Winter Vacation Part 3

The last stop of my winter vacation destinations was Aomori! We got off the ferry and took a taxi back to Ryan's apartment because it was late and all the city buses had stopped running.

After a night's rest, I had just about a full day to spend in Aomori before I had to head back to Nagano for work. We had to make this last day awesome!!!

We sure started off the day right by going to easily one of my top 3 favorite places in Aomori, the Gyosai Center, where you can get a bowl of various kinds of fresh seafood over rice bowl (called nokedon). The freshly caught fish comes from local fishermen. They offer salmon, scallops, sea urchin, shrimp, octopus, yellowtail, fish eggs, and lots of other names of seafood that I can't remember! Ryan has even seen shark and whale there...I hope I can encounter those one day! They also offer a cooked egg dish (the yellow triangle in the picture below)...but really, who would choose the mediocre egg dish over the plethora of melt-in-your-mouth offered??

Nokedon!!!

Nokedon is the best seafood I have had and will ever have in my life...

After that, we took the rental car to Hakkoda, a mountain/city in Aomori. It was pretty terrifying for Ryan, who had 1) never driven on the left side of the road before, and 2) never driven in snow before. He seemed to be adjusting quite well after a bit, and even decided to try his hand at drifting, to which all of us passengers immediately showed our discontent with hahaha

To be fair, he was drifting quite well :P None of us wanted to chance it on the snowy roads. Even though there were crazy high snow walls on each side of the road and not many cars out on the road, it was still pretty scary!

The view from the passenger seat on the drive to Hakkoda

We eventually got to Hakkoda, where we rented some equipment and hit the slopes! We didn't stay out there too long because we got a 10 times use only lift ticket and shared between the 3 of us! I thought I would have forgotten how to snowboard, since it was only my 4th time, but I only managed to fall twice (first one was a tumble into a really awesome penguin dive and the second time was because someone stopped right in front of me lol). Anyways, for the short time we were out there, I had lots of fun! Pumpkin had a bit tougher of a time on the skis (I don't think they were quite the right size), but I'll be sure to teach him the joys of snowboarding next time ;]  任せ Kristin (Leave it up to me!)!

Side note, I'm pretty sure that I have the exact opposite effect that Ryan has on Japanese people. People tend to not speak Japanese to me...even though I try to speak Japanese back to them. It's not uncommon for Japanese people to just reply to me "OK, OK." or "Ah, ah, thank you!" This happened at the ski rental place when I was returning all of my stuff. After I gave back the stuff, I had to return because I forgot something...and the store clerk ended up answering "OK OK" to me asking "Have you seen my lost object?" in Japanese. =__= I managed to find it on my own after that...

While blending in has its disadvantages, not blending in also has its disadvantages...and for me, it's a lack of people wanting to speak to me in Japanese. I should be ecstatic that they're attempting English since I'm an English teacher, but if they're half-assing their English (like a majority of people do to me), I'd almost rather them speak Japanese to me. That way I could at least try to get some exposure to Japanese and have a chance at getting better...

Anyways, after our final run, we let Raina hit the slope one more time to finish the 10 times pass while we waited in the warm lodge. Our next destination was Sukayu Onsen, one of the very few mixed bathing baths in Japan!

Now, mixed bathing would scare off many people (it definitely scared off Ryan's mom and Raina, who were even skeptical of the previous gender-separated onsen), but it was actually a lot more gender-separated than I would've thought. There were different changing rooms (thank goodness) and men and women had to sit on different sides of the pools!

I did not take this picture (lol), but this is what the inside of the onsen looked like. The pools are divided in two for each of the genders.

The pools were very sulfuric. I learned this the hard way after trying to wash my hair. Let's just say that opening your eyes while they're still damp from contact with sulfuric water is NOT a pleasant experience. I also had a bunch of trouble trying to keep my hair out of the water, but, nonetheless, it was an amazing experience to be able to warm up in an onsen with Pumpkin! :)

After warming up, the snowy wonderland outside wasn't that bad anymore! I think the best part of the onsen is warming up, getting into your clothes, and then going out into the cold. It's quite a refreshing feeling! To further complement that refreshing feeling, we went back to Aomori to have 味噌カレー牛乳ラーメン, Miso Curry Milk Butter Ramen from a restaurant called Sapporo no Aji (Taste of Sapporo).

Upon sitting down to order the regular, Pumpkin noticed that they also had Natto Ramen! For those who don't know what natto is...this is what it looks like.

It is quite possibly one of the most disgusting-looking foods you will ever set your sights on.

That's some sticky stuff! It's also an acquired taste... I absolutely hated the stuff when I first tried it in Japan in 2007. I decided to try it more recently, and now I LOVE it! I often have it for breakfast or lunch! Anyways, this stuff is in the Natto Ramen. We decided to order that and the regular Miso Curry Milk Butter Ramen. The Natto Ramen actually tasted really good! We were wondering where the natto was, but it was all at the bottom of the bowl...and they used a lot of natto! Maybe like 2 packs...at least... What a delicious last meal in Aomori!

I had to pack my bags immediately after, said my goodbyes to Ryan's mom and Raina, walked to the bus stop with Pumpkin, and began my journey back to Nagano.

Goodbyes are never easy...even though this isn't the first time I've parted from him, it's still really difficult. I was reminded how hard it is for everyone else too, when the girl who sat next to me on the bus from Aomori to Ueno started crying when waving goodbye to her boyfriend. Part of me was a bit surprised (lots of Japanese people don't do outward displays of anger/sadness in front of other people), and the other part of me wanted to talk to her and comfort her, but she started sleeping really soon after we left. :/ Oh well. I know that I'll get to see Pumpkin again soon...and that's what keeps me going~! :)