Sept. 13th - To Hachinohe

 I almost missed my train because I had the times mixed up in my head. I could have taken the 9.44h or the 10.56h train and in my head it had become 9.56h. Luckily I had a buffer and made it in the last minute.

The trainride from Sapporo to Hakodate was better than the other way round because weather was sunny. Makes a world of a difference. I couldn't get a window seat anymore and didn't want to shove my mobile into the face of the very friendly elderly man beside me, so not many pics.

The clouds look 2D again. A glitch in the Matrix? Renderpipeline broken?

A river flows into the sea.

Nice contrast with the rusty railway.

A monument to something or someone somewhere in the ocean.

They have a coop at the moment between the city of Hakodate and the Anime series "Detective Conan". One of the oldest still running Anime series (since 1996, mange since 1994!) and he is still a child teen detective in the form of a child because of a toxin. Anyways, the series is more comedic than sinister and in the video you hear the current title song and Conan's synchro voice. Very upbeat.  

In Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto (the Shinkansen station on the outskirts of Hakodata city) I had ample time to change trains to the Hayabusa Shinkansen and this time I had a window seat. The ride was around 1.5 hrs, including the tunnel again. All in all I was travelling from hotel to hotel around 6.5 hours. 

A farewell picture to Hokkaido and Mount Hakodate.

A bit zoomed in.

Tohoku landscape in late summer.

Hachinohe Shinkansen platform

Not many people left the train with me. But quite some entered for going south to Sendai and Tokyo.

In my hotel (nice one again), I waited for the sunset and went out when it was almost dark. The Hachinohe Yokocho are like Golden Gai in Shinjuku withut the annoying things. There was a very nice and relaxed atmosphere and people in the small towns are much more open and some interesting google translate enhanced talks ensued both with the landlords and other guests. 

Here is an article with a description and professional photos and a worthwhile video at the end.

Link to article and video: Visit Hachinohe's Yokocho

Looks like french fries but is actually a seasonal kind of squid tempura.

An indian curry place

Good craft beer.

Here some Japanese businessmen treated me to a drink and a helping of smoked nuts and raisins. Never had smoked raisins before. Work very well with Whisky.

The stalls and pubs are really small and got pretty cramped the later it became. They have typically 6-8 seats and the landlords are logistical wonders. I really admire how they manage to even squeeze a kitchen into there and serve delicious fresh food.  You typically don't stay in one place, but hop along, drink and eat something everywhere. So did I. Had a lot of drinks, ate delicious food, had some fun talks and overall exactly the evening I had wished for.

Today I have a slight hangover (less than anticipated) and have to do laundry again. So I wrote this while waiting for the machine to finish. Today I will mostly relax and visit Sushiro later on (a Japanese chain with good sushi on conveyor belts). I will tuck in early, since I need to hit the morning market around 7 am to get my fill before it closes at 9 am.