Back in Niigata City...

I went to Niigata city on Sunday and stayed there for two nights. Met up with a friend who lives and works there. I splurged a bit and stayed at a Dormy Inn. Most of the hotels in that chain have nice onsen (hot spring) baths. In this particular one the men's bathing area is on the top floor (10th floor) and the women's is on the 2nd. Thus the men's bathing area has an open air bath but not the women's one.

First night there we had a bite to eat at an izakaya (Japanese tapas bar) which I picked because they had "nodogoro", a local fish specialty, on their menu.  The fish gets its name from its almost black gills.  Following that we went to a craft beer bar. They had one weird one from the Shonan (Kamakura to Enoshima) area down in Kanagawa prefecture. It was a bright emerald blue. Didn't taste like beer at all. It was more like Kool-Aid.  That definitely won't be a beer I'll be look out for in the future.  After that we walked around and popped into a wine bar. I said "Let's pop in here and get a drink so I can use the loo". Three glasses of wine later we were still in the place.  We should've ordered a bottle of wine.  The woman running the place used to work at another pub which my friend used to frequent. They closed up during the winter.  Apparently their landlord had wanted to renovate the building but changed their mind at the last minute.  The pub owner told the landlord he had already sold all his furniture, fixtures, and equipment was there was no way he could stay open. 

The next day I went on a trek in the pouring rain. Visited Hakusan Shrine (build in the 16th century), Gokoku Shrine (built in 1944/45), the old Saito family summer residence (the somewhat large garden was closed because of rain), and the Niigata City Museum (also known as Minato Pia). I think I walked about 18km to cover all that.

Bandai Bridge, Niigata City, on a rainy Monday

We were going to have dinner at a Thai place but it was closed and the place that featured Okinawan food was full. Ended up at a yakitori place. After that we went to a "snack" (karaoke and snacks) bar and finally ended up at Bar 37, which is one of my friend's usual haunts. One of the customers remembered me from my visit to Niigata last year. The next morning I stuck my nose in the Niigata Manga and Anime Museum. Didn't have time for the Evangelion themed Japanese sword collection exhibit.

I travelled to Niigata city this time by train. I didn't want to deal with parking for a two night stay. Took local trains on the way there. Took an express train from Niigata to Sakamachi on the way back. Very comfy. Similar experience to riding a shinkansen train but obviously lower speeds. The train from Sakamachi to Yonezawa was just one car. The line isn't electrified so it was a diesel engine train.