Aomori

After a day riding around Hakodate, I took the ferry to Honshu Island (the main island in Japan), the ferry was fancy, had a sleeping room (in the floor hehe, unless you had more money than what I certainly have), showers, dining areas... And made it to Aomori. I stayed at another couchsurfing, Tetsuo, who was a really kind soul. His house was very basic, he didn't even have a shower (that's when I deeply regretted not showering in the ferry, yes, never say no to a free shower just in case). We chatted a little bit (his english was super good, finally!) and he made me an apple tea, since aomori is famous for its apples. Afterwards, his friend Shun picked us up, who was a really cool, curious person (didn't speak any english sadly though) and they took me to their friend's house where we did a Nichiren meditation. They gifted me a mala and we followed some prayers in japanese, it was super wholesome. I had mentioned in the car that I loved spinach but couldn't find it in Japan, and Shun took us to have dinner at a Japanese curry restaurant owned by his friend. Amazing food (and with spinach hehe). That night, at 11.44 pm there was an earthquake! But I was fall past asleep so I didn't even notice. I spent the next day visiting Aomori, went to the Nebuta Museum, Nebuta is a really big festival that happens in August where they parade with big representations of fights against demons where I got to play some cool instruments representing going to the festival would be. It reminded me so much to how we do it in Catalonia with the Gegants, funny how we humans are all so similar. Later, I checked out the coast area, looked for some basics I needed since I wasn't gonna pass a big city in the next few weeks and visited the San'nai Maruyama which was a settlement of the Jomon period full or reconstructions of cool houses and other ruins. In the evening, two other couch surfers arrive, Undis and Kaddi from germany, and we went to do the meditation again and had dinner all together. Next morning, my cycling resumed towards the samurai city Hirosaki.

⛺ Couchsurfing with Tetsuo
🥢 it was closed when I was there, but the Gyosai center has a ticket system where you buy tickets and choose toppings for your seafood bowl through the morning market. Did sound really cool.
🏯 San'nai Maruyama and Nebuta MuseumRead more