willeke4439

On Sunday afternoon after sleeping in late I made another attempt to go to the pool in the afternoon... All I wanted was to swim for just an hour or so - it's only 200 yen so there's no need to stay all day to make it feel "worth it". But maybe that's why they don't have the budget to keep an up-to-date website, lol. The facilities are really minimal (no hair dryer, no centrifuge to dry your swimsuit, and the changing rooms don't really feel "indoors" because they're just simple concrete buildings with nothing but curtains blocking the entrance and exit.. And the lockers are quirky because they require 50 yen coins, instead of the way more common 100 yen coins, so you have to make sure you have one. (you do get it back after use!) xD But if you can put up with all that, it's all-you-can-swim for 200 yen =D



Cycling over the mountain pass again... And I got a faint view of Mt. Fuji in the distance again!


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This weekend I was both recovering from my trip to Aomori AND planning for my next trip to Chichibu to go camping with chiisai_hime the next long weekend... No, I don't normally go on trips every two weeks, lol! (I wish!) It just so happened that these couple of plans ended up being close together because of the weather, trying to avoid high season around Obon, and the timing for friends visiting from abroad. xD

In the morning I went for a little walk to get in my steps for the day though...



The tanabata decorations in this little park stayed up for about a week, good thing it didn't rain or else all that paper would've caused a mess...

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On Sunday I woke up and saw to my dismay that the weather forecast had changed from sunny to cloudy D= I started to wonder if I should've gone climbing on Saturday instead after all, but it looked sunny enough outside at Sukayu onsen, and Mt. Iwaki was still some distance away, so who knows what the weather would be like there... I ended up leaving pretty early, because I wanted to have enough time to do the entire hike from the bottom of the mountain (if the weather allowed) AND also still have time to soak in an onsen before heading back to Aomori city to catch my Shinkansen at around 5 PM.

I was able to leave at 7AM because the Sukayu Onsen ryokan staff offered to pack me a bento instead of having to wait for the breakfast buffet! The night before I'd already been thinking about leaving early, so I asked the reception if they could change my second night's plan from "dinner and breakfast included" to just dinner because I probably wouldn't have time for breakfast, and they said they couldn't (or rather, the price wouldn't change because breakfast is included for everyone) BUT they could provide "breakfast" in the form of a bento box instead, so you could take it with you if you were going hiking early. I'd already read about them offering such a service for people who were planning to hike Hakkodayama, but since the trails were closed I'd just assumed they weren't offering it anymore, so it was nice that they told me that they could! So for actual breakfast I just had some of the convenience store bread that I left over from the previous day, and I brought my bento with me on the hike =D

On the way down from the Hakkoda mountain area, I caught a glimpse of Mt Iwaki sticking out above the clouds on the other side of Hirosaki city! It was so brief I couldn't take a pic, but I was hopeful that if I got to the mountain early enough, I'd be able to climb and see the views above the clouds, even if the weather forecast turned out to be right...



But when I approached the mountain, it started getting just as suddenly foggy as it'd been on the first day in the swamp ^^; However once I was at Dake Onsen, at the foot at the mountain, I could still see the top, so not all hope was lost...

It actually got really sunny the moment I started preparing for my hike. In hindsight it turned out that I brought way too much clothing - the Tenkura mountain weather site had told me that tempertures around the summit of 1600 meters would be around 13 degrees, so I'd brought a fleece jacket AND a hard outer shell jacket, just in case it really turned out to be cloudy, windy, rainy and cold at the top... And I did wear the fleece jacket in the mornings and evenings at Sukayu onsen so at least I didn't bring it for nothing. But there wasn't any need to bring it to the top of Iwaki because I sweated more than I have all year, seriously ^^;;;;;  Temperatures during the day must've gone close to 30 degrees, and I was sweating even while descending the mountain... It kind of felt like a repeat of Tanigawadake in that I almost ran out of water and got "saved" by the fact that there's a ropeway terminal with batrooms, running water, and vending machines near the top.  (The rocky terrain felt similar to Tanigawadake near the top too, except with a significantly lower risk of plumetting to your death...) I had been counting on those being there though, as well as the option of taking the chairlift and bus to get down if I got too tired to descend by myself... If not for those facilities I surely would've brought more supplies myself >w<



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I'd been debating whether to go hiking at Mt. Iwaki on day 2 or day 3, but on Saturday morning it looked like the weather would be somewhat cloudy on Saturday but sunnier on Sunday, so I decided to leave that for last and go to Oirase gorge that day. Inside the gorge there's no sweeping mountain views, so it wouldn't matter if it was slightly cloudy or rainy.



The lake looked beautiful too with some clouds reflected in the surface! The water was so clear and blue!

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On Friday I took a day off so I could have a three-day trip to Aomori. I ended up having to do a lot of rearranging of plans due to the fickle weather and the suddenly announced trail closures due to bear attacks, but the first day's plan remained pretty much unchanged, except that I squeezed in a little walk at the end of the day. I wouldn't be able to hike any of the main trails on Hakkodayama, but I thought it'd be a waste to go all the way there and not see anything of the wetlands... But the only trails that remained open were all pretty short, so it didn't seem worth dedicating a whole day to the area either if I could go for a proper hike somewhere else instead... So I looked at trails in the Yamareco app and found a walking route around a swamp called Tsutanuma that was only supposed to take an hour, so instead of arriving at the ryokan early at 3PM like I thought I might, I ended up checking that one out.




I got on the Shinkansen from Omiya station, from where it was still a full three hours to Shin-Aomori station. It might've been the longest Shinkansen I've taken, even going to Akita before didn't seem that long. It was relaxing to read and play games on the way though, kinda like taking a flight but with a more comfy seat and way more legroom (and no turbulence, haha)


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This morning I'm leaving for Aomori! I finished packing my stuff, including my stamp book. Looking forward to colllecting some new stamps in places I've never been before, though that's by no means a main goal of the trip, haha. This year I did get a new stamp book with slightly thinner paper and more pages, because my previous one got full way too quckly, and the thick, coarse sketchbook paper didn't always result in a clear stamp... I"m also trying to stamp more stamps on one page so it will hopefully last longer >w<



Here's some stamps I got recently... When a tourist attraction doesn't have stamps, I sometimes also get stickers to put in the book, especially if the designs are similar to those of stamps. Except the red one, which is Shin-Matsuda station (from when I went to the hydrangea festival), most of these are from Okutama. One of the caves there had a stalagmite that looked like a turtle, which is apparently the inspiration for the design of the top one xD

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The weather looks decent for the Aomori trip ^o^ It reminds me of that one time I went to Akita in July as well and it was still rainy season everywhere in Japan except Akita/Aomori/Hokkaido. It was a gamble going in early July instead of late July or August, but I wanted to take advantage of the "off season" rates before official school summer holidays begin (and not even to mention prices and the lack of availability during the Obon season in August... ^^;;) I also think that my hiking club might be planning a multi-day hike to the Japanese Alps around Obon this year again, so I'm trying to keep that period free for now so I'll be able to join if they do. For those, it's the leader who arranges reservations, so I can just say "Yeah, I'll join!", pay my share of the price, and not have to worry about planning and organizing anything myself xD

But last weekend I was able to sit down and decide what places in Aomori I actually want to go to. I hadn't booked anything in advance besides the shinkansen and ryokan though, so my plans for the 2nd and 3rd day are entirely interchangable (visiting the Oirase Gorge and Lake Towada area or hiking Mt. Hakkoda). So I can switch those two around if the weather looks better for hiking one day over the other. A canoe tour on lake Towada would've been nice, but those required advanced bookings, which seemed risky considering the unstable weather... So I might just see if I can find some row boats for rent without a tour or anything attached to it if I end up going there >w<  The only day I can't adjust for the weather is the first day because I'm not arriving in Aomori until like 11AM, so then it'd be past noon by the time I get to the mountains, and that's too late to start a hike for my liking ^^; It'll be nice to arrive at the onsen after a long day of travelling though...  Looking forward to the Shinkansen ride too, it's been a while since I rode it for such a long distance trip!

...Actually, scratch Mt. Hakkoda because apparently just yesterday it was announced that all the trails in that area will be closed for the whole month of July due to bear activity T_T So now I have to scramble to come up with something else, maybe Mt. Iwaki...? Hmm... 

Last weekend I only managed to get outside for a small walk in between all the rain >< I took care of a bunch of administrative stuff and travel planning too though, so at least the weekend wasn't completely unproductive...



The dreary, not so pretty side of Japan... Most of the suburbs actually look like this ^^;  So you have to out of your way to find the nicer, green areas.


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I'm about ready for the rainy season to be over, even if the real summer heat finally does come in with it. At least I'll be able to properly dry and air out my shoes and futons and everything again then... May and June have been cool enough, so I can bear with the idea of the heat knowing that it'll "only" last for about 4 months this year instead of 6 >w< .

Two weeks ago on a weekday night I went to the cinema to see the third and last (?) movie in the new Mononoke trilogy! I really enjoyed the first two, so I was really excited for this one! And I really enjoyed it, although after two similar movies the novelty of the visual spectacle is wearing off a bit, and because the story jumped right into the action, there wasn't a lot of time to (re)familiarize yourself with the setting and characters. Overall I think I enjoyed the third installment a little less than the previous two, mostly because the action and fighting took up so much time out of the story. It didn't feel like the movie dragged on or anything though; on the contrary, it felt like it was over too soon.

The cameo by the medicine seller character from the TV anime was cool though! I hadn't even realized that the main character in the movie trilogy was meant to be a different character, I just thought they'd updated his look and gave him a new voice because of the controversy around his previous seiyuu? But apparently that's not an issue anymore since he's appearing in this movie?? Sometimes I don't get how the industry works ^^;; But the thought that there might be a whole tribe of medicine sellers out there  somewhere opens up the possibility for infinite sequels, so it's definitely an interesting twist >w<

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On the rainy weekend I've been playing the visual novel Kindred Spirits on the Roof that a coworker gifted to me. How long has it been since I played a VN outside of work, I can't remember. But if I was going to play one, this is definitely a great choice, 'cause it's so cute, laid-back, and relaxing. The story in itself, with the two ghosts making a normal girl who has never been interested in love and relationships act as matchmaker to get her schoolmates to form couples, and learning about love in the process, is already interesting enough that it didn't even have to be yuri for it to be fun - I think the story would have worked JUST as well if it had featured m/m or m/f couples or even a mix of different gender couples. xD But them all being girls doesn't detract anything from the story either of course, it's cute as heck.
I just wish the main character Yuna had been ace (I thought she was at first because of all the emphasizing how she never really thought about love before!) but then the story sadly took the cliche turn of "seeing someone take a romantic interest in her best friend makes her get jealous and realize she's actually in love with said friend, too." (at least I think so? I'm not at the end yet so I dunno if they actually end up together...) That's okay though, maybe it really does work like that for non-ace people... Different strokes for different folks and all that? Some more representation and diversity would've been nice though, not many surprises if literally everyone in the school is lesbian, lol. But cozy/feel-good supernatural stories seems to be a recurring theme in the stuff I've been reading/watching lately, and this fits perfectly =w=

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Speaking of visual novels, also let me plug this one my company is working on! It's called "Obey Me", coming out later this year, and... I never thought I'd see the day that I'd get to work on an otome game in an official capacity at my current company, since up till now they've mostly developed bishojo games aimed at guys. (Technically Obey Me isn't classified otome since the main character you play as isn't explicitly gendered, but with these visuals... who are they kidding, lol. With those sexy demon guys, I'm pretty sure more than 95% of the player base are girls, if not more...) The art looks so good, and the story... Hnngh, I can't say anything about it yet but there are feels...! I'm not familiar with the mobile games that it's originally based on, but since this story is apparently a prequel, anyone can enjoy it without any prior knowledge of the characters. It's certainly worked on me, cause I'm a fan now! =D  My favorite character from what I've seen so far is probably Barbatos, he seems like a mix between Sebastian from Black Butler and Jae-ha from Akatsuki no Yona (maybe it's just the hairstyle though...) xD  I really hope it does well enough for them to make a game focusing on each character, like they initially announced. (Everyone, pls buy it!)

As if two typhoons in a day wasn't enough, Friday night we got shook by a pretty big earthquake at 22:30... I'd just gotten in bed and was about to fall asleep when it hit ^^; There've been a lot of noticeable earthquakes lately, but for most of them, the epicenter has been pretty far away, so even if the shaking here reached an intensity of 3 or 4, it never felt this "sharp" and immediate... Somehow an earthquake with an intensity of 4 that occured right nearby feels different than a faraway earthquake that's felt with an intensity of 4 here but was more powerful elsewhere, like the one in Aomori before... Like, instead of some gentle swaying that starts slowly and gradually intensifies, there's this sudden jolt out of nowhere.

My building itself has good earthquake proofing and isn't in a flood-prone or landslideprone area, but there's a risk of the neighborhood being cut off from the surrounding areas due to landslides that might block the access roads (especially with this combination of earthquakes and typhoons...) so I'm ready to shelter in place if needed. It happened before and it took a couple of days before the roads and the railway were restored ^^; (Of course it's nowhere near as bad as those earthquakes in Venezuela, I can't even imagine what the people there must be going through T_T )




The only "damage" I could discover was some books having fallen off my shelf, so it wasn't a big deal really. ^^;

On Saturday morning the first typhoon seemed to have passed and there was about a 2-hour window without much rain, so I went for a walk to get my steps in and pick up some snacks from the store (to prepare for a cozy day indoors of reading :3 )  before the next typhoon came in the afternoon.
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