More uninteresting crap… Now from England!

P. Diddy is giving a testimonial for Proactiv pimple cream on CNNj. “I was busy doing a record… And I don't want no bumps on my face…”

I was hoping to get a few more minutes between trains to grab some chow and use the facilities… But when I'm traveling alone it's like I'm compeing in the Cannonball Run. I promise I'll stop iin Hakodate for the night. Really.

I caught the 5:22pm train… I should be in Hakodate by 7:30. I was I who goofed when I thought JR printed the wrong ticket… It was coincidence that the train number matched the track number earlier. (I used the key not the value.) You need to look on the board for the track number.

It has been hazy, humid, and hot all day. It is hard to take pictures from the train… Everything blurs because it is so dim, if you can even see through the haze.

The scenery is beautiful, although some of these smaller northern towns are surprisingly redneck looking. Rural is rural everywhere I suppose.

Japan Rail goofed in Morioka. At first I was very surprised at the thought of a late shinkansen… What I learned about 5 minutes too late was that the ticket had the wrong track number printed on it. Luckily I'm figuring things out to the point that I avoided mistakenly taking the wrong train towards Tokyo. I went back to the ticket desk and got a reservation for the next train, this time with the right track number. I lost an hour but that was made up for by catching a local festival… Lots of drumming and the same lyrics over and over. The traditional clothing covered with Coca-Cola logos was pretty funny. The trip to Hachinohe was almost over before I realized it. Not much to see with all the tunnels, but that new shinkansen line saved me an hour to Aomori.

I'm now stuck with slower trains for the next day or two. Not sure if I'll stop in Aomori or if I'll catch a train in time to get through the Seikan tunnel under the Tsugaru Straits, and into Hokkaido (hopefully as far as Hakodate) for the night.