Tohoku Countryside
I woke up at about 8am and had breakfast. Breakfast today was more local ingredients and mushrooms. I was alos given a fish that seemed to be coated in a sweet soy sauce. The fish was alright but again, I struggled to eat many of the items given. Interestingly, the westerners next to me seemed to have been delivered a special breakfast consisting of some smoked salmon and eggs and ham and other items that seems more palatable. I snuck out after eating only 1/4 of my breakfast in shame again and hurriedly tried to take one last quick bath in the outside pool.
Hinokinai River from Kakunodate
Today I planned to visit the old Samurai town of Kakunodate then later the famous Nyuto Onsens.
To do this required a really really early morning start.
Godaido of Yamadera
This day turned out to be a good and bad day. Although the bad can sort of be looked at in a good light.
I started my morning with some Orange Juice and headed off to Kita-Yamadera station to visit the snowy town of Yamadera.
Matsushima Bay
I woke up a little bit later than I wanted but I headed down to the JR station to get my pass stamped.
My destination today would be one of the three great views of Japan, Matsushima Bay.
Night time street in Akihabara
I opted to skip breakfast today in preparation for my lunch. A meal at a michelin starred restaurant featuring “Unagi”.
Tokyo Station Exterior
Having had only 3 hours sleep the previous day I still managed to get up before 9am I guess. The capsule hotel does not allow guests to stay in their capsules at all between 10am and 4pm.
Today I was to visit my friend Adrian who teaches English in the small city of Nasushiobara 2 hours north of Tokyo.
Shibuya Crossing at night
It’s been about 6 years since I’ve last been in Japan and I must say it’s great to be back! Today I start my morning by
checking in to my capsule hotel to get rid of my bags and diving straight in to the busy alleyways of Tsukiji Fish Market for breakfast.
Karl X Gustav Statue at Stortorget (Great Square)
Off to Malmö (pronounced as ‘mal-merrr’), the last city in Sweden I was visiting. Malmö was a bit of an interesting pick for me as there wasn’t a whole lot to do there but I was still rather interested in having a sticky beak as it was one of those cities that is currently booming. It’s gotten a lot of bad press in recent years, but I doubt it amounted to anything.
Viking money
My last day in Gothenburg; today I am off to see some sights and enjoy some more Swedish fare.
View of Stora Hamnkanalen (Big Harbour Canal)
Time to move on to Gothenburg (in Swedish: Göteborg, which is pronounced yeh-tah-bore-ee!) Some Swedes have no idea what “Gothenburg” is, apparently. Seems a bit odd, considering loads of other cities and countries around the world have names that differ to their respective English names but those people seem to get by (e.g. China, Japan, Florence).
