Friday, 7 November 2025

So after I had packed and eventually sent my suitcase to its next destination, not Yamato Transport this time, the rain sort of stopped. It was still windy and blowing leaves off trees but it was worthwhile having a little excursion. I could walk in the other direction down the road and then turn onto the road heading to Aomori (not that I was planning on walking very far as I wasn’t confident that it wasn’t going to piss down, or snow, at any moment).

Anyway first off for Bob here’s today’s self serve breakfast. Not businessman basic so there is cereal.

today’s breakfast

The pastries are from top left, curry bread, croissant (no need to toast), brioche, and an apple danish. There are so many menu items with apple here. They have two sets of coffee machines. One set are Jura espresso machines (I have a Jura but not the industrial units they have 🙂 and one set for Japanese filtered coffee. No matter how far away the espresso units are I’m walking there. These machines even have decent beans and real milk in them.

breakfast part two

This is part two. The little sausages seem standard Japanese hotel issue since all the hotels have had them. They are easy to eat with chopsticks. The egg like substance could be actually scrambled egg or it might be whatever they use in microwavable bentos. Finally Japanese bacon which to me seems more like gammon but it’s certainly not what you would get in Australia, Canada, the UK or the USA. I’m not sure how you might tackle the eggs with chopsticks so I cop out and find a fork. Japanese omelette is much easier with chopsticks.

I have snagged the same seat at the windows for two breakfasts and one dinner (no luck tonight) and these are the trees I’ve looked out at.

the breakfast tree

After breakfast I braved the cold in my t-shirt to go visit them.

outside with the breakfast tree

I also discovered some moss balls. One of the indoor activities here is making art with moss. Make up your own mind if these were rejects or not.

meet the moss family

So later in the afternoon I go for a walk and there are repairs happening on one of the bridges and the workers have closed a lane and are controlling traffic. In Australia they would have just put out reduced speed signs but I do like the Japanese warning circles that flash in different colours. Also they put down a temporary marker on the road showing where the car should stop.

closing a lane

stop here

The river is all over the place when I cross the bridge. There are also blocks in the river to stop it undermining the road I’m about to turn onto.

the river hasn’t decided which channel it wants

no undermining the bank please mr. river

Walking up the road you can see that the wind has done a lot of work stripping the trees today as there is leaf litter everywhere, clinging on in unusual places.

a little waterfall

And I found this old light that has seen better days.

no light

cars doing a bit of sweeping

Then is discovered a pedestrian bridge across the river and a boardwalk which clearly wasn’t used by a lot of people.

bridge across the river

watch your step it could be slippery

there are more leaves on the path than the ground

still not tired of this foliage

And a sign but not like the normal trail signs.

power company supplied signs are different

didn’t really need google translate for this

close to the start of the trail

simple message

The path by the river around here was narrow. How narrow you might ask, this narrow.

the path is now exactly wide

As the river can’t make up its mind which channels it wants to use you can get down into one of them that it currently isn’t interested in to get a closer look.

nice river

And you can’t tell me that this tree just collapsed here so perhaps it’s an indicator that the river is a pretty powerful beast.

nice log

Ah the sign I missed yesterday.

the start of the trail, maybe

In the museum nearby they had this piece of advice, possibly a few weeks too late as I head south tomorrow.

bears

Oh and the bells people have annoy me so hopefully they do the same for the bears (and don’t just make them angry).

Back to the hotel and just one more piece of art. This is in the meeting space in the wing I’m in over the fire pit.

I have no words

And this is not something you often see in a hotel gift shop.

aomori apples

These things are massive, probably twice or more the size of a typical Australian fuji apple. I’ve eaten one so now I only need to find space for one of them.

Shinkansen day tomorrow.