Oh boy. I’m not sure why I decided to spend three days in Sakaiminato other than it’s nice and quiet and that’s not bad. It’s also the hometown of Mizuki Shigeru, best known for his character Gegege no Kitaro, and a researcher of phantoms and ghostly apparitions and I like that sort of thing. The stations on this peninsula all have nicknames of apparitions and the walk from the station to the Mizuki Shigeru Museum is lined with Japanese spectres.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I started with a giant breakfast that came with my room:

I did NOT finish it all and it was a leisurely morning since my train didn’t leave until 10:24. It was a small two-car train at first that stopped in the middle of nowhere after a beautiful trip down the coast.

After a 43 minute wait we got on a much newer one-car train that took us to the big city of Tottori.

Then, after a 51 minute wait we rode a much bigger four car train to Yonago.

And then finally a 21-minute wait for the Gegege no Kitaro-themed train (one car) up the peninsula to Sakaiminato.

I checked into the hotel and went to the tourist bureau that pretty much confirmed the road to the museum was all there was to see in this town, and then I asked how to get to the “close” towns of Izumo and Matsue. Turns out you can get there, but it’s 3 hours back from Izumo and 1 ½ back from Matsue. I’ve got nothing better to do, really. (I was mad for a while and considering other options, but meh. I’m on vacation.)

I went down the street to the museum. Today is the LAST day they’re open until 7pm. Tomorrow is October and that means they’re closing at 5pm. I dilly-dallied to see the lighting on the street. The models of the spectres that line the street are all lit by floodlights and there’s shadows of other apparitions projected onto the sidewalk. But the town rolls up the streets at 5pm and it didn’t get dark enough for the lighting until 6-ish. The only people out then were all speaking Asian languages I didn’t understand and all the stores were closed.

I got back to the hotel and the hotel restaurant (the only one I knew about) said they were full for the night. Fortunately I bought a beef sushi bento that I couldn’t eat for lunch because I was too full and I had it for dinner.

Sushi rice topped with nori, topped with egg, topped with great Tajima beef.

Later from the bath on the top floor I saw a Lawson that’s only 5 minutes away so I should be OK. I did my laundry, took a bath, bought a ¥300 beer from the beer robot, and I feel much better.

So there wasn’t a whole lot going on in Fukuchiyama, and the JR people weren’t all that nice to me, but it kind of grew on me. And my room at the Sunroute was fairly quiet. It was on the 2nd floor and right across from an ER on a main road which seemed ominous. I even heard one bosouzoku go by with his loud motorcycle (one of several) but that was the only once and it was around 7pm.

Anyway, I didn’t want to pig out (yet) so I went back to the station where I saw a coffee shop. I was the only one there! The guy got a little upset when I said I didn’t like “sour” coffees and was describing the flavor I wanted, insisting that his coffee was not that way. (Take that you hipsters with your light and bright crap!) I think he was quite a coffee nerd and I had a really nice cup of Kilimanjaro with some toast.

Then it was an easy ride to Kinosaki – just one train! I got there way too early to check in, so I looked for the craft brewery I heard about. I upset that guy too when I said I wanted to walk to the brewery. Seems like I found all the touchy people today.

It was a Weizen and not bad, but screw those guys.

It was another hot (and humid) day so I decided not to walk to the top of the cable car (I wore long pants again) and took a ride up. It was nice and cool up there and I even had a fairly good hot dog.

There was a weird game where you were supposed to pray at the temple and then make a wish and try to throw plates through a hole in a board. It looked hard and I confirmed it by watching some people completely miss the board.

I spent some time up there and it was nice and breezy and cool. I figured it was cooling down so I should walk down the mountain. Not the best idea either. It was rather slippery and slightly muddy at the top (a few times I wondered if I was going to end up sliding my way down) and it took a while to get to the temple, Onsendera, at the middle cable car station. I met some people coming up and found out that from Onsendera it was 1000+ steps straight up/down.

At the bottom there’s a spring where the water comes out of the ground at 80°C! They sell eggs there and you can cook the eggs in the hot water to make your own famous Japanese onsen tamago.

I got back to the ryokan and checked in just after 2pm.

I changed into my yukata, got my onsen pass, and went around to all the public onsen except for two – one was closed and the other was all the way back at the station and I didn’t feel like walking that far in my ryokan geta. Five baths killed a lot of time because I got back just in time for dinner! I told them that sure, I’d pay the extra ¥10,000 for the special kaiseki dinner (in-room no less). It was great and not so much that I wanted to pass out afterwards.

After that it was just another bath in the ryokan onsen, and off to bed!

Fukuchiyama was a weird idea for me. I didn’t want to go to Kinosaki Onsen on a Saturday night, figuring I could find a room easier on a Sunday so I made an extra stop in Fukuchiyama. The Fukuchiyama Line is the train that took me from Osaka Station to Itami-city where I used to live so I figured there must be SOMETHING in Fukuchiyama.

