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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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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Catching Thunderbird Express from Kyoto to Kanazawa

The train station at Kanazawa was nice and modern and had recently added a Shinkansen line (Bullet train).

Arriving at the nice modern train station of Kanazawa

Unfortunately it was raining in Kanazawa which limited our opportunities to have a look around.

Exploring Kanazawa in the rain

The hotel was a bit larger and more comfortable than your average business style hotel.

We decided on choosing a Yakiniku restaurant close by because of the weather.

The Yakiniku restaurant offered all you can eat course (tabehoudai). We decided on the 1980 yen course and it was with the price!
Beer was also reasonable price and Nige decided on the trying a dai nama for his second beer and showed the difference in size between a chou nama (medium beer) and dai nama (large beer).

Having all you can eat barbecue (tabehoudai) and drinking chu & dai nama. (medium & large beer)

Small streets in Kanazawa were are authentic Edo style and are very beautiful to walk around.

We made a note to visit Kanazawa again to spend more time to proper explore and experience what Kanazawa has to offer.

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The carriages were to be separated at Okayama station, the first half carriages go to Shimane prefecture (Sunrise Izumo) and Second half go to Takamatsu, Kagawa prefecture (Sunrise Seto). We took the Sunrise Izumo one.

You can choose from several types of carriages. One is a private room type with bed, one is upper version of it and one is a relaxing seat. The last one you don’t need to pay any extra and can use an ordinary ticket along with a reserved seat ticket.

You can lie down at the relaxing seat however there’s no mattress. You have sleeping space but It’s like sleeping on the carpet. Blankets and sheets are provided though.

For the budget minded the relaxing seat is good option. If you prefer more luxury then go for the upper version which involves extra cost.

We took the basic relaxing seat option. Its recommended to take sleeping bags which will make it more comfortable.

Although both of us slept quite well even without sleeping bags.

Entry into the carriage we would be spending the night.

Nige waving goodbye from his bunk bed.

View of the upstairs and ground floor bunk beds from outside

Interior view of the carriage bunk beds

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