'm off now to see a few of the sights of Hakodate before dinner. Unlike in Aomori in Honshu where it was dull, when the train emerged from the tunnel in Hokkaido the sun was shining, as it continues to do now. From what I've heard Hokkaido generally misses out the June rainy season that afflicts mucho of the rest of Japan, which suits me. If the internet in the hotel remains free later I may well also attempt to upload a few photos. Until then, farewell from Hakidate and Hokkaido!
The alternative breakfast option in many places I've discovered is more familiar but no less challenging in that you have a poached or fried egg or two and a sausage but you're also given chopsticks with which to tackle them. The best solution I've found thus far is to use the knife-like implement to chop it all up into chop-stickable size portions. I've tried to see how the locals do it but I don't like to stare while they're having their breakfast and so far I've not noticed any looks of disapproval resulting from my efforts in breakfasting, although for all I know the Japanese might be too polite to do so anyway!
Hiraizumi offered a temple complex or two, generally enough it fill an afternoon, especially when the main set of temples is up a seemingly endless hill (although curiously the hill seemed a good deal shorter on the return journey, as so often hills do.)
The following day I left my bags at the area's main railway station I'd be passing through again later in the day and took a local train to Kakunodate which boasts a street of former Samurai houses lined with cherry trees. Although cherry blossom isn't in season, and having seen photos I feel coming to Japan in the spring for this reason would alone would be wholly worthwhile, one of the houses did contain an interesting museum of exhibits from the Samurai era ranging from blades and armour to tools, crockery and even toys. Otherwise little Kakunodate wasn't a terribly interesting town, but it filled a few hours pottering about.
Last night I stayed in a particularly out of the way Youth Hostel in (or rather vaguely near) the city of Aomori, right at the top of the island of Honshu. It was a fine place, but as with other recent youth hostel stays it was quiet, to the extent that I was the only guest! This did have its advantages though, as the kind chap running the place drove me to the local convenience store (which would have otherwise been a VERY long walk or a night without dinner) to pick up a microwavable Japanese meal and this morning we had a good chat over breakfast about all manner of things. It turns out he's a member of a Japanese-Irish association, has visited the Emerald Isle on a good few occasions and is quite attached to the place. Indeed breakfast was accompanied to the relaxing and in fact ideal morning tunes of Clannad no less.
I dumped my rucksack in the lockers at the train station as has become something of a daily ritual, owing to Youth Hostels chucking out early but not admitting until late, and had a wander about the town. Unlike the previous day though the weather was grey and despite the smiles of the friendly tourist information staff my heart wasn't in it. So after looking around a former ferry that once did the run to Hokkaido island and around a building built in Expo '88 that shows off the local wares and offers both a wonderful 360 degree film of the area's countryside and of course the obligatory top floor view I decided to cut short my tour of the city and head for, what in the brochures at least, looks like the far more attractive city of Hakodate across the water in Hokkaido, but now reachable by 'Super Hakucho!'* train through the world's longest tunnel.
*The exclamation mark isn't strictly necessary but I think it somehow adds the exciting name of this train, which in reality isn't very exciting aside from the fact it does have a nice illustration on the carriage displays showing where the train is between stops including a nice rendition of the tunnel when we were travelling through that, and when the train changes direction at Aomori all the chairs are made to swivel round to face the direction of travel - what a great idea!
Indeed it is from the lobby of one Hakodate's hotels that I type now. Why a hotel? Well the sole Youth Hostel and cheap Japanese guest houses in town are all full today; it seems to be something of a trend I'm noticing that everywhere's pretty quiet except on Saturdays when you have to look out. However being Captain Spontineity (a new Manga character I'm making efforts to promote while I'm in Japan) I turn up and expect a budget-priced bed waiting for me. Not so here though, and as a result I'm staying in a reasonably priced but decently appointed hotel near the train station. It makes a brief change from the funny ways of the hostels I've been experiencing in the past few days. Aside from never really being sure if I've arranged my futon bed correctly or not, it's common to have really restrictive bathing times; in one place you had just a 90 minute window in the evening to bath and shower. Being a prudish Englishman I'm also a bit hesitant at using these communal washing facilities too, but when in Rome...!
I'm off now to see a few of the sights of Hakodate before dinner. Unlike in Aomori in Honshu where it was dull, when the train emerged from the tunnel in Hokkaido the sun was shining, as it continues to do now. From what I've heard Hokkaido generally misses out the June rainy season that afflicts mucho of the rest of Japan, which suits me. If the internet in the hotel remains free later I may well also attempt to upload a few photos. Until then, farewell from Hakidate and Hokkaido!
posted by Daniel at 8:27 am
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