I started out the day walking to yet another different train station in Sabae. I thought it was closer and would be more fun. I’m an idiot. It was more fun, but it’s kind of raining and that just means it’s humid as f*ck. I was sweating and wondering why I do this to myself. I even wore long pants again because I’m an idiot. So I sweat for a while and got on the train and almost fell asleep. I had to take four trains. One from North Sabae to Sabae, an express from Sabae to Maibara, a Shinkansen from Maibara to Kyoto, and then another “express” train to Fukuchiyama. The line from Kyoto to Fukuchiyama is rickety and the train rocks a lot. (This convoluted trip is why the guy at Niigata with no computer didn’t want to sell me any more tickets.)

And Kyoto is never my favorite place. It was FULL of roundeye travelers and they were standing around EVERYWHERE. I even ran over some woman’s foot because she was walking so randomly. I got an ekiben there which was one of the most stale ekiben I’ve ever had. The food at 7Eleven is better than this

The god punished me for my constant badmouthing of Kyoto – my internet died on my iPhone. I finally got it back after resetting the damn thing.

I got to my hotel and found Fukuchiyama to be also hot and humid. I went back to the station to get a few more train tickets and the woman I got was a trainee, I think. At one point they kicked me out of the line, made the trainee figure out which trains to take, and made me get back in line. It took 40 minutes to get tickets for four stops. They weren’t happy that I wanted to go somewhere that took a bunch of different local trains.

At least I put that time in line to good use and I figured out where the local “tourist bureau” was. Fukuchiyama is another place with few tourists. I went to see Fukuchiyama castle, which is on a hill (of course everything I want to see is up a hill) which is a three-story reconstruction. At least it’s breezy up high and the view was great. There’s also an interesting little art museum at the bottom and you can buy tickets for both at a discounted rate.

The tourist bureau also suggested several odd stops including a textile museum where I could’ve made a coaster on a loom and a couple of older houses that held a bakery and a small museum of the flooding of the river.

The flood museum was just a few posters and some multimedia, but I just looked at the posters and chatted with the guy inside. He explained it all to me and also explained the other display of the older things. He said the building had been a hotel, I think, for 80+ years and he had old household goods on display as well.

After that it was off to another museum, which just was a garage with a steam locomotive inside!

The last stop was a shrine dedicated to Akechi Mitsuhide who is part of Japanese history that I know bits of but I’m not much of a historian. It also had a second shrine behind the first and I know there’s a reason for that but I forget what that could be.

In the park in front of the shrine I heard music and there was a column near some older men who just seemed to be hanging out. The column turned out to be a clock with animatronic figures. I have no idea why it played at 3:30pm.

I just went back to the hotel to rest.

I did get off my tuckus to get dinner and that was a bit more difficult than I’d imagined. Several of the restaurants were izakaya and I picked the wrong one (I was trying to go to the one with the teishoku meals). But before that, wandering around the station, I found another steam locomotive! It’s on a stand made from a turntable.

As I said, I accidentally went to an izakaya which usually turns out to be expensive for me but at least I made it out for ¥3000.

The mystery fish (the thing they always put down when you come in that cost me ¥324), inedible edamame (especially since Niigata had incredibly tasty edamame), and a giant “Caesar” salad that was meh. At least the mystery fish was good.

A mini rice bowl that wasn’t so mini.

And finally tuna that was quickly deep-fried so it was almost like searing it.

The restaurant was odd, too, in that it was all run by young people who looked like they were in their early 20’s.

Anyway, that was my afternoon in Fukuchiyama. Off to a fancy onsen tomorrow.

I thought I lost my hat at one point today and then I realized I’d also lost my phone! At that point I thought I’d have to retrace my steps and miss my bus, but fortunately it didn’t come to that.

But first, breakfast!

I couldn’t decide what to do on my spare day in Sabae, and I wasn’t feeling great about the place anyway. I’d given myself an extra day in case buying glasses in town took time, but just like dropping off my watch it was quicker than I thought. I thought about going back to Fukui on the train but I thought why not just see if there’s anything in town.

Turns out there’s a part of town where they make lacquerware and my new plan was to go there and see the Urushi Museum. Step one was to get to the tourist office that I was sure opened at 10AM to find out which bus to take. I also decided to take the “local” train down there. There was a lot of waiting around because the local train only runs every 30 minutes. There were newer models that looked like the light rail in Portland, but I got to ride the old beater.

