Of course the alarm that I put on the previous day didn’t wake me up; I didn’t have my earphones on in the morning – damn hindsight. The clock was around 8:30. I got my stuff and left the hotel to go to see the Morioka Castle ruins (盛岡城), now the Iwate Park (岩手公園).
Hotel Pearl City
The walk there was fairly short with a couple of photo worthy things. The sky was nice and cloudless, but it was nowhere near as warm as it had been a few prefectures back; it was clear that I had gone northwards. Then I reached one of the park entrances.
The park entrance was a fairly long ramp to the walls of the then castle. Upon reaching the top, I was met with a wonderful sight of a snow capped mountain in the distance. After taking a couple of shots, I moved on the go around the castle, taking pictures of whatever signs there were to translate at a later date, while looking at the great sights and reading whatever English some of the signs had. After having spent an hour or so at it, I was met by a Japanese lady walking her dogs; she was interested in talking to me.
Her English skills were not quite as good as the ones that the man in Sendai (仙台) had, but we understood each other in the end. The talk was the usual – what are you listening to, where are you from, when are you leave, etc. After exchanging farewells, I took a couple of more shots and headed for the station to go to Aomori City (青森市).
On my way to the station, I went to Mister Donuts for some… well… donuts, after which I continued on to a McDonalds to eat breakfast – Ugh, I really need to stop being such a glutton. When all the eating was done with, I moved on to the platforms.
I guess there’re Marimekko products being sold here
I arrived to the platforms only to notice that all the trains going to Shin-Aomori station (新青森駅) need a reservation – after a moment of trying to avoid doing this (I don’t even know why), I went to the ticket office to get myself a reservation. Thankfully all reservations are free with the JR Rail Pass. With the ticket in my possession, I waited for the train and boarded it when it arrived.
The trip was the usual passing out with a little bit of scenery watching and reading on my next destination. I had read up on it earlier, but now I just wanted to confirm the location of my target before moving to a hotel: Sannai-Muruyama site (三内丸山遺跡), a Joumon period archaeological site. Upon arriving, I headed towards it.
On my way there, I noticed that there was spots of snow all around the town; all of it made me just think of home. Hell, on my way to the site, I got really nostalgic because of how homey the suburbs felt. While going there, I went through a park… but it wasn’t just any park.
The park in question was actually a graveyard – a massive one at that. The Sannai Graveyard (三内霊園). The roundabout in the middle of the graveyard had a couple of shops in it – most of them closed when I arrived. I moved through the graveyard fast, not taking many pictures on the way – not because I am religious or superstitious, but rather because I wanted to honour the dead.
After having moved on, I got a bit lost and ended up in a small temple area, covered in snow – pictures of it were taken, of course. I then backtracked a little and kept on moving to the site.
I eventually found myself entering the building that was the entrance to the site, and I was greeted by a friendly, lively Japanese man. I was offered an English brochure after I asked for it, after which the man showed me the way to the coin lockers to store my stuff. I left my laptop back there and moved on in to the site with the guidance of the man. On our way there, he notified that I had an hour to check everything out due to them closing up at 17:00. He gave me a quick run down on things, hopping around, explaining to me how the Joumon people had had houses on six huge pillars, and then saying his goodbyes. I then went through the fascinating site, taking pictures of whatever I could,and then moving on to the museum indoors to take a look at the recovered artefacts. I, unfortunately, didn’t have the time to get any souvenirs from the museum due to it closing up.
Having left the site, I finally started looking for a place to stay in for the night. I walked back towards the station while trying to get a reservation, but Booking.com decided to not work; it just wanted to complain about my email. After a lot of frustration, I just decided to walk to the hotel I had chosen, Art Hotel Color Aomori. The walk kept getting more and more painful as I went on due to having walked pretty much the entire day, but I eventually reached it.
The hotel’s front desk was on the third floor. Upon getting there, I noticed why it was called “Art Hotel” – it had an interesting aesthetic to it. I got a room after paying my dues, and noticed that it was on the non-standard, “colour floor” – on the eighth floor. When I got there, I knew why it was called that; the doors were colour coded. When I got in, I noticed that even the wall next to your bed is the colour of the door. I quite like this hotel.
Due to being so tired, I just got some food from the nearby konbini, took a bath for the first time since I was, what, two years old? It felt nice. After that, there only ended up being procrastination.
This is where the eleventh day ends.
Withdrew: 0,000 円
Spent: 7,762 円
Remaining cash: 23,159 円
59 円 popped out of somewhere.
Breakdown:
VM – 0,460 円
Mister Donut – 0,216 円
McDonalds – 0,565 円
Art Hotel Color – 4,000 円
Konbini – 2,521 円