The market consists of many seafood stalls and restaurants.
Everything looked fresh and and there were also live crabs and fish.
The market was lively with shop owners and staff were touting for the passers by.

We finally entered one of the seafood rice bowl restaurant’s which looked very appealing and offered a good price too. You could choose from 5 kinds of seafood on top of the rice. The price was around 1500 yen which we thought was quite reasonable for what you got. The Seafood was fresh and delicious! Although the salmon was frozen when it was served, we defrosted the salmon putting them under the warm rice then it successfully defrosted ok.

Just walking around and looking at the various seafood and fish stalls and restaurants was an enjoyable experience and fun to do.

Then it was time to make the long journey to Akita back not the main island of Honshu.

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Catching the train from Aomori to Hakodate in Hokkaido, Japan.

We finally arrived at Hakodate station. We spotted support beams holding the roof of Hokkaido station so that it did not collapse. It looked very make shift and seemed to be put there as an emergency measure, not very reassuring.

View of the rail tracks from inside Hakodate train station in Hokkaido, Japan

Outside the station it was very spacious and wide though a little quiet. It was also quite chilly as to be expected when you travel north of Japan.

View of Hakodate train station from outside in Hokkaido, Japan

We had found a very good rate on our hotel room, after checking in we found out why, there was a large construction site outside but the room was soundproofed so it did not worry us.

We made our way to a ramen restaurant, as Shio (salt broth) ramen is famous in Hakodate. It was tasty & delicious!
It was a basic looking dish though very satisfying to eat.

Having Hakodate shio ramen in Hokkaido, Japan.

Views of Hakodate town in Hokkaido, Japan.

After spending the afternoon at a large spacious Starbucks, we took a tram to go to ‘Yachigashira’ Onsen (hot spring) on the edge of Hakodate. It was really, really nice onsen with a good selection of hot indoor and outdoor baths at varying degrees of temperature. We spent one hour there but wished we had made it longer.

You can communicate with the tram driver with pen and paper.

June buying tickets in Yachigashira onsen in Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan.

Heading back to catch some dinner in Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan.

We finished the day with Hakodate Izakaya town.

Having some dinner at a izakaya in Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan.

It had been a long but very nice day.

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At Furukawa market, there is ‘Nokke-don’. You can choose any pieces of fish slices and put on the rice (also without rice is possible). We already had breakfast at hotel, but if we didn’t we would have wished to have one.
There was even a section at the market where you could be taught on how to prepare your fish.

About to enter Furukawa fish market in Japan

Having a look around Furukawa fish market in Japan.

Leftover oysters shells from people’s breakfast in Furukawa fish market in Aomori, Japan

Auga market was in the basement of a shopping centre but it was a huge area much larger than Furukawa market. There were plenty of restaurants to select breakfast from and Furukawa market has a large selection of seafood.

Looking around Auga fish market in Aomori, Japan.

There was a big bridge called Rainbow bridge. It was fun to see it and walked around there. The view of the harbour was also nice.

Entrance for walking up to Rainbow bridge in Aomori, Japan.

Views from the bottom and on top of Rainbow bridge in Aomori, Japan.

If you get the chance this is a recommended place to go to get a good view of Aomori centre and harbour.

View of Aomori train station from Rainbow bridge in Aomori, Japan.

After spending the morning visiting Aomori markets it was time to catch the train to Hakodate.

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Although the journey was not to bad for the Shinkansen is very fast and comfortable. Though we noticed there is less room on the Shinkansens leaving Tokyo, compared to for example the Shinkansens in Kyushu.
To get from Kanazawa to Aomori involved two Shinkansens, then a transfer at the end to a local train.
The first Shinkansen was the Kanazawa Shinkansen & the second was the Tohoku Shinkansen.

Catching the Kanazawa Shinkansen to get from Kanazawa to Aomori

Transferring to the second Shinkansen to get to Aomori in Japan.

Once we got to the Aomori train station June realised that she was not sure if she had booked the hotel accommodation, for the website she had used had crashed during the booking. She checked online and yes the booking had not gone through. Not a problem through Aormori was not busy and the Onsen Hotel we wanted had plenty of availability.