I made it to the tourist office only to have them tell me that the bus just left and I’d have to wait 45 minutes for the next one. They also told me that a park was nearby, about 10 minutes walking, and I should check that out. I found out it’s called Nishiyama-koen for a reason since it’s straight uphill to get to the zoo. And it was HOT out. I’m guessing it could’ve been 86°F (30°C) and deathly humid here. My small towel I carry with me was soaked before noon. But I made it up the hill, huffing and puffing most of the way, and I saw the small but free zoo. They have spider monkeys and pheasants and RED PANDAS! There’s a bunch of them (maybe a dozen?) in separate enclosures that are small and sad, but they’re kinda cute.

.

Those guys can climb, too!

I made it back in time for the 11:10 bus and was given a booklet with the schedules. It took 40 minutes to get to the museum and I was a little disappointed when it just looked like a store. But there were a lot of placards with descriptions along with small displays with QR code to get the English translation. I asked what the order of the placards were (they were numbered and the order seemed to jump around a bit) and they pointed out which hallways to follow as well as two more displays in separate buildings.

Tere’s an outbuilding with a lacquered cart used for festivals. It’s almost two stories tall! You can see the railing on the second floor where you can look down.

There’s a cafeteria on the way to the outbuilding and the food there is pretty good and inexpensive. I even had a local specialty, a rice bowl with ground yamaimo and yama uni.

Yama uni isn’t sea urchin, but a paste made from local vegetables. Let me quote from the Sabae City web site.

“A Kawada area located in the Sabae-shi east is the producing center of “Echizen Lacquerware” which is traditional industry also original food culture using the climate of the mountain is an inherited area. The traditional condiments made with each house in this Kawada area “mountain sea urchin” grind and mix the simple material as the citron, the red chili pepper of ears with big earlobes (the red number), the red pepper and the salt carefully by an earthenware mortar, and are made.

By the quantity of the ingredient and an earthenware mortar, it’s ground, degree, a change is seen by the taste and you’re fonder as the taste of each home. When it’s rubbed carefully with big earthenware mortar, it’s considerable hard labor because there is also viscosity but as it is rubbed, it’s said that sweetness and flavor come out more, and I make an effort and am made.”

Ahem. At least it was tasty.

There’s also another outbuilding that has some studios where you can watch people make lacquerware. The woodworking area and the delicate work area weren’t being used so I watched a guy do the rough base lacquer painting. He was quite nice and we had a little chat. He told me to just go to the workshops throughout town and ask them to let me in.

After I was done with the museum (I took forever to buy a pair of travel chopsticks. Yeah, buying chopsticks like an American tourist.) it was only 1PM and I thought there was a bus back around 2:30PM. I looked at the booklet and all I could find was a bus at 3:50PM! (Turns out there was one at 2:28PM that could’ve taken me directly to the hotel, I think. But I didn’t know that at the time.) I had time to kill. I asked the museum for a map and they also told me there were many workshops and most of them would let me in if I asked. I wanted to see the shrine with the maki-e ceiling, but they told me I’d have to ask the area government to let me in.

The first thing I did was get lost. The second thing I did was walk up the hill to the shrine with the fancy ceiling but it looked old and abandoned. I saw a workshop next door, and they looked at me a couple of times, but I didn’t ask to to in. I couldn’t figure out where the entrance was. So back down the hill I went. After dithering a bit, I went back up to see if I could get their attention again but by this time they weren’t by their windows. I wandered around and the only greeting I got from the only person I saw was “It’s hot, isn’t it?”

I finally found a workshop that said “gallery” and I saw some people inside. I asked them if I could look and they invited me in. The lacquerware was beautiful and the items were hundreds or thousands of dollars. I don’t have the eye to tell, but some of the things looked spectacular. And older gentleman came over to chat, and eventually we got to talking about China. He was lamenting the fall of Japan and the craft work he was doing, and said China’s the future. He was pleasant about it and handed me a soda can. They had me sit in the work area to drink it and I talked to his wife (I think) who said they’d just come back from a big show in China. I had brought up the closed shrine and he called around to get me into the shrine. I sat in the shop and stared at one piece that was in front of me. It was beautiful and I bet it was thousands of dollars for a small cup. He gave me a small lacquered spoon and his business card on the way out and I found out he was Matsuda Sanao, one of the top craftsmen in the area according to someone else I talked to.

I went back on my way to the old shrine and a gentleman came to let me in. The ceiling was pretty spectacular, and he told me his grandfather had done three of the sixty maki-e squares on the ceiling. We chatted for a while and he told me why Sabae seemed to be doing so well – it’s the only city in Fukui where the population in increasing! And as for the Kawada lacquerware area, it produces most of the lacquerware for the Japanese restaurants in Japan. He gave me a ride back to his factory which happened to be right in front of the bus station. He made the modern urethane-coated bowls and trays as well as plastic glasses he was making suitable for restaurants and dishwashers. Everything was just as beautiful and he said he’s one of the bigger manufacturers in the area. He even showed me some of the works his grandfather did which were on the level produced by a “Living National Treasure”. He gave me some chopsticks as a gift!

