Coast to coast: Day 6

Today was much more laid back than the rest of my trip has been...in fact, I was kind of thankful that a forecast of rain would help me to trim down the list of places I would consider going.

I gave myself permission to sleep in.

And ate pancakes for breakfast. (With hot almond milk.)

First on the agenda was the Akita Prefectural Museum of Art, which I had intentionally put off yesterday because I wanted something to do indoors today.

A new exhibition just opened on Sunday: "In the Countryside: Akita landscapes, children, and women". It was an fascinating collection of black-and-white photographs, mostly from the 1940s and 50s, showing the day to day life of the people that lived in this area.

I loved the pictures, and wish I had a way to put them up here for everyone to see. I spent a long time wandering through hall, thinking of what it must have been like to live here then, and about how much modern convenience has changed the way we live, the way we think about labor, and even the things that we celebrate. I don't know what the photographer had in mind when he took the photos, but it made me think of how much gets taken for granted in my everyday routine.

After I left the exhibition I spent a little time walking through the shops in the blocks near the station.  Bought my return trip ticket for tomorrow and then found some yummy local souvenirs that I'm looking forward to bringing back to Tokyo to share.

Spent the middle of the afternoon relaxing in my hotel room, and then went out again in the early evening to take the train a little bit north of the downtown area to the Akita Port Tower Selion, which has a free observation deck 100 meters up.  Thought I'd try to go see the sunset from the tower, although today was so overcast I knew my chances were slim of seeing colors like I saw yesterday.

I arrived much earlier than I expected to, but was delighted to discover that there is a quaint little greenhouse in the building adjoining the tower.

A nice way to pass the time before taking the elevator to the observation deck.

I was still an hour before sunset.

I love observation towers, and at the same time they drive me crazy: I'll find a nice angle for a picture, but the window will be too dirty or there will be a weird glare from the lit-up emergency sign in the hallway behind me...

After a few tries, I eventually got a few nice photos of the port and also the mountains bordering Akita to the east.

Looking up the middle of the tower from the first floor

I was up where the blue lights are

Stayed until the sun went down, even though it was too cloudy to tell where the sun was; the sky really just went from grey to darker grey. Stopped at a grocery store on the way back to the station to get some produce for dinner, and came back to the hotel.

Tomorrow I head back to Tokyo, so tonight's task is seeing whether I can fit everything back into the suitcase...