Fri 25th April – Hike (Hachinohe to Tanesashikaigan)
CR:
9km hike scheduled today, with a small (but infrequent) train ride from the hotel at the beginning and the end.
Today is described as leisurely in the Auswalk booklet. Given that Hachinohe is famed (maybe) for having the longest daylight hours in Japan, and given we have an easy day of walking ahead, we get up at 5.30am and go to a small fish market a few train stops away before breakfast at the hotel. We have a whale of a time.
In terms of today’s walk, I feel that the ‘leisurely’ description is apt. It is extremely well marked, relatively flat walking. There’s plenty of time for activities along the way. We visit a marine science museum and a bird shrine.
After the hike, Declan definitely does not have a sleep and we watch an episode of Jury Duty on the iPad. Then we go out and hit the town before heading to bed at 8.30pm. Early start and longer walk tomorrow.
DW: The suspiciously red meat is indeed whale sashimi (likely Minke). A quick google translate of the label described it as “recommended, soft but not mushy”. In another shop we saw a slab of equally red meat that was too physically large to come from any fish I know of. CR: Despite having breakfast to look forward to at the hotel, we sneak in a small tray of salmon sashimi. Very tasty. Fish here is soooo cheap. You can get a whole massive octopus for A$30, or quite a big fillet of salmon sashimi for A$13. Give a cat A$100 to spend in here and they’d have a purr-fect time.DW: There were dozens of small fish and produce shops around the main market. Most of these were closed, but a number were open and in trade with people wandering around. I wonder if the shops are tied to specific fishing boats or they are middlemen. The fact that most were shut and others all had random mixed selections makes me think the former.CR: Boyfriend last seen 25th April. DW: I would like to report as of 24th April I am of sound mind and health. I suspect my girlfriend may be plotting something, if I go missing in the next few days it is not a coincidence.DW: Kaubishma Shrine is the start of the walk. During Spring it is roosting season for the migratory Black Tailed Gulls. There are apparently 30,000 in this area and I believe it. They nest everywhere including in the middle of the footpath in the shrine. CR: There is a stand filled with umbrellas free for borrowing. Can you imagine why you might need an umbrella to traverse bird island?DW: Halfway up you can see a man gainfully employed to continuously sweep the stairs of gull attempts at roosting. It is a sisyphean task of one man against ten thousand gulls with an insanely strong roost instinct. CR: This man had been hardened over the years and forgoes the umbrella. Raincoat is his only protection against the birds.DW: This is what a few thousand seagulls sound like. No real surprises there.DW: Most of the walk is very quiet. We see less than 10 people the entire day outside of a few designated landmarks that are accessible directly by rail or car.DW: The defining feature of the coast is the volcanic rocks scattered along the coastline and the cypress pines growing from random crevices. CR: It’s extremely cold again today. This is the only cold-weather gear I packed. I’m going to be smelly after five days… DW: I had a garlic pizza and garlic beer for dinner to assuage Caitlin’s smell fears by way of solidarity.CR: Long stretch of beach with no one on it. I can’t imagine why, perfect day for a swim. DW: It’s the sharks. As earlier demonstrated I can personally attest to this. This is the only part of the coast we see that fits the traditional Australian beach mould with sand instead of cliffs and stones.DW: We start to see evidence of the 2011 tsunami. There has been extensive rebuilding since, but it is an obvious defining feature in the local area. Areas further South along our walk in later days were more heavily impacted.CR: We got a quick peak on sunlight for half an hour after lunch. Pictured here is a rock known for being a preferred pooping site of birds.DW: There are lots of reminders that Japan is a much older country than Australia. The old and the new blend together. For example, many shrines were rebuilt post-WWII or even more recently.CR: End of walk ice cream sundae treat. And a Caffe Latte with a milk skin on top. DW: The sundae was made with local Aomori apples and was delicious.CR: After trundling around the Modern Art Museum of Hachinohe (art-economy designed to keep younger Japanese employed; big building a must; patrons a nice to have only), we find it is difficult to get dinner. Our intended ramen is shut due to lack of staff and a fish restaurant is fully booked. We walk past another restaurant advertising for staff. Hachinohe might be struggling to retain younger workers. We settle on this box ramen, which is fine. More on box life in next photo.CR: Hachinohe has a few alleys filled with these box restaurants. I would explain it to be a food truck that you can sit at and eat. There’s usually two staff members and under 10 seats for patrons. Box-life is all about flirting with the female staff, having sake and stirring up conversation with other box members. After the ramen, we proceed to a box dedicated to garlic. We order a garlic beer, glass of sake and a small garlic pizza. The pizza does not taste much like garlic at all but Declan assures me his beer has plenty.
Caitlin has eased into the holiday as the puns are sneaking into the blog.