I’ve been trying to figure out who the second guy was and I think his company is https://www.9emon.co.jp which makes his grandfather the guy you find when you search for ?? ?? in Google.

I was at the bus stop 10 minutes early when I realized I didn’t have my hat. “Well,” I thought, “it was worth my hat to meet these interesting people in Kawada!” That’s when I realized I couldn’t find my phone. I walked back up to the gallery, rang the bell, and waited. It took long enough that I was thinking I’d miss the bus and have to take a ¥10,000 taxi ride back to the hotel, but a kid came out after a bit and after I explained about my hat and phone, he returned with both! I made it back to the bus stop a few minutes to spare.

Whew. I made it back to Sabae station and waited 30 minutes for a bus that put me right next to the hotel. Oh, and all those buses are Sabae city buses that only cost ¥100 per ride. I ate dinner at the hotel which wasn’t bad and it was cheap. ¥1000 for everything here, including the (mostly empty in the photo) glass of beer.

And that’s it for Sabae. It took some work to find interesting things to see but this place is definitely growing on me.

It took a while to get to Sabae, because it’s hard to go south out of Niigata. Sabae and Niigata are on different Shinkansen that don’t meet unless you go back almost to Tokyo. I took three trains and had to pay an extra ¥280 at one point to get to Sabae because one of the JR trains turns into a private railway train at the end of its trip.

But first, morning set at the regular spot.

Then it was off to catch an “express” train, a shinkansen, and another “semi-express” train for Sabae. I bought an ekiben at Niigata that wasn’t that bad. Who am I kidding? I love ekiben.

The first train changed companies partway and I had to pay extra. You’re on the same train, but it suddenly its running on someone else’s rails.

Once I got to Sabae I thought I’d made a big mistake. I walked to the hotel and it took around 35 minutes and it was HOT today. Plus, there was absolutely nothing on the road between the train station and the hotel so I didn’t know if there would be anything to do. Oh, and taking a taxi back to the train station cost ¥1500.

I came here for the Megane Museum as Sabae is known for making most of the eyeglass frames in Japan. The Megane Museum wasn’t that interesting. There’s a workshop you have to sign up for 3+ weeks in advance to hand-make your own frames (or much easier, a toy pair of glasses), the museum is small (about the size of my living room) and all in Japanese, and the rest is just a big store with frames from Sabae.

I bought a pair of glasses and lenses and it wasn’t cheap. I think I paid about ¥90,000 which is $835. They’re going to be delivered to one of the hotels I’m staying in. They better be the shit. Most of the glasses didn’t fit my giant foreigner head. I guess real Japanese people’s ears are much closer to the front of their heads. That’s what I get for eating so many cheeseburgers as I was growing up.

The museum is 15 minutes away from Sabae station. I took the 35-minute walk back to the hotel along the highway (sometimes in the pitch black countryside just like I remember) instead of that podunk road I took from the station to the hotel. On the way there were several restaurants and I ate at a family restaurant called Tomato and Onion. I remember wanting to try Tomato and Onion in the past but I was with my sister and she HATES onions. I had the mix grill to see if it’s better than the refrigerated version I got at 7Eleven back in Niigata.

It wasn’t awesome, but it wasn’t bad.

Now it’s time to figure out what to do tomorrow. Ain’t a whole lot going on in Sabae.

Today I planned to do a whole lot of nothing, and I think I succeeded. There were some really ominous clouds this morning but they burned off and I wandered around town for a bit. But first back to Coffee Club for another morning set.

After that it was off to the, well, I can’t remember what the travel bureau is called but I went to the place to get my next 3-week rail pass. The guy told me he could get me my tickets for the rest of my trip but after he found out what a pain it was to go where I wanted to go he gave up after two stops. Even then it was pretty difficult. He didn’t have the special Japan Railways computer at the counter so he had to do everything with a schedule book first. It took a while.

After that it was just wandering around town for a while. I went to Loft to buy another set of nail clippers since the ones I packed are kind of ass. They’re “travel” clippers though and are in a case. Anyway, I bought another cheap “travel” clipper that worked OK. I saw some Snow Peak tents next to the river so I had to see what’s that’s about. I think it’s more of an evening thing because there were only about a half-dozen customers for three or four restaurants in trailers, but I had lunch there. Of course it got really windy just when I was having lunch.

I walked around the waterfront for a while and even made it back to the Toki Messe that we tried to go to Monday (there was no parking available that day). It’s much easier on a weekday and when you’re walking. There’s a free observatory on the 31st floor with a great view.

There’s a small restaurant on the 31st floor and I had a soft ice cream cone. Looked a little puny but it was tasty and it was also the only way to get a seat.

