Chapter 7: Gone with the Rain
ÀÄ¿¹¸© ÀÄ¿¹»Ô JRÅìÀÄ¿¹±Ø JR Higashi-Aomori station, Aomori, Aomori-ken Wed 11 Oct 2000 13:11
The night, and morning, were clear and cold. After a final farewell dip at my beloved Otome-no-yu I hit the road, and was picked up by a trio of ero-oyaji (perverted old men) on their way to Osorezan. They told me how a hitchhiking girl would get the ride of her life with them, asked whether buxom Finnish women really go swimming naked after sauna and sighed about the lack of nubile young women in mixed outdoor baths these days. (Now I understand why.)
I stood around at Osorezan for a while, but decided not to defile the purity of the trip's (presumably) last onsen and didn't enter the temple complex -- which would've cost 500 yen and induced another sulphur overdose, my stomach was already a bit queasy from something I ate yesterday. Two minutes before the bus a grizzled man from Noboribetsu and his wife turned their van around and decided to give me a lift to Aomori. They were in Osorezan for "trade", the boxes the van was filled with contained "stuff" and they came here "often". The monosyllabic attempts at conversation soon died down and we rode the two hours to Aomori almost in silence, until a few kilometers before the center he pulled over and said "station" -- and there was indeed a sign pointing to Higashi-Aomori station nearby. I got out and thanked them, but soon found out that the station was over 2 km away, and (half an hour later) found out that it's a major container depot virtually untouched by commuter trains, the previous train left 2 hours ago but, in a minor stroke of luck, I only had a half-hour wait until the next one.
So here I sit in this armpit of a concrete station, containers on one side and a high-voltage transformer station on the other, without even a drink vending machine to keep me company. Weather forecast says 10/50/80% for today and 60% at night, I'll hop down to Hirosaki and see if I can inveigle myself into a last night at a temple before hitching the Wide Road to the Shallow South (ie. Tohoku Expressway). Interestingly enough, the road I came to Aomori on, national road #4, follows the coast all the way to Ueno in Tokyo and as we approached the signposts counted the increasing distance in 100-meter increments: Aomori is some 725 km from Tokyo. Quite a hike, but I have all day to do it, if only the weather cooperates... if things seem hopeless I'll spend an extra day in Hirosaki.
ÀÄ¿¹¸© ¹°Á°»Ô ¹°Á°¥æ¡¼¥¹¥Û¥¹¥Æ¥ë Hirosaki YH, Hirosaki, Aomori-ken Wed 11 Oct 2000 18:49
So I took the local to Hirosaki and had a quick consultation at the tourist office which informed me that Hirosaki has one (1) temple lodging, closed, and two (2) minshuku, both 20 min on foot in the wrong direction. After scratching my head I headed for the "convinient but drab" (LP again) Hirosaki youth hostel. A friendly man in a business suit offered me a stick of gum and asked me where I was from, and we chatted for a while. My bus stop arrived, I clambered up front and reached for my wallet -- it wasn't there. And it wasn't anywhere else. The driver waved me off, muttering, and after the bus left I added up two and two and realized that the friendly man was sitting on my right and had used his easy access to my right pocket to his advantage. Boom -- after traveling through Russia, Egypt, Sicily, London, New York, Lord knows where else without a problem, I just got my pocket picked, in Hirosaki, of all places.
Actual damage was limited though: the wallet contained only about 15000 yen in cash ($150 or about 1000 FIM to you Finns, but that's what I use up in three days of camp'n'hitch travel). Also gone were my alien registration, one of my Finnish credit cards (promptly cancelled, but getting a new one sent to me will be a bitch though), my Japanese cash card, my ISIC student ID and my YH membership card. Fortunately, paranoid soul that I am, my "really" valuables are in my money belt, so I still had 30000 yen cash, all my dollars and travelers checks, my passport, health insurance certificate, apartment key, 2nd Finnish credit card, 2nd Japanese cash card, 8MB data backup Smartmedia card, and various sundry items. (Including laptop and digicam, safely in my baggage.)
Just the same, I had to report the theft to the police so I could get a new gaijin card, so off to the police box I went. The first cop seemed downright hostile, but soon a genuinely friendly Hiroshima-san (¡Ö¹Åç¤Ç¤¹¡ª¸¶Çú¤Î¹Å硪¡×) took over. My Japanese ability was still taxed to the limit and a little over, they agreed that it certainly seemed suspicious but noted that getting a wallet out while sitting is difficult and that the wallet may well have fallen out. Japan being Japan, odds are quite high my wallet will be returned within a week (the alien reg. card has my address), and I wouldn't even be entirely shocked if it still had the money inside as well -- although I doubt it. After quite a bit of bureaucratic wrangling they decided not to file a theft, but just a missing item report. I was not allowed to get a copy of the report, but for reporting the lost gaijin card I was taken to the Hirosaki central police station (where along the way Hiroshima-san explained that his colleague was hard of hearing and duly apologized for his gruffness), where they filled out an official notice that a missing item report had been filed and stamped it until everybody was happy; this document I'll have to take to the Meguro city office to file more reports... ack! But genuine thanks and a deep bow to the Hirosaki police for being happy to help a poor lost gaijin.
Understandably this put a little damper on my plans of sightseeing, by the time I got everything filed it was almost dark. I bought a new wallet, ate an excellent meal of deep-fried scallops, and dropped into a bookstore to find that yes, the Tsugaru PA can be reached by train and bus from Hirosaki. But I figured that since I've now spent 20000 yen in Hirosaki, I think I need to do a little sightseeing as well, so I'll stay an extra day...
(Today's annoying thought: had I spent two extra nights in a minshuku and taken the train instead of hitching, I would not be a single penny poorer. Grr.)
ÀÄ¿¹¸© ¹°Á°»Ô ÉðÆÁŵٷƽê Butokuden resthouse, Hirosaki, Aomori-ken Thu 12 Oct 2000 11:23
Hirosaki is the Tohoku version of Kyoto. It has Kyoto's temples, castle, extensive gardens, exorbitantly expensive specialized little craft shops, and quite a bit of history behind it all. But, being here in the deep north, it also has a Tohoku-style stunningly ugly new town of concrete and rusting corrugated sheets, and (at least this time of the year) absolutely nobody at all touring the sights. This, combined with surprisingly cheap gourmet food, suffices to make Hirosaki the nicest full-fledged city in Tohoku I've visited so far.
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