Arriving at Aomori station in Japan

Finding out that we had no hotel reservation in Aomori, Japan.

As mentioned we were staying in an Onsen hotel, interestingly enough the Onsen is actually open to the public at a reasonable price. So it was quite busy. Nige also noted that Aomori people seem to like their TV for there was one in the Onsen sauna.

Next we tried to find a local restaurant preferably iszakaya (pub food). Unfortunately the area we were looking at was full of Japanese chain izakaya’s and we ended up going to a Kagoshima chain izakaya, which was a little overpriced and not so tasty.
Again they had TV’s in the restaurant booths.

Having Kagoshima izakaya chain restaurant food in Aomori, Japan.

Walking around Aomori town centre at night time.

Everyone in Aomori used different accent of Japanese, called ‘Tsugaru-ben’. Aomori dialect.

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We went to the Fish Market, ‘Oumicho ichiba’ known in Kanazawa. There were lots of fish mongers and other kinds of shops and Sushi stalls. They open early starting from around 7 or 8 (official open time is 9am but they tend to open earlier).

Wandering through Kanazawa Fish market in Japan looking for fish for breakfast.

We were convinced by the friendly lady to buy some healthy green tea.

We entered one of the Sushi restaurants. They had Kaiten Sushi (conveyor belt Sushi train) style but also you can order various of fresh Sushis or Sashimis.

We ordered the tuna Sushi set. 5 pieces of high quality Tuna (Maguro) Sushi, caught in the Japanese ocean, including the fatty tuna which is normally the expensive bit. The 5 pieces set was only around 1000 yen mark.

That was soooo delicious! mouth melting gorgeous Maguro. Highly recommended.

Found a sushi restaurant to have tuna sushi for breakfast, was some of the best sushi we had ever had.

After the sushi breakfast we have just a few mins to race back to the hotel to checkout. After that we had a look around some of the traditional style buildings and shops.

June was amused by this restaurant which stated their special quality was that they had no atmosphere.

And then it was time to catch the train to Aomori.

Catching the bus back to Kanazawa station, Japan.

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Wandering around Kiyomizu in Kyoto, Japan

The slopes from Kiyomizu-dera is also nice thing. Nice atmosphere buildings and shops… You sometimes see ‘Maiko’ (looks like Geisha) there and we saw them by chance.

Outside the front of Kiyomizu temple in Kyoto, Japan.

At Kinkaku-ji, unfortunately it was heavily raining though we were successful taking photos of Kinkaku-ji temple.

The golden temple at Kyoto, Japan.

Ironically, the weather was clearing up after we left Kinkaku-ji temple. It just seemed to be one of those days where every time we attempted to take a video or photo shoot the weather would quickly go dark and start raining.

The golden temple in Kyoto, Japan.

Kinkaku-ji (Golden temple) garden area.

After visiting Kyomizu-dera & kinkaku-ji were had to make the long journey to Kanazawa.

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After the trip to Nara, we had built up a healthy appetite for some lunch & June was keen to try some Kyoto ramen.
We found a place on the 10th floor of Kyoto train station that was popular with Japanese and foreigners alike. Unfortunately we did not spot the ticket machine prior to waiting in the long queue. It was only after a long wait getting to the front of the queue that we realised this and June ended up with having a heated argument with one of the restaurant staff while attempting to explain our mistake. Unfortunately even though we were at the front of the queue the staff member kept on bypassing us by bringing in the customers behind us.
Japan has a reputation for unrivalled customer service but in the case of this particular staff member it was seriously lacking.

After lunch we went down from 11th floor to ground floor by long escalator. We also had a bit of a scare when Nige’s new shoes slipped at the top of the esculator. If you make it to Kyoto, we recommend the train station escalator journey from the 11th floor.

The escalator journey on the way down from the top of Kyoto train station.

After that it was time to find a cafe to catch up with the video edits and stuff. All the cafe’s around Kyoto train station were full, so we recommend finding a cafe in the centre of town, where they are not so busy.