I went back to the hotel and watched some more Netflix before meeting Dr. Takashi Kawasaki and family for dinner. He took me for steak at the Hotel Okura! Fancy! The first course is a potato soup, by the way.

First time I enjoyed matsutake! I’m not a huge fan but it was good.

This isn’t all the steak. This is just the filet and we had sirloin as well.

At this point I think I was too busy eating and talking to take more pictures until dessert.

And that’s it for my last day in Niigata!

I was supposed to wander around Niigata today (though rain was forecasted) and then meet my friend Sho to go see Snow Peak Headquarters tomorrow. Turns out Snow Peak is closed on Wednesdays (at least the store is closed) and so we had to reschedule. TOMORROW I get to wander around Niigata, which is just as well, because it was raining pretty hard in Sanjo today (where Snowpeak is) and it’s really not that far away.

I found this all out when I was back at the coffee shop that’s in the “non-scary” direction from the train station, having a morning set for breakfast.

Then it was off to Tsubame-Sanjo. I thought it was farther away but on the Joetsu Shinkansen which goes 240 km/h (150 mph), it was 12 minutes. Not only that but I rode a double-decker Shinkansen in the green car.

After that it was off to Snow Peak Headquarters! There’s a Snow Peak store in Portland, but the headquarters were pretty interesting. You can camp there or rent a cabin or snowshoe in the winter, and the R&D is done on-site.

There are large rooms for R&D and the employees can take their laptops wherever (even on camp tables) to work. I couldn’t take any pictures of R&D, or the courtyard with sprinklers to test rain resistance, but here’s the museum (you should be able to see how big the room is). This campsite was all equipment used by customers and then donated to Snow Peak for their display.

After that we stopped at a curry restaurant in the middle of nowhere. Eight elegant counter seats and two two-tops crammed into a small area because this is Japan. We were the only two there for a while and it filled up quickly. The food was great, and a lot of the ingredients are from their garden or farms nearby.

I don’t have a picture of the giant rock we saw that looked like a mini-Halfdome, or the shrine in the woods. I think we were having too much fun being lost and trying to find things. After that Sho had to do some work so I took the long (hah) Shinkansen trip back to Niigata.

For dinner I found a taproom that looked suspiciously closed at 5pm. Turns out they weren’t supposed to be open but the guy decided to open anyway. They had a selection of Niigata beers (and a Heretic) on tap, and the hamburger was great. Good enough that I want to come back of course.

That green thing just tasted like soda. Good soda, though. The stout was pretty strong.

That was a rather tall sandwich and hard to eat, but tasty.

The typhoon missed Niigata and is now just a tropical depression but that didn’t stop it from bringing the heat and some crazy winds. I met some old friends (the three Kawasaki siblings) and they showed me around the city. We kind of took it easy because we weren’t sure about the typhoon until it truly petered out. And then when we went out we weren’t sure about the heat and the winds. Anyway, I started out the day at Toyoko Inn with their usual free breakfast.

I complain about the thin walls, but I had one of the better nights of sleep on this trip.

I met Dr. Masaru Kawasaki (the middle sibling and eldest son). Sho (the eldest, daughter) and Dr. Takashi Kawasaki (the youngest, son) met us in a car. If I recall correctly, Sho is about an hour away by car. The other two live in Niigata city. We did touristy things, like going to this temple I can’t remember the significance of. I think it’s quite old, at the very least. The temple guard dog statues are unique: you’re supposed to make a wish and rotate them (they’re on stone turntables.)

We also went to the old customs house, saw the river, and did lots of little historical things places that Masaru had mapped by hand. I told them I wanted soba and we tried a bunch of places until we went back to the half-dead shopping street near the hotel I got on short notice.

The place had a waiting list which felt weird because no one out in the shopping street. I guess this is the only destination in the entire shopping arcade. I see why people still make the trek through the ghost arcade – the food was tasty. They serve special Niigata edamame, and the edamame were surprisingly better than “regular” edamame. More fresh too.

After that it got even hotter and the wind died down a bit. We went to an old temple area with the first public central park in Japan, right next to a soccer stadium. (I don’t have any pictures but we peeked into the stadium at some point.)

After that went to an old viewpoint where you used to be able to see the Japan Sea, but now you can only see the neighborhood they built on infill. There’s a very new temple at the old viewpoint and you can see the new viewpoint in the distance.

We got to the hotel I’m staying in for a couple of days and woo is it different. It’s a Dormy Inn, but the rooms don’t have any bathing facility at all. Just a toilet and two sinks. There’s a bath on the top floor and that’s what you’re supposed to use. We walked around the neighborhood a bit looking for a coffee shop and it appears that the hotel isn’t in the greatest area.

