Yesterday we stopped at Aomori. We docked as we were having breakfast so this was the view from our table.
Yet again we had perfect weather, the sun was shining and the locals were out ready to welcome everyone as they departed the ship.
These girls were having a great time dressing passengers up in simple traditional costumes for photos.
We boarded our bus for drive out to the Goshogawana district. The countryside was lovely.
There were lots of rice fields at various stages of being harvested.
We arrived at the Goshagawana Neputa Museum. Last time we were in Aomori we visited another Neputa museum. There are three cities that hold Neputa Festivals each year and these huge, floats are created from wire and paper. Each cities floats are of a slightly different style and the ones in Goshagawana are renowned for the height. These three main floats that we saw are 23 metres high and housed in a special, purpose built museum.
After looking around the museum at the floats which were incredible! – we watched a video about the festival, showing the floats being paraded through the streets at night with drummers, singing, dancing. Then we were able to visit the workshop which is part of the museum.
This is just part of a hand being made for a model for next years float. Each part of the float is made with wire or wood, lighting is put inside and then paper is applied and eventually painted before the whole float is constructed, using cranes in parts before its ready.
You can see the height of the museum here, thats our bus down on the left. The rounded part has huge doors that open and inside the walkway in the museum is constructed to be able to move away from the float so that, at 23 metres hight, it can roll out on to the road. The floats are pushed through the streets by people. Each float is estimated to cost approx $100,000 US. Artists and designers are employed by the city to create the floats and also a lot of civil servants work on them as part of the duties.
We then drove out to visit a local potter. He started his business in the 1980’s and the kilns are all fired using local scrap wood. We had a tour of the shed where the kilns are.
There were lots of decorative pieces outside in the gardens. There was also a shop with a lot of nice pottery but no pics allowed.
We drove past a lot of apple farms during the day. The fuji apples here are huge and the best tasting apples – so much better than a fuji apple in Australia! Opposite the potter was an apple farm with trees laden with fruit almost ready to pic. The smell was lovely!
The trees have poles to hold them up as the branches get so heavy. Each tree produces about 500 apples in a lifetime.
So we bought a fresh apple for $1 – which included it being cut up and put in a little bag so you can eat it as you walk around.
This is 1/4 of an apple – it tasted fantastic!
Then it was back in the bus for our drive back to the ship.
We did a bit of shopping and I was given a handle for my plastic bag handles – which turned out to be quiet useful.
After a late afternoon nap, a lovely meal in Tsars Restaurant ( roasted tomato soup, lamb shanks & roast veggies, turkey medallions, banana soufflé) we went to the grand finale concert which was just amazing! Lots of circus type acts, people balancing and swinging about on ropes and hoops hanging over our heads – one of the best shows I’ve seen. Then there was the farewell and thanks to the crew and overall a great night.
So today it time to pack, we disembark tomorrow morning in Tokyo and we’re looking forward to our visit there as well as Hiroshima in the coming days.