Friday, July 9, 2010

Misawa, Honshu Japan

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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It was well worth the effort it took to find.

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A local sushi bar I ate at during the last night in town.

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Goodbye northern Japanese zombie town.

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