Misawa is located towards the northernmost point of mainland (Honshu) Japan. The city itself is rather small and surrounded by miles and miles of farmland. Misawa boasts a population of approximately 43,000, although after walking around the city I would have expected closer to 100.
A perpetual fog stuck around for about four of the five days I was here, barely covering the tops of buildings during the day and making finding my way impossible at night...not to mention landing a plane exciting. The city was also surprisingly quiet. Except for the occasional car, there were no sounds at all.
As you can see, there are no people. One car though. All the streets looked this way - residential buildings mixed with the occasional hole-in-the-wall restaurant, most of which looked very appealing and smelled amazing. Unfortunately they probably would not let Americans enter.
The fog would linger until about eleven or noon each day and lift for a few hours before engulfing the buildings during late afternoon. This combined with the absence of people and sounds made Misawa seem like something out of a zombie horror film. A few times I would look back and half expect to see a rotting hand popping out of the ground.
This is a local ramen restaurant known only as the place with the big yellow sign...which did not bode well with the taxi driver.
It was well worth the effort it took to find.
A local sushi bar I ate at during the last night in town.
Goodbye northern Japanese zombie town.
