Another day on the train to get from Nagoya to Aomori. Weather is great for riding, rainy, cloudy and cool. But the train is always good and hot. These are the coldest people on earth. Everyone is bundled up in long coats, sweaters, jackets, and some even have scarves on and I’m in a short sleeve shirt. Go figure.

Aomori is a small tourist town at the far northern end of Honshu, the main island of Japan. Population here is around 260,000 people, small by comparison to the cities we’ve visited. The draw to come here was our quest to see as much of Honshu as possible, and two specific sites, the “Nebuta” museum (which is here in town) and the Takayama Inari Shrine (1.5hrs away).

Our room (not your typical Japanese hotel room!)

Free evening appetizers (the cheese and salami was great)

View of the “A” building from our room (A for Aomori)

Night shot

The bridge outside our window

Free items from the hotel. Hum…

The Nebuta museum houses the special floats for a celebration held each year from August 2-7. What’s special about these floats is that they are illuminated. Each one tells a different story, associated with Japanese mythology, through lighted displays weighing as much as 4 tons! Their construction consists of fabric stretched over a wire frame with lights secured inside. The effect is an amazing display of color and light that makes they floats come alive. Today we visited this museum along with the “floating” museum.

The floating museum is a retired ship that was used before the construction of the Seikan tunnel to transfer train cars from Honshu to Hokkaido. Trains would load onto the ship, some 20+ cars or so, and make the 35 mile journey across the Tsugaru Strait to Hokkaido where they would offload and continue their journey. Today these trains use the Seikan Tunnel to reach Hokkaido island, 35 miles away. The tunnel is 790 feet below sea level! It is the world’s longest undersea tunnel!

Load em up!

Stalls for selling goods to passengers

Comfort class seating

Nice flowers on the way to the museums.

Better be a strong tie down with the wave action on this ship!

Engine room

The ship

Tomorrow, we head out for the Takayama Inari Shrine using our skills at local travel via bus and taxi. The bus ride is about 1hr 10 minutes and the taxi is about 30 minutes to the shrine entrance. Total cost is going to be around $110.00 US., with the taxi taking the lion’s share. For now, it’s time for our late lunch/dinner, yakitori.