GATEWAY TO TOHOKU REGION

I headed to a McDonald’s for breakfast since I had a coupon for one of their big breakfast meals. I got 3 pancakes, eggs, sausage, toasted muffins, hash brown, and a coffee. It was actually pretty filling and it felt good to eat an American fast food breakfast. The McDonalds in Japan are very trendy and hip looking. They are way ahead of the American ones. I headed out towards Murakami, stuffed with food and a bit relaxed knowing that it was going to be a short ride…and short it was. I actually don’t remember too much of it for some reason.

Anyway, I got into Murakami and decided to hike up a mountain to see the old ruins of Maizuru Castle…the trail had warning signs of bears in the area. Now I am in bear country! There isn’t much left of the castle other than the stone foundation. It was a nice view though of the town from up there. Afterwards I wandered around for a bit and found a lot of old shops selling all kinds of goods. One shop had salmon drying out front. They actually have a salmon museum here in town but I didn’t feel like cycling to the other side of town. Each town has their own little tourist trap so to speak...salmon is it for Murakami.

I found the hotel I was staying at in front of the train station and checked in. I was sort of hungry so I decided to go look for something to eat. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much around the train station. I ended up at a supermarket and got some croquettes and fried chicken. Afterwards I cleaned myself up and did a little homework on where to stay. I found a minshuku and called it, the guy wanted 4000 yen so I said okay. I watched TV for a while until it became dark. Japanese TV is so boring...you either have the option of watching something like the news channel, or they have these variety shows. Variety shows usually consist of a group of random TV personalities discussing some sort of issue or just being stupid. It rained for a bit and it was very cold. I headed back over to the supermarket to find some half off bentos. I got a sushi roll set and some fruit filled Danish for breakfast tomorrow. I ate back at the hotel and worked on my blog until I got sleepy and then went to bed.