The Kawasaki siblings left me on my own for dinner and by that time the wind had picked up again with a vengeance. Sand was blown in my eyes as I walked down the road so I figured I’d just go to the closest convenience store and eat in my room.

I’m sure it wasn’t good for me, but it was tasty enough.

I watched Netflix, took a bath, and did my laundry. Dormy Inn’s are cheap for laundry (plus it’s cheap to stay at this particular Dormy Inn). The washing machine was free and the dryer cost ¥100 for 20 minutes. I did have some difficulty – a drunk guy had put some of his items in my washer and I couldn’t figure out the dryer for a while – but it all worked out. In any case my clothes are cleaner than before they went in the washer.

There’s a typhoon coming tomorrow and my Niigata friends convinced me to get to Niigata early and avoid travel on typhoon day. Another friend traveling in Japan just emailed and told me she missed a bunch of planned stops on her trip because the typhoon is already in her area.

I was supposed to go Yamagata, where I think I’ve seen most of what I needed to see (Yamadera in particular) but I have the most fun showing up places that have nothing and making a day of it. I think I’ve realized now that even more of what I wanted to see could’ve been done with day trips from Sendai, but where’s the adventure in that?  It’s also more exciting to cancel my trains and a hotel room in Yamagata and then find something for one night in Niigata on short notice. I found one room at Toyoko Inn and it was only $38. I’m remembering why I decided to pay 2-6 times as much for hotels this trip because the walls here are THIN. The Bose Sleepbuds I bought take care of most of the noise and the rooms are always clean and fairly big for Japan.

Anyway, I was supposed to go from Akita to Morioka to Sendai on the Shinkansen, and then over to Yamagata on a normal train. Instead, I went from Akita to Morioka back to Akita, and then on to Niigata. This was my chance to ride the Akita Shinkansen, a mini-Shinkansen, that reverses direction in the middle of the trip. In Morioka it is either attached to or detached from the Shinkansen that goes to Tokyo. It goes 300km/hr on the main track to Tokyo, but much slower on the Morioka-Akita section.

What I did was get on the Akita Shinkansen from Akita to Morioka, get off, and get on another one that was going from Morioka to Akita. That was three hours. Then I got on the “express” train to Niigata which took another 3½ hours. But first, I found a Tullys that took me a while to get into and had a morning set (the department store was closed and you had to go in a door that I thought was locked so I spent a lot of time walking in circles). Only half a sandwich but it was delicious. Ham and egg and I think gruyere cheese.

Then I bought some tea and some chips and got on the Shinkansen portion of the ride. I also got one of these smoothies that I’ve been drinking every day, hoping it has some nutrients since I don’t eat that well while traveling.

Niigata is getting hard to access because the rail companies figure a Shinkansen from Tokyo is all they need. So getting to any of the other towns that has a different Shinkansen is inconvenient and requires backtracking to Tokyo, which is what I was supposed to do on typhoon day. From Akita you can ride the Inaho down the coast a couple of times a day.

The green car itself was kind of weird, with partitions between the seats so you couldn’t see the seat in front, just the partition. You can see it in the picture of the Akita Ekiben I got for lunch.

Not the best I’ve had, but not bad.

On the way down I listened to podcasts and played with my phone. Used Wikipedia to look up all the towns we stopped at, etc, and also the route from the station to the hotel. I think I must’ve looked up the wrong hotel, because it wasn’t 6 minutes walking, it was more like 25. I should’ve taken a cab. Like I said, Toyoko Inn, nice spacious clean room. They gave me a room on a higher floor away from the elevator, but the walls are definitely thin.

I only left the hotel to get some dinner and I think the area I’m in is mostly drinking establishments. I wandered around for a while because I can’t get out of a drinking place here without spending at least ¥5000. Plus the last two nights I’ve been to breweries and I’ve gone into why a taster tray made up of full pints is not ideal.

I found a half-dead department store, and I thought it would have a restaurant floor. It had one restaurant, an okonomiyaki place, and only one other couple was there. It was passable, though. Niigata probably isn’t known for Okonomiyaki. I have to wait for Osaka to get the good stuff.

Yeah, I caved and had ONE beer.

Much less DIY than I’d expect, but whatever. It was fine. It came prepared, and you just put on the toppings.

Tomorrow I see old friends. I hope the typhoon heads the other way!

You’re going to have to give me a minute because for the second day in a row I convinced myself I needed to try all the beers at a brewery. Not only that but was a typical Japanese brewpub which meant no tastes of beer, no taster tray, just full-size beers. After the customers I was talking to figured out I wasn’t from Japan, they sent me to a second taproom where I convinced myself that would be a good idea to try even more beer. I got really lost on the way back but Akita isn’t that big and I wasn’t too far from my hotel.

