Japan

Er... Hi?

Guess I sort of should do an entry now having been through several cities since the last one (I'm in Yamagata now), though having done that non-entry makes me feel like I've done one recently. Also means unfortunatly I've lost track again of what I have and haven't told people about. It doesn't help that I keep telling individual people about parts of it.

Right, the last complete entry I did was from where? Gonna need to check aren't I? Hmm... After that weird outing into rapidly multiplying windows, I find it was even longer ago than I had realised. This could take some time....

Okay, the last complete entry you seem to have got was at the end of my nice day-trip from Morioka and just before my second night there. Oh dear. This isn't looking promising. I can hardly remember what I did that long ago. It's been all of what? A few days? Right, must give it a try though.

Now, the next morning, before setting off from Morioka I talked to Tourist Information there and arranged a night in Folkloro Tono, a JR-run hotel directly above Tono station. I then got on a rapid train heading East along the line towards Miyako. I took that train all the way to the end and wondered outside the station for a few minutes. Deciding the weather wasn't good enough to make it worth wondering down to the beach (and waiting for the next train in three hours time) I got quickly onto a local train heading south to a place I forget the name of.

It's name probably isn't of great importance though since I was only there for the few seconds it took me to check with a guard that the train on the other side of the platform to where my train had just pulled in stopped at Tono and get onboard.

That train winded through yet more mildly distracting countryside until it reached Tono just after 3 O'clock. I checked into my hotel on top of the station and then wondered off to the local museum and just strolled around the small town in the nice warm afternoon sun.

The next day I left my bag at the hotel and hired a bike to ride around a few of the outlying sights, including a small valley containing hundreds of buddhist images carved onto the rocks and a recreation of a traditional village. By O'clock I had returned to Tono and picked up my bags again, and got back on the same train I had arrived on the previous day to proceed on to Shin-Hanamaki where I joined the Shinkansen bound for Sendai. No, sorry, Ichinoseki. I keep forgetting chunks.

By the time I got to Ichinoseki it was nearly five and the Tourist Information didn't know of anywhere I could stay in the city. They did manage to make a reservation in the youth hostel at Hiraizumi. Anyway, I quickly got a local train to Hiraizumi and went to the youth-hostel (within the grounds of Motsu-ji, and run by the monks). After a pleasant night there I walked round the gardens of the temple before taking a longer than expected walk up to Chusen-ji. (Probably wrong. Really should have looked these up.)

After looking around said temple I took a bus back to the station and then picked my bag back up from the youth hostel, just managing to get the next local train back to Ichinoseki. Leaving my back in a locker I caught another local train to Geibeikei (I think), where there is a gorge that I took a trip along in a boat resembling a giant punt. After the trip got back I just missed the next train back to Ichinoseki and so was left hanging around that small town for a while.

Getting the next train got me back to Ichinoseki after five-thirty and the Tourist Information had closed so I retrieved my bag from it's locker before rejoining the Shinkansen to Sendai. The Tourist Information there quickly found me a hotel and it was from that hotels lobby the previous non-entry was posted that evening.

Right, just added a few names. Not sure if they're all right or not. May fix them properly sometime.

Posted by Haifisch at June 11, 2003 06:18 AM