青森の最後の日
For my third and final day in Aomori on November 27th, it was snowing incredibly hard. I kind of regretted not bringing my heavy coat (which I've been using since the beginning of December now)! But in any case, undeterred, I decided to give the Art Museum and the Sannai-Maruyama Ruins another try. I got on the right bus, and made my way over to see....
...Nothing. I went into the museum, walked around, and found out that their temporary exhibition, Nara Yoshitomo's stuff, was the only exhibition, and I thought that was an absolutely terrible idea. 笑 Even the dog statue I wanted to see and the one I saw on all the flyers to this place, was not available to be seen since it was snowing. I was like "I don't care though, I want to see it" but the lady insisted. In fact, I tried looking for it myself afterwards but ended up only seeing another installation.
A little annoyed, I decided against paying the hefty 1200円 entrance fee for Nara Yoshitomo, and just walk to Sannai. Which was quite a feat considering ankle-deep snow and strong wind.
So Sanna-Maruyama thankfully had a center nearby so I stopped there to look around for a while, finding a museum for the people of the Jomon period and how they lived in Sannai-Maruyama as hunter-gatherers. There was a large collection of pottery which makes me now wonder what those people thought of it when they discovered pottery-making. Isn't it... weird? Nature is weird. 笑 But anyway, interesting stuff. Would've been more interesting if I understood everything!
Off to the actual ruins, where I eventually find out that the houses are all just reconstructions. Which saddened me a bit but I figured, since they're just made of dirt and sticks and are located on a wide open space, they'd have to just be reconstructions. Went into a few and found some tented areas that housed stuff like buried pottery and old graves. Also, 6 big holes in the ground that were really suspicious and seemed useless but according to one video, was remnants of an old pillar-supported building, one of which was reconstructed outside.
It was interesting, but after the houses began looking all the same, I decided to leave and wait for the bus back near the station, where I again braved the harsh weather to go to an onsen! Spent most of my time in the outdoor one because the indoor's mist and fog was suffocating after a while. Even so, I spent half of the time actually outside the onsen and just sat on a plastic recliner chair in the snow. Because YOLO.
...Nothing. I went into the museum, walked around, and found out that their temporary exhibition, Nara Yoshitomo's stuff, was the only exhibition, and I thought that was an absolutely terrible idea. 笑 Even the dog statue I wanted to see and the one I saw on all the flyers to this place, was not available to be seen since it was snowing. I was like "I don't care though, I want to see it" but the lady insisted. In fact, I tried looking for it myself afterwards but ended up only seeing another installation.
A little annoyed, I decided against paying the hefty 1200円 entrance fee for Nara Yoshitomo, and just walk to Sannai. Which was quite a feat considering ankle-deep snow and strong wind.
So Sanna-Maruyama thankfully had a center nearby so I stopped there to look around for a while, finding a museum for the people of the Jomon period and how they lived in Sannai-Maruyama as hunter-gatherers. There was a large collection of pottery which makes me now wonder what those people thought of it when they discovered pottery-making. Isn't it... weird? Nature is weird. 笑 But anyway, interesting stuff. Would've been more interesting if I understood everything!
Off to the actual ruins, where I eventually find out that the houses are all just reconstructions. Which saddened me a bit but I figured, since they're just made of dirt and sticks and are located on a wide open space, they'd have to just be reconstructions. Went into a few and found some tented areas that housed stuff like buried pottery and old graves. Also, 6 big holes in the ground that were really suspicious and seemed useless but according to one video, was remnants of an old pillar-supported building, one of which was reconstructed outside.
It was interesting, but after the houses began looking all the same, I decided to leave and wait for the bus back near the station, where I again braved the harsh weather to go to an onsen! Spent most of my time in the outdoor one because the indoor's mist and fog was suffocating after a while. Even so, I spent half of the time actually outside the onsen and just sat on a plastic recliner chair in the snow. Because YOLO.