But first, breakfast in Hirosaki. The breakfast at the Hirosaki Route-Inn was included and was pretty good. The only bad part was the coffee, and I thought that would be remedied by the coffee machine in the lobby (it was not).

In any case, I made it to Akita on the same express train that I took the day before but this time I rode to the terminus in Akita-city. I was disappointed at the station when they wouldn’t let me on the Shinkansen platform to look at the Akita Shinkansen (a mini-Shinkansen line that doesn’t go as fast and also only goes from Morioka to Akita.) I just wanted to see it and my rail pass would let me ride it but they wouldn’t just let me on the platform for rubbernecking purposes.

I got to the Dormy Inn and I broke out my laptop to try to frantically find a hotel for Sunday night (the next night). During the train ride down my friends from Niigata convinced me to ditch my plans to go to Yamagata on Sunday (tomorrow) and just arrive in Niigata early because Typhoon 17 was on its way (I’m not sure who named it Tapah, but it’s just called 17 in Japan).

Fortunately, I found a Toyoko Inn for cheap ($40?) but it wasn’t close to the train station. I also tried to find a way to still get a ride on the Akita Shinkansen without delaying my trip to Niigata too much. Fortunately the guy at the ticket counter was friendly to train nerds so he got me tickets that went from Akita to Morioka, back to Akita, and then down to Niigata. The Akita-to-Akita trip was about three hours, but I would be back in time for the 1PM train from Akita to Niigata.

After that it was tourist time. The first thing I went to was the “Folklore and Performing Arts Center” where they did the lantern balancing from the Kanto Matsuri. It was another museum dedicated to a festival like the Nebuta/Neputa festival museums of both Aomori-city and Hirosaki.

I had to get there quickly because the demonstration where they balanced the lanterns on their foreheads, chins, hands, and hips was about to start. Later in the afternoon I saw them doing the same thing on the street.

I got the “loop ticket” and did most of the things available to me, the Akarenga art museum, the Kubota-jo museums (Satake historical museum and the castle turret display), the art gallery in the Atorion Building, and the Akita Citizen’s Market.

And then dinner. Was it wise to drink my dinner again? Probably not, but that’s just how I do it. I had five beers at Beercafe Aqula and both of the Japanese craft beers on tap at Beer Flight (they also had several American craft beers).

I did have SOME dinner, excellent sausages at Aqula:

And snacks on the way home:

I also took advantage of the big bath in the hotel and now I’m about to pass out.

Today I had a short travel day and I took a 35-minute express train ride to Hirosaki. That should’ve given me plenty of time to eat breakfast and pack, but it was iOS 13 day so I updated my phone and watch before I left. That only gave me a little time (I lie, I had plenty of time) to grab some food at Lawson. A smoothie, a coffee, a tuna/egg salad sandwich set, and pork filet sandwiches. The sign said the pork filet sandwiches were “new” and that grabbed my attention just like any “limited” menu items I see in Japan.

The trip to Hirosaki was uneventful (as you’d expect for a 35-minute trip) and I probably didn’t need to take the Green (half-)car since the trip was so short. It would’ve been easier to be in a regular car because I’d be closer to the door. But that’s what the guy gave me at the counter, and it wasn’t so bad to have a seat to myself in a half-car for the half-hour.

For as close as it is to Aomori, Hirosaki seemed like a completely different town. It’s a country town with plenty going on and laid out in a bigger pattern. I walked from the station to the castle even though the travel information counter told me, “But it’s going to take you 30 minutes!”

I got to the castle and realized 69°F is kind of warm when it’s humid. The castle grounds were nice but when I finally got to the castle it was tiny! Turn out the museum inside was pretty cool and described why. It was just one of the “turrets” and the “castle” itself was a large sprawling building. Like a 17th century Japanese ranch house that took up multiple blocks. (That fence is shorter than I am.)

The turret is supposed to be at a corner of the grounds, but the wall under the turret needed to be rebuilt after the Tohoku earthquake in 2011 so they transported it to the middle of the high ground. The museum described it all.

The gates are all from the 1600’s (I’m sure they’ve been rebuilt in that time to replace rotting timbers, etc) and they’re all pretty cool.

Some of the outer turrets are fenced off and this one is right next to a playground! I took the picture from across the moat.

Next I went to the Nacho Historical House Preservation Area, which turned out to be not a whole lot. Mostly a lot of houses that looked like they were owned by rich people.

There were only two houses open. Honestly, besides the samurai accoutrements, it just seemed like my grandmother’s house but rebuilt rather than torn down at the end.

Next I went to the Nebuta museum. There’s three types: figures, fans, and standing. Aomori has giant figures, and Hirosaki has fans. It didn’t seem as impressive as the Aomori Nebuta, but the museum also had a live Tsugaru shamisen performance, Tsugaru crafts, and a garden.