View of Kyoto tower in Japan.

Finally it was time to head back to the hostel. It was modern and nice hostel with a very nice cosy room that also included basin. The toilets were also on our floor but all the showers were on the ground floor.
That night there was an event of making Temari Sushi. Temari means Japanese style small handball. It was fun to make it, looked nice and delicious and a bargain at 500 Yen per person.

Temari sushi event at the hostel in Kyoto, Japan.

Hostels can offer a great alternative to business style hotels and in this case the hostel was modern, clean with good buffet breakfast and the bed was very comfortable.

We had good sleep at the nice hostel room.

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We then moved from Osaka to Nara. Unfortunately due to the heavy rain we had to cut short our trip in Nara.

Firstly we went to Nara koen, or Nara park where lots of deer were just hanging around waiting to be feed. Be careful when handing rice crackers, deer have been known to aggressively harass . (You can buy rice crackers for deers at the park, you cannot feed them anything else.) In fact the rice cracker vendors will react vocally if you attempt to feed the deer with anything other than what is bought from the vendors themselves.

Passing through the gates to get to Nara Temple.

Then we went visiting Nara Buddha, Todai-ji Daibutsuden (Todai temple Buddha house). It is a famous huge buddha. You can walk around the Buddhas. There’s one big buddha & other 2 smaller buddhas.

Visiting the famous Buddha of Nara, Japan

The Nara koen park is huge, you can walk around and see other temples or shrines if the weather is good.

Nara is an extremely popular tourist spot even when the weather is bad there will always be a large volume of tourists.

Nara is well accessible from either Osaka or Kyoto.

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We arrived at Osaka and found some very affordable accommodation, checked in and did the room review.

It was just a single room with a shared bathroom, but hey at the price who is complaining. Unfortunately you don’t have the choice of non-smoking, and the room did have a heavy stench of cigarettes even with the window open.

We then went out for dinner in the centre. Osaka has a reputation for it’s food and nightlife. And strolling through the city you can see why, there was a real vibrance and energy to the place.
The area is Dotonbori, one of the famous towns in Osaka.

Looking for dinner in Osaka, Japan

We had Osaka Yakitori, it was so yummy!! And really good value as well. Before we knew it we had eaten too much food, but we didn’t mind.

Yakatori is delicious & affordable in Osaka, Japan.

We checked out of the hotel the following morning. It was very crowded at the reception area with many people checking in at the same time people were checking out and this was at around seven in the morning.

We found a place for breakfast just down the road from the hotel, it was a traditional Japanese style of city breakfast, which is a boiled egg, coffee and thick piece of toast. If you want something more substantial at a better value we would recommend a family restaurant breakfast deal.

Breakfast in Osaka, Japan

After that it would be a short train trip to Nara.

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We left Kochi for Osaka, but would be stopping at Okayama for a look around on the way.

Train from Kochi to Okayama, Japan.

Again the train journey back to Okayama was spectacular with the highlight being the crossing of Seto bridge.

We decided to walk in Okayama city. Unfortunately there was not enough time to look at Okayama castle, Korakuen Japanese Garden etc,so we decided to walk around the Shotengai, the local shopping street.

Okayama is a bit of a quirky city with interesting bits that stand out like the police office at the side of a canal and some of the street clocks.

Views from the centre of Okayama, Japan.

We entered local small canteen style of restaurant and had udon noodle and curry rice. Reasonable price and homemade taste and the restaurant had a nice authentic retro style to it.

Authentic style restaurant near Okayama station, Japan.

Along the walk Nigel’s shoes decided to die with the sole detaching, so we both decided it was time to upgrade / replace our shoes.
Because we gave our shoes to the shop for recycling we were awarded a 5% discount. We also attempted to get the shoes for duty free but made the mistake of wearing the shoes prior to claiming the duty free discount, which made duty free null.

The correct procedure would have been to take the shoes in their box to the duty free first and then changed the shoes at the shop and handed the old shoes over for the 5% discount.

We also noted that the Okayama’s restaurants and bars looked very affordable and good value.

After that it was time to move to Osaka.

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