Day 7 - Actually Morioka and Aomori

Day 7 - Actually Morioka and Aomori #Japan2019

As you may have noticed yesterday I didn't see much of Morioka itself but that's what I'll do today before heading back North to Aomori to meet with my friend, I'll aim to be there around 5pm

First up, the Morioka rock splitting cherry tree

This must be gorgeous in the spring

Now the castle site park

More!

You might ask what my secret is to take all these park shots with no people in them, it's simple really, go to a relatively small city in the middle of the countryside, and then go in the early morning because there's no sightseeing bus thar's going to drop people off at 7 a.m.

The other really nice thing about coming early is that parks, which by the way I really love the aesthetic of Japanese parks, are you usually open no matter what time it is whereas nothing opens until like 8 or 9 a.m. which means you would lose 3 hours of sunlight

It seems they're excavating the original foundation of the castle from the Edo period and the Red square corresponds to the base of a pillar or tower I'm not sure

Aha, it used to be a statue

Unrelated but I want to briefly be a corporate shill and say @adidas Ultraboosts are by far the best shoe I've ever used for walking, and considering how much walking I've been doing they really probably saved my feet, I'm sad when I have to use my other pair to let them rest

Streams in Japanese Parks name a better duo

Sister city commemorative pole, a small piece of Canada

At the culture and history museum for Morioka now

They have some exhibits on festivals

And some really cool floats

Small room where they show off school kid's research about the city, cute

Some rooms about the history of the town and castle

Now back to hotel to check out, then food, then a shrine then probably back to station to go to Aomori

Good to know that while trains can be trusted to be on time, even in Japan buses do NOT care about scheduled times

Also what the heck, they don't even take Suica on this bus system, that's messed up

Morioka is cute about displaying kid art

Ok checked out and things in locker

Time for the last of the Three Great Noodles of Morioka, Reimen which are a cold spicy noodle dish, yes that's a slice of watermelon

Ok not to spicy flex but I can't imagine how what I had was their 7th out of 7 levels, other than that those were really great, I loved the texture of the noodles and how refreshing the broth was

This is the red brick building as it's called, it was originally the hq for the Morioka bank and was designed by the same people as Tokyo station

Huh, I've noticed a lot of people here actually turn the car off at intersections while waiting

Now at the Hachimangu shrine

Don't mind if I do.

I did stop there and get a hot apple ginger cider, it's very nice and warming

Back to the shrine though they're taking pictures for some event it seems

Luckily there's othe-- cat!

Ok here's what I was going to take pics of

This looks really aesthetic to me

Some more shots around the shrine

On today is shichi-go-san that's why people are dressed up fancy with their kids here, much like bridal packages the shrine offers one for this holiday

Here's some more head on pics of it finally

These covered malls are always fun to walk through

Sometimes when going between places a small part of me just thinks "I'm losing so much time just walking around" but how much bigger part knows that walking around is one of the best parts when you get to take in what's around you

Ok ready to go to Aomori in 30mins, I'll have like an hour before I have to go meet my friends so I got this strawberry thing at sbucks

Ok, on the train, I'll be there around an hour before I have to go meet up so I'll explore around the station maybe

Ok now to kill some time

Wait just kidding, I'm an animal and thought it left an hour later than it did...

I feel very guilty right now, pretty sure he's driving to the station and not reading my attempts to say I'm delayed...

Oh, he was delayed too, guess it works out

Okay I made it and I'm glad that he was late too, cause now we don't feel guilty at all, Hirosaki station

Damn Japan really doesn't care about pissing off China if they're posting this on a regional stop

(this is just about Olympics hosting not really supposed to be a call out and they do use Chinese Taipei in Japanese)

We're off

Stopped for ramen, I liked the broth lot, the noodles were good but the chashu was just ok

Also, I'll probably be posting a bit less since I'm not on my own, though I'll sneak some pics/posts

Went to a used goods store, trying to find some manga that's worth bringing back to practice reading but didn't find anything as the organization was abysmal, I did find a tote bag to carry stuff in though!

Now time for a public bath

Man, I feel like an idiot I hadn't gone to one here yet, these are AMAZING. I really needed to unwind a but after non-stop activity-ing.

Went to an arcade after and he shows me KanColle, was relatively fun and it could get more interesting at harder levels, unfortunately this was the first hit of "Japan hasn't banned indoor smoking everywhere" but otherwise not bad