Japan

Lost Souls

Right, these entries are likely to start going increasingly off-track as it's really too much effort to try to keep them on it. So please excuse me if I start ranting about random things.

Right, I keep starting this entry then realising it's been longer than I think since I last told you what I'm up to.

I last typed something in from the lobby of my hotel in Sapporo several nights ago. Since then I took a couple of trains, via Hakodate and through the extremely long Seikan tunnel to Aomori. Why? Not entirely sure. But I booked into a hotel in Aomori for a night, then having failed to work out what I was doing the next day, decided to stay for a second night as well. So with my full day in Aomori I headed up to Nebuto-no-sato where floats from the large summer festival are on display. Then, since it was pouring with rain and I was getting extremely wet, I returned to the city. After wondering around the city a little I ended up looking around one of the ships that used to take trains across the straight to Hokkaido before the tunnel was built.

So, after an exciting but extremely wet day in Aomori I come to yesterday, where I got on a train to Noheji, without really having decided where I was going. But since I was in Noheji I decided I might as well take the small line north to Mutsu on the Shimokita peninsular, which my guide book mentioned as a good base for going up what sounded like an interesting mountain, and spent the night there.

I went up said mountain today, called Osore-zan (probably not exactly, but something like that). It is in fact an exctinct volcanoe where amongst the sulphurous streams at the shore of the crater lake, the souls of the dead are said to gather while waiting to enter the Buddhist heaven. Children must wait there making piles of stones which demons come and knock over during the night. So overall a very happy place. But that is where I caught a bus to this morning and then hung around for an excessive amount of time while waiting for the bus back down.

Right, well after I got back off said damned mountain I caught a couple of trains (needed to change at Noheji again) to Misawa, where I picked up my final rail-pass which lets me use any train on JR East lines for ten days. I got the pass to start tommorow and then caught a final train for the day to Hachinohe, where I am now sitting typing this from the Tourist Information Centre. As I had hoped Hachinohe has a much larger station with a good TIC as it's now the end of the Shinkansen line. Which should also make it easy to get somewhere interesting in the morning. I have arranged a night in a rather expensive hotel (have you noticed how getting discounts on things only results in you spending more money?) for no particular reason but I'm feeling tired. I'm going to go there in a short while at which point I while try to get some idea of what I'm doing tommorow.

Now, after my last entries somewhat excited title about e-mail I find myself getting disolusioned again. It is good to have access to it once more, but having been away from it for so long, and getting to it so irregularly, I suddenly find myself once more extremely irritated about not having any. None. Not even any spam. (No this is not an invitation to send me any spam. And John, I have asked you before not to send e-mails to both accounts at once. It's just irritating). So other than that vague complaint about the fact that this does seem to be largely a lecture with no response from anyone out there, things are going well. With the pass started I'm starting to see the end of this trip looming ahead increasingly quickly. So not sure if anything will happen to the log afterwards. Liable to become a lot less interesting and a lot more random if it doesn't just fold completley. Might even have to talk to people occasionally. Weird.

Right. I warned you this could start going off track. So I'd better try and straighten it out since I need to go get a train soon. (Yes, I know. But Hachinohe station is actually miles outside the centre. I need to get another local train to go two stops in to get to my hotel).

Right. Gonna go write more e-mails. Maybe that way I'll get some back.

Posted by Haifisch at June 3, 2003 09:38 AM