4 November 2016
Under the sea
Taking the Shinkansen under the sea from Hakodate to Sendai
Now I herald my arrival to Sendai. My second to last stop, and my last new city as my last city is Tokyo which was also my first city and also a city I have visited many times unlike Sendai which I have not visited before.
To get from Hakodate to Sendai, requires 2 trains and an ocean crossing, on the train. There is a tunnel under the ocean, and under a mountain on each side, it is over 50km long, and is about 100 metres below the ocean floor, and travels through volcanoes in an earthquake prone region.
Despite how awesome that sounds it was boring, it is only the second best under ocean crossing in Japan that I have performed personally, the best was the Shimonoseki to Kita-Kyushu under sea pedestrian tunnel from my trip this time last year.
I am sure the people of Hakodate would be devestated to learn this news, as its all they have. I also declared the hill that looks over Shimonoseki to be superior to the hill that looks over Hakodate. Its like I have a personal vendetta.
I dont have a personal vendetta, in fact I thought Hokkaido was excellent, I would like to go there again, with a car, in warmer weather, and climb lots of closed volcanoes. That will be when you get to hear the term pyroclastic flow on the news again, every few years the news writers grab ahold of that term and news readers get to say it endlessly.
The next time you hear pyroclastic flow will be when I have been pyroclasticized in Hokkaido, also the name of my upcoming live album of christmas favourites.
Todays double train journey was less frusrating than the previous one, but overall it was still 3.5 hours. You have to change trains at Shin Hakodate, which is in a farmers field 25km north of the city.
Then on the bullet train, an old woman with all kinds of parcels piled high sat in front of me, and fell asleep. And when the train would tilt to go around corners, her pile would topple. She would then say things to me and look angry as I helped her reassemble her pile. On the third such toppling she moved seats, on an all reserved seating train.
Then we stopped at a station, and of course she was in the seat of someone who just boarded, so more grumbling, and she had to return to sit next to me and talk more crap about how rude I am to herself.
I presume one of the announcements on the train today was an apology from the conductor for all the foreigners (me and only me) on the train today.
In my brief jog through the frozen streets of Hakodate before leaving this morning, I stopped to examine a skill tester game. The prizes are a plastic crab, or a rubber fish. I spent 3000 yen but failed to win a new pet.
A bit more of the 'factory' area which is tourist shops and starbucks. This time featuring leaves of course.
This is Hakodate station, all of it. A rail official asked me to go back downstairs.
Shin Hakodate station, it really is in a farmers field, nice view though.
And from the bullet train level you can see some ice on top of the hill. That ice was not there when I arrived here a couple of days prior.
This is my bullet train. I think I have taken the same style long nose strange green colored one on a previous trip or maybe even this trip, I forget.
There is an awesome view to admire, here it is. A concrete wall inches from your window.
And now I am going under the sea in the Seikan tunnel. It is just like all other tunnels through mountains, only after a while the windows fogged up, due to all the sea water sloshing about being melted by the hot brakes on the train.
First gap in the view defeating wall on the Honshu side I snapped a photo, here it is. Already looks warmer.
The wall was lowered a bit where there was nothing to see, such as here.
One of two major cities along the way is Morioka, the platform is elevated so there is a view, I celebrated with a photo.
And another, looks nice and colorful outside.
And now, here I am in Sendai. Thats my hotel on the right, basically joined onto the station, another Daiwa Roynet, next door to the Yodabashi. I would say the location is perfect. Even has a seven eleven in the foyer for me to get money out of an ATM at.
My room. They all look the same now, but Daiwa Roynet has probably been nicer than APA.
I love their room keys, they print you a new one when you check in, with all your details on it, its disposable. They always work. The stupid magnetic cards I get at hotels across Australia fail at least once per week.
The Sendai station doesnt look like much on the outside, but I was quite amazed at how large it is underneath. Never seen so many restaurants in a station, theres more here than in Shinjuku.
One of the busy streets from an overpass, there are overpasses going everywhere.
I was starving, so I had a waffle. Seriously, I ate that. A common feature of dessert places in Japan is to cover things with strings of icing like on my waffle. Its actually a bit of an illusion, there is cream and ice cream under the icing.
The nut looking things are chestnuts, I think. They are soft with a very unusual texture.
I did not really enjoy my waffle, I am not a waffle person. I only enjoy waffles when they are served to me by a creepy old nazi fellow who spends 23 minutes explaining to me in slow motion how he killed people and has an inbred family and thats why his waffles are genuine.