October 2026 to Japan for Autumn Colors, Aomori Apples, Oirase Keiryu, and Lake Towada.

The remainder of September was peaceful.  Faye and I have settled into married life.  It really is no different to before we were married, now we are just saving more money because of the benefits my job gives married employees.  The housing allowance went up which means we are saving money on rent and the travel allowance also increased so we can afford more travel. This is money well saved for both of us.  It means a bigger travel budget and more money for our long term plans.

Here is our wedding picture.

On September 26 we went to Nanshan Netherlands Plant Market and Zhongshan Park. We went to that a few times over the course of three weekends. 

Faye has been experimenting with some new and tasty recipes. 

I have been befriending the neighborhood cats.

I had a vacation on September 25-27 but we did not go anywhere.

We did however, have a fantastic adventure in Japan for Golden Week, October 1-7.

We landed in Tokyo.  Our first meal was Nepalese food. Then we stopped to pick up our next morning's breakfast and checked in to our apartment style hotel.

On the 2nd we woke up, ate breakfast, and went to Tokyo JR station to catch a 3hr 20 min train to Aomori. 

After we arrived in Aomori in mid afternoon we checked in to Daiwa Roynet Hotel.  We went to the top of ASPAM tower and then got a delicious seafood dinner at Aomori Hotate Ka near our hotel before calling it an early night.

After a fantastically filling breakfast at the hotel the following morning we took a 2hr30 minute bus ride from Aomori Station to Lake Towada.  Although the autumn colors were just starting to show in early October, it was my first time seeing autumn colors since 2022, and they were fabulous. 

We arrived in Lake Towada, checked into Towadako Shinzantei hotel, then enjoyed a sunset walk beside the lake before having a delicious dinner which was included in our reservation.

Breakfast the next morning was also included in our reservation and it was equally delicious.  We ate, got ready, then caught a bus to Tsuta Onsen where we planned to start hiking for the day.

Our hike began with the 3km Tsutanuma pond loop path.  This trail loops around a series of ponds that formed as a result of volcanic activity.  

We then continued about 6km along the Tsuta river until we reached the Oirase Field Museum where we stopped for a proper snack of Aomori apple pies.  This is where we officially started hiking the Oirase Keiryu Gorge. 

We hiked 13.2km at a brisk pace and only stopped once more at the Ishigedo rapids rest area for Aomori apple ice cream and hard boiled eggs.

We reached the end of the Oirase Keiryu Gorge trail at Nenokuchi shortly before sunset.  Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to stay and watch the sun go down.  We had another 9.1km to go. 

As sore as we were, we powered through.  It was getting dark quickly and the temperature was dropping.  We ended up hiking in the dark, I had to keep moving to maintain my body heat. 

The remainder of the hike was fortunately downhill or flat. Our legs were hurting but we managed to make it.  We passed through a 1.5km long tunnel, which I enjoyed the acoustic effects of immensely.

Just before we reached our hotel we got a brilliant view of the night sky.  We even got lucky and saw a shooting star.

We made it back to our hotel 10 minutes after our scheduled dinner.  We were sore and exhausted having hiked 31-32 km in one day and having set a personal record for the longest distance we have ever hiked in one day.  We were 10-11km short of a marathon distance hike.  This exhaustion made a delicious meal even more yummy.

After dinner we went to the on-site Onsen to soak in the hot water and relieve our sore aching muscles. 

We slept soundly that night.

The next morning was our last day beside lake Towada and we truly made the most of it.  Following a fantastic breakfast we checked out and left our bags at the hotel.  Then we took the Towada boat tour.

After the boat tour we collected our bags at the hotel, stopped to buy a bottle of the local Aomori apple wine, and hopped on the bus back to Aomori.  

Upon arrival back in Aomori we checked in to the Daiwa Roynet Hotel once again and then set out on the town for somewhere to eat an have a few drinks.  

We started by getting some of the very unique Aomori style ramen at Ajino Sapporo Oonishi.  Then we proceeded to a bar called Blue Note for a few drinks and some good music.  The Blue Note is a jazz bar that was opened over 70 years ago in Aomori Japan.  The place is run by the 80 and 90 something year old founders, a couple, who have amassed a vast collection of jazz records.  The place was super chill.  There are other places calling themselves The Blue Note, but this one is the original Blue Note. 

We followed that with a stop at Bisyu Club and Tororo for some more drinks and a bite to eat before calling it a night.

We had some time to kill on October 6th before we had to catch our train back to Tokyo.  So we ate breakfast, checked out and stored our luggage, and caught a public bus to a thrift store called Yorozuya-Hamada. Faye enjoyed some shopping and bought a couple of shoes an I played Mariokart and watched anime for about an hour. We then took the bus back to our hotel, grabbed our bags, and then hurried to the train station to catch our connecting train to Shin-Aomori where we would take our train back to Tokyo.

The ride back to Tokyo was peaceful.  We spent most of 3hr 20 minutes sleeping, reading, and looking through our pictures. 

When we arrived back in Tokyo we had to figure out how to get to our hotel near Narita airport.  It was a little bit of a pain in the ass because we ended up missing the connection and having to wait an hour for the next Narita Express train.  Either way we made it to Narita that evening. 

Despite wanting to eat sushi there was nothing open except yet another Nepalese restaurant.  So on our first night of the trip and last night of the trip we ate Nepalese food.  

We had dinner, then mistakenly got on the wrong bus for one stop, before deciding to take a taxi to the International Garden Narita Hotel. 

October 7th was our last day in Japan and we, once again, made the most of it.  We had plenty of time after checking out before having to go to the airport.  So we walked to Naritasan Park again (we had been there before) and this time focused on the parts of the park that we had missed out on last time.  We visited the Buddhist temple that is there before returning to our hotel and taking the shuttle to the airport. 

We made it back to HK and took the last available bus back to Shenzhen.  That week at work was only two days long before the weekend.  So despite being exhausted at work on Thursday October 8th I did not really need to have much energy.  I made it through those days by using a cell biology board game in class.  Then we crashed over the weekend and slept a lot. 

On October 16th we took a very long walk and went out for some drinks.

On October 17th we went hashing for the first time in ages.  Faye and I joined the Shekou Hashers who were visiting the Silver Beach hash in Huizhou. 

Last week I also received an updated school calendar, which had to be changed due to a government mandated school closure because of APEC.  My normally scheduled Thanksgiving break was canceled, but instead I now have 5 days off + 2 weekends, which gives me a 9 day vacation from November 14th-22nd.  We are planning a trip to Nepal.  Maybe on our first and last day of our Nepal trip we will get to try some good Japanese food 😄.