After that I went to visit the 33 Zen temples. I wasn’t expecting much. I waited for the bus for a long time before I realized I could just walk 20 minutes to get there.

The Zen temples were pretty awe inspiring. There were 33 full-sized Zen temples. Not the tiny temples crammed into neighborhoods like in Tokyo, but full-size temples.

At the last temple, Chosonji, there were people chanting in one of the buildings.

I waited for the ¥100 tourist bus on the way back but gave up and took a regular bus.

I bought an Apple Coke (the special Coke for the area – not that bad) and checked into my hotel.

I watched Netflix for a while until I knew the Be Easy Brewpub would be open and it was great. The beers were good and even the hazy was drinkable (hazies aren’t my favorite). They even had a “Strawberry and Lavender” which wasn’t sickly sweet – it was a sour. All great! The owner is an American with an interesting backstory – he was a bomb tech for the Army.

There weren’t that many customers on a Friday night. I guess it was the first cold day and everyone was hiding out (sort of like the first rainy day in Portland.) I chatted with the brewer who was on tap duty and he might come visit Portland next year.

After that I got a taxi back to the hotel and took a bath in the big tub up on the 14th floor.

Tomorrow it’s Akita!

Today was a travel day and really it’s just as well. I haven’t been feeling 100% and sitting on my ass all morning was pretty much what I needed. It would’ve been better if the chair on the Super Hokuto train was as nice as the chair on the Shinkansen, but whatever. I was asleep part of the time and I felt fine.

It takes a while to pack up my stuff so I didn’t rush and took a taxi to Sapporo station. I found breakfast at the very same place I had breakfast on Monday on the way to the airport. I don’t have to show you the buzzer they give you to pick up your food again. This time I got the bacon and egg.

After that I got on the train and had to kick an older woman out of my seat. She was going further than I was but it was my seat after all. She got the aisle so it wasn’t awful for her. It was 3 ½ hours on the Super Hokuto, another hour on the Tohoku Shinkansen, and then 10 minutes on a local train to get to Aomori. There was a 40 minute layover in Shin-Hakodate so I bought an ekiben there.

For cold lunches, ekiben are pretty good.

I figured I’d stop at Aomori because I was going to spend enough time on trains for one day. There’s only a couple of things to see in Aomori according to the travel web sites and I was prepared to be underwhelmed. The Wa Rasse Nebuta museum seemed to start out a little dull, but they housed four of the best floats from the previous year’s parade. The floats are impressive. They’re 7m by 9m (23′ x 29.5′), made of wire and paper, and lit internally by electric lights and a construction generator. The size is pretty spectacular. It takes them a year to make one, and one of the designers is quoted on a video as saying he does it without plans.

There was also a demonstration of the music played during the festival and a busload of Chinese tourists.

It didn’t take very long to see the whole museum, but it was really worth the trip to Aomori to see it.

Right next door is some interesting architecture at the A-Factory. The A-Factory turned out to be a souvenir shop with some restaurants, but what did I see in the back?

Is it a craft beer brewery?

Unfortunately it was “just” an apple cider maker. There’s a tasting machine upstairs.

For ¥900 you could taste everything they had.

I also talked to two women from DC and one of them complained a lot about the heat. Ha. Just like I do.

On the water right behind the A-Factory is a large ferry that’s being used as a museum. I thought I’d give it a chance and I highly recommend it.

This was the Japan National Railway ferry that went across the Tsugaru Strait to Hakodate, which explains why there’s a large but mostly abandoned-looking rail yard terminus here. You could ship things by train to Aomori and it would continue on to Hokkaido on the ferry. There are even rail tracks straight onto the ferry and they’d just load mail cars and ship them across the strait. A tunnel was completed in the ’80’s but until then it took a plane or a boat to get to Hokkaido.

The entrance floor (the 2nd, I think) has a meeting room and the ticket booth. The 3rd floor had photos and dioramas of older times when the ferry was in use. There were ferry passengers and apple sellers. It’s pretty interesting and shows how far Japan has come. There are also displays of the ferries and trains of the time.

The 4th floor shows more information on the ship including different levels of berths and the bridge. You can go up to get on the upper deck above and a large snowblower is sitting out there waiting for the huge snows of the area.

The path leads back down to the elevator for the first floor, which would be a car deck but it’s the rail car deck for freight and mail cars that loaded directly onto the ship.

Down below were the engine and generator rooms.

It was pretty cool.

After that I went back to the A-Factory to have a hamburger. They had a limited number of ¥3000 aged beef burgers and when I saw there was one left I had to have it.

It wasn’t that big, but it was tasty.

Well, that’s pretty much it. I feel like I’m overpaying for another hotel room, but it does seem to be quiet so I’m OK with it. Not like I have much choice.