Doesn’t matter how much history and culture a country has someone on a local council thought installing a tacky fibreglass shark would improve the amenity of the area and draw in more tourists.
The bloke working on the steps would have to have a very zen outlook on life.
Wonder what Kpi’s he has to meet for his yearly performance review.
You could give him a heart attack if you accidentally dropped a loaf of bread on his steps.
I am always confounded by how many people live on planet earth but everywhere seems to suffer from a lack of staff.
It has just taken me 5 months to get one quote for gardening and he is charging $88 per hour. I asked another 5 guys. Some never answer and some say they will quote next week but it never arrives.
I met someone who is a super experienced freelance book editor and she makes $85 an hour. Seems odd that you can make more money pulling out weeds than you can editing novels.
Garlic beer sounds like a bad idea.
I was confused that the picture for the day didn’t seem to make an appearance in the blog itself. Was there a story attached to the photo or is it just a random picture
What a picturesque pooping rock. The sound of the gulls was crazy. If you had a hot chip you wouldn’t survive. Really interesting to read through the blog how they are trying to keep people employed both young and old. I liked all the strung up little fish in the market but I would struggle with only fish for breakfast. What was the hotel breakfast like? Were you on mats or in a bed? Where is the barrenjoey vest?
I must admit I quite liked the fibreglass shark. When you get off the train there’s a lot of fibreglass sea animals and fit paints the picture of a fish-centred town, which it certainly is.
Haha, a loaf of bread on bird island would be terrifying for all.
Declan says he will quote you for gardening in Coffs and come down one weekend if the rates are acceptable.
I wasn’t brave enough to try the garlic beer. The idea made me a bit nauseated.
The picture of the day is always unique to the pictures in the blog proper. We have gone for a more comic-related approach for the thumbnails this trip.
Mum, I am also struggling with fish for breakfast. There’s no cereal ever. But even more so I am struggling with the temperature of most of the food – cold or lukewarm. The only thing that tends to be piping hot is the miso soup, and I don’t really like miso soup. The vegetables are always cold and usually always pickled. The fish at breakfast is served cold. Even the french toast was only room temperature. I miss hot meals!
The hotel breakfast was nice.
For these two nights we had a bed.
The Hachinohe hotel was acceptable (large with natural light) but all bathrooms are terrible across all the hotels. They are so boxy and dark. There is also poor couch culture. Couches are amazing uncomfortable.
Caitlin has eased into the holiday as the puns are sneaking into the blog.
Doesn’t matter how much history and culture a country has someone on a local council thought installing a tacky fibreglass shark would improve the amenity of the area and draw in more tourists.
The bloke working on the steps would have to have a very zen outlook on life.
Wonder what Kpi’s he has to meet for his yearly performance review.
You could give him a heart attack if you accidentally dropped a loaf of bread on his steps.
I am always confounded by how many people live on planet earth but everywhere seems to suffer from a lack of staff.
It has just taken me 5 months to get one quote for gardening and he is charging $88 per hour. I asked another 5 guys. Some never answer and some say they will quote next week but it never arrives.
I met someone who is a super experienced freelance book editor and she makes $85 an hour. Seems odd that you can make more money pulling out weeds than you can editing novels.
Garlic beer sounds like a bad idea.
I was confused that the picture for the day didn’t seem to make an appearance in the blog itself. Was there a story attached to the photo or is it just a random picture
What a picturesque pooping rock. The sound of the gulls was crazy. If you had a hot chip you wouldn’t survive. Really interesting to read through the blog how they are trying to keep people employed both young and old. I liked all the strung up little fish in the market but I would struggle with only fish for breakfast. What was the hotel breakfast like? Were you on mats or in a bed? Where is the barrenjoey vest?
I must admit I quite liked the fibreglass shark. When you get off the train there’s a lot of fibreglass sea animals and fit paints the picture of a fish-centred town, which it certainly is.
Haha, a loaf of bread on bird island would be terrifying for all.
Declan says he will quote you for gardening in Coffs and come down one weekend if the rates are acceptable.
I wasn’t brave enough to try the garlic beer. The idea made me a bit nauseated.
The picture of the day is always unique to the pictures in the blog proper. We have gone for a more comic-related approach for the thumbnails this trip.
Mum, I am also struggling with fish for breakfast. There’s no cereal ever. But even more so I am struggling with the temperature of most of the food – cold or lukewarm. The only thing that tends to be piping hot is the miso soup, and I don’t really like miso soup. The vegetables are always cold and usually always pickled. The fish at breakfast is served cold. Even the french toast was only room temperature. I miss hot meals!
The hotel breakfast was nice.
For these two nights we had a bed.
The Hachinohe hotel was acceptable (large with natural light) but all bathrooms are terrible across all the hotels. They are so boxy and dark. There is also poor couch culture. Couches are amazing uncomfortable.