Last week before my big haircut, Kate and I took a drive along the coast all the way up to Tappi at the north-west corner of Honshu. You may recall from this old post that Tappi is also the site of Aomori's Seikan Tunnel museum. The museum consists of two parts. The first is an easy to sneak into surface level gallery of models, photos, diagrams and a movie theatre. The second is a smaller, impossible to sneak into gallery deep underground that is accessed by cable car. The guided tour was pretty short, and there wasn't much to see or do down there. For a princely sum of 1200 yen each, the "Experience the Shaft" portion of our museum visit was rather apply named I think. While I mostly enjoyed the museum and experiencing the shaft, I was robbed of many facinating facts and figures by my inability to read any of the interesting diagrams or understand the tour guide at all. I wasn't really expecting to be blown away by this museum, and I wasn't, but the trip to Tappi was certainly a pleasant way to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon.

Follow up:

Small dekotora with me holding even smaller dekotoras.



This very steep and curvy road is only open in the summertime and early fall as it is far to dangerous to drive on any other time of year. It also seems to be a big draw for thrill seekers as every corner was nearly painted with black with skid marks and figure eights.




Did I mention the road is also really foggy too? At the peak is an observation area where all you can really observe are dead trees and fog. We both figured this was a nice location for some impromptu model posing.



Kate instructed me to pose as if I was in love with the artificial grass. The resulting image looks more like I'm mind-melding with it.




Next stop was the Seikan Tunnel