The Wanderer Returneth

I'm back from my holiday, and very tired!
So in the end I didn't really plan much. I Just booked a night bus and bought some cheap train tickets. I was initially thinking of going to Hokkaido, the northernmost Japanese island. Flights were expensive though and the overnight train was fully booked. So instead I got an overnight bus to Sendai (about 6 hours) and bought a 十八きっぷ, or 'jyuhachi kippu' which basically means 18 ticket. Its a ticket that's only available in school/university holidays aimed at students but which can be used by anyone.

Basically you can use any local train you want to using 5 x 1 day tickets. It's a lot cheaper than using the bullet train or even express trains but obviously has the downside that its pretty slow and also needs more planning to co-ordinate catching the right trains.

So anyway, overnight bus to Sendai (about 6 hours). The initial impression was that there wasn't much there so just went onto Matsushima, looked around there then got a train to Morioka. Stayed in Morioka for two nights and used it as a base to visit Hachimantai (a mountain) and jodo-ga-hama (a beach). Then went onto Aomori stayed there for 3 nights and visited Hakkoda-san (mountain) and went hiking in nearby mountains. Finally had a quick visit to Akita before getting another night bus home (8 hours this time).

Link to the pictures below...

http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/Northern%20Honshu/

*Cough, Cough*

Took my first day off sick today (not bad in 10 months considering my silly workload most weeks), picked up a nasty cold this week and suffering as a result. Perhaps due to the warmth and humidity outside and cold air conditioning inside, Japanese summers are not much fun. However as what I see as a disproportionate amount of pay is lost for sick days I doubt I'll be missing tomorrow as well. Students will have to make do with my husky voice, sniffing, and coughing spells in the lessons.
I lay under a duvet and watched 3 episodes of Peep Show, and two films - Talladega Nights, and The Simpsons Movie all on the Internet. Now I'm planning on eating shumai (Chinese pastry parcel things) and watching another film.

My holidays start next week so hopefully i'll be back to full health by Wednesday. I've got about 8 days off work so i'm gonna go and see a bit more of Japan. The exact destination hasn't been decided yet, so i'll keep you all in suspenders for now.