Saturday, November 19, 2016

Japan - Day 6 - Shinkansen, Nebuta Warasse

Tuesday, October 18, 2016   Aomori

The Hokkaido Shinkansen just opened on March 26th of this year, and we got to ride it!  Howzdat, yah! It connects Hakodate on Hokkaido Island to Aomori on Honshu Island through the undersea Seikan Tunnel. It was a great start to the next leg of our tour . . . down through the Tohoku region and then ending in Tokyo.

The dude in the poster below is Shohei Otani . . . some awesome young baseball phenom. Here's what MLB.com has to say about him:


Shohei Otani is the next heralded player coming out of Japan. He's a 6-foot-4 right-hander for the Nippon Ham Fighters with a 100-mph fastball and four other pitches that dance like darts around the plate.
And, oh yeah, at 21, Otani is so productive with the bat that his Nippon Professional Baseball team utilizes him as a designated hitter in many of the the games he doesn't start on the mound. That's a first in Japan, where pitchers start only once a week. And it's rarely happened in Major League Baseball, either.

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This was my ticket for the Shinkansen. The fare from Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto to Shin-Aomori was 2,810 yen. 
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I totally blew it and didn't get a picture of the front of the bullet train. I got the side. Ummmm . . . not quite the same, yah.
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When we arrived at Shin Aomori, a whole bunch of us disembarked from the train, so it was crowded on the platform. Our tour guide, Reiko (circled), in her usual calm manner, led us single-file to an area where we could wait until the crowd dispersed. 
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It didn't take long. In no time, all 37 of us in a neat and orderly line U-turned our way and headed in the right direction. 
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Our bullet train ride took only 1 hour and 1 minute, but our bus with the bus driver and bus girl caught the ferry and wouldn't be arriving for another 2 hours.
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No problem for Reiko. She just led our group to this area where we caught a train to Aomori Station, out next destination. 
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It was lunchtime when we arrived at the station, and lunch was to be on our own. Sweetie and I opted to grab a few musubi for a fast bite so that we would have a little extra time to do some shopping. 
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After lunch we met at the Nebuta Warasse Museum which was right across the street from the train station.
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Two of my favorite apple juice were sold here for 400 yen.  I usually pay around $7 for the same thing at Marukai.
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The Nebuta Warasse museum is dedicated to the famous Nebuta Matsuri which is held every summer in Aomori. Several floats built for past festivals are on display.
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I have choke photos of the floats here. I did cull out a bunch, but they're so awesome looking that I left a lot in. 
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Our hotel, the Aomori Sunroute Hotel, was not far away so after visiting the museum, we walked to the hotel. I'm so glad that we did because apple trees lined the street, and I was able to take a few pictures. 
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This is so amazing to me!
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Apples! So WOW.
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Here's our hotel. There were two 100-Yen stores nearby so after we checked in we immediately went to check them out. 
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And ummmm . . . where are the photos of the two 100-yen stores, you ask?  Well, I asked myself the same thing. Apparently, I took none. Bah!

So we have to go straight to the dinner photos.  It was a Western style fixed menu, and once again it was gooooood.
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Would you believe this was my favorite dish?  Raw fish salad again! Whaaaaaat?? How can?
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Lastly, I wanted to tell you about rubber stamping in Japan in case you don't know about it. A lot of places have rubber stamping stations with stamps for you to use to document your travel. Sweetie joined in with some of the other ladies in our tour group last year and came home with quite a collection. 

I wanted to do the same on this trip. It was fun looking for these stations wherever we went. We would get all excited whenever we found one.
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Cute souvenir, yah!
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13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! Great photos! Makes me want to go visit Japan again! So many neat things to see and eat! LOL

Izsmom

Honolulu Aunty said...

What a fun day! The salad looks aMAZING! What did you get at the 100 yen store? You make me wish I could be whisked to Japan to partake of sights (apples on apple trees!), tastes, and shopping!

jalna said...

Thanks Izsmom! I keep wanting to go back too!

Aunty, I mostly just got knick knacks and some food stuff, not as much as on previous trips. I wish I took photos of items in the store, at least to share.

Nippon Nin said...

So neat! I enjoyed the colorful photos! I'm excited about new shinkansen to Hokkaido.
By the way, people can pluck the apples from the apple trees?

celia said...

You must be so happy to get such quality photos with your smaller new camera. Thanks for sharing, Now I want to go to Japan.

Mark Shelby said...

The Japanese are so Brilliant! I am always so impressed with everything they do! Thanks for sharing Jalna!

Leslie's pics said...

whoa! those are some cool floats! Awesome low light pics too!!!

K and S said...

loved all the apple trees that lined the streets, when we passed by the central area of town there were apple trees with large sized apples!

Chet Colson said...

thanks for posting the Nebuta Warasse Museum pics. We have the Nebuta Festival on our schedule to Aomori next summer. Raw fish salad looks yum.

jalna said...

Akemi, I wondered if people can pick the apples too. If the trees were here, people would pluck them before they're even ready.

I agree Mark.

They're so impressive, Les.

Large apples, Kat!! WOW!

Oooooh, Chet, you'll enjoy it in real life!!

Unknown said...

Jalna, what are the float panels made out of? Some kind of plastic, or paper (can't imagine that paper would be sturdy enough to last from season to season)? And I do love the Daisos in Japan. Wish they had them here!

jalna said...

Lorna, I think they're made with washi paper!!!

Kay said...

I always love those rubber stamps and tried to carry my journal with me all the time so I could get them.

Your float photos are so awesome. They had them in Korea, but would you believe we opted not to see them at night because of the demonstration? Doggone it! I can see from your photos what I probably missed.

We did find a Daiso in Korea, but I really think it wasn't as impressive or as big as those in Japan.