Hey Hive!
So if you missed the last couple of posts, we just wrapped up a trip another Japan trip, when I went to visit Sean while he was working in Kawasaki, Tokyo back in May 2019! We didn't have the luxury of exploring much, but it was nice to just be together for a while since we were separate for almost 2 weeks while he was working.
Anyway, shortly after that Sean got accepted into another job here in Singapore so he would be officially starting a full-time job in Aug 2019. We had about a month left before that was to happen so we figured this would be our last chance to travel proper and have one final trip to our favourite country before this next phase of life!
However since it was July, Japan was approaching Summer and it was going to be pretty warm so we thought to switch it up and visit the highest (and coolest) place in Japan - Hokkaido! We'd never been to Hokkaido before so this was going to be us exploring a whole new region too!
However, at the time of booking I think the cheapest way was to take a flight to Haneda Airport and then take the Shinkansen up to Hokkaido. This also enabled us to visit another place while taking the train up there as we decided to stop at the highest point of the mainland - Aomori!
So the plan was to fly to Tokyo, take the train up to Aomori and stay there for a day before going up to Sapporo and staying there for a few days before coming back to Tokyo and flying back.
1 July 2019. Monday.
Our flight was at night so we would have time to sleep on the plane before landing in the morning and taking the shinkansen up from Tokyo. But first, we went to have lunch at MacDonalds!
I got my favourite McSpicy (which is a local specialty here) since I know they don't have this in Japan. So savoury and tasty with a hint of spice!
Our flight was set for midnight but we decided to head to the airport earlier so we hang out and spend some time together chilling in the airport without our luggage.
We had dinner at one of our favourite Western restaurants - Andes! It's a local rustic, cowboy-themed restaurant that boasts value-for-money western fare that's actually pretty decent. They're known for being popular with students since they're affordable but cheap and good food is always a win.
Here's the menu:
We ordered our standard Double-up Chicken which gives you a choice of two chicken chops and two sides. You also get the choose what kind of chicken you want so we ordered our favourites - Black Pepper and Chargrilled Chicken with a side of baked potato and onion rings!
It's actually pretty filling for one person and since neither of us were that hungry we shared it. And it was delicious! The chicken was nice and tender, and still juicy. The onion rings were crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside. The baked potato was a little dry though but the butter helped. The skin however was pretty inedible but I guess no one really eats the skin for these kinds of potatoes. I do like the skin on when I make baked potato though.
We just walked around the airport for a bit and before too soon it was time to board! Sorry I don't have a lot of pictures of the airport since we frequent there so much I didn't think it was worth photographing the same thing all the time.
The flight was pretty uneventful. I tried my best to sleep and wound up watching movies and dozing off. We were served our in-flight breakfast meal at 3:30am and got omelette with sausage and hashbrowns!
We arrived early the next day at Haneda airport and had to check with the concierge on how to get the shinkansen platform since it wasn't at the airport itself.
We thought it would be connected to the airport but it wasn't. So we couldn't find any signage that linked us to the shinkansen train station.
So turns out, we had to actually take a bus to the Tokyo train station that had the bullet train platform.
We're not fans of having to walk around with our luggage but it was alright since we were seated comfortably on the bus.
And we got to enjoy the scenery a little bit despite it being a little dreary since it was rainy.
Eventually we arrived at Tokyo Station and had to go via the underground, which is famous for the Character Street since there are a lot of little stalls selling all kinds of merchandise from different anime and manga.
Since it was only 8:30am in the morning none of the stores were open but it's alright since we didn't have the time to stop anyway. We'd actually walked around this underground before when we were in Tokyo on a Summer Exchange Program back in 2016 so if you wanna see more of this Character Street you can check out this post!
It was a little surreal to be walking around an empty underground with all these stores closed though. But it was a nice and convenient way to get to the station at least.
Eventually we arrived at the shinkansen platform! But we had to wait a little bit since the train was being cleaned. For these long-haul trains it was good that they took the time to clean and disinfect them since some trips could basically be as long as flights.
We boarded the train at 9:05am and settled in for our long trip since the journey to Aomori was going to take about 3 hours or so.
It was a lot of traveling for one day, but it was a new experience and we would be exploring a new region so we were excited! Plus, traveling by shinkansen was probably our favourite method of travel since it's pretty comfortable and there's plenty of legroom compared to a plane.
Unfortunately this ride wasn't as smooth since there was a baby that boarded the train and was crying for almost our whole ride.. There goes my nap time.
We arrived at the Aomori station at 12:30pm! The station was pretty empty and they had these very unique paper mache lamps and sculptures on display! I think it might've been for a local festival of sorts.
I guess it was an exhibit from the Aomori Museum of Art and what a spectacular display too! I think they were of Japanese gods or deities but they were definitely unique!
It was definitely an interesting welcome after all those hours of traveling!
There were even these huge lighted ones on the wall that looked pretty impressive!
We had booked a hotel near the city centre and we had to take the train there.
It was only a 10 minute train ride away so it wasn't too bad.
We saw these posters of Jomon Archaeological sites in this region that looked so cool! We actually briefly studied this back in college when we took Japanese Studies so it was cool to see this in the country itself!
There were also some paper mache sculptures at this station and some apple darumas on display here!
I guess this blue tree thing is the station mascot.
This was the map of this part of Aomori city!
It was actually really warm out and we had to endure the heat while dragging our luggage but eventually we arrived at our hotel!
Since we were only here for a 2 nights Sean decided that we could try hotels this time instead of Airbnbs since those tend to be more inconvenient.
Unfortunately we could only check-in after 2pm so we left our luggage at the counter while we went out to explore and get some lunch! The lobby was really nice and open but wasn't super homely. It was still nice though.
We went to a neighbourhood restaurant for food and found this place with grilled pork sets that looked super tasty!
And as was custom our first meal was a Gyudon:
We had a quick bite before coming back to the hotel to settle in for a bit. Since it was quite hot out we thought of relaxing in our room for a while since we were tired from all the traveling.
It was a pretty nice room albeit a little narrow but it was comfortable all the same. There was even a nice bath with a rain shower!
So we decided to rest for a while and take a nap since we were tired from all the traveling.
But I think that's gonna be it for this post! Tune in next week for when we explore more of Aomori!
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat’s Travels #167 (Japan 8.0 - Kawasaki): Savouring Steaks before Saying Sayonara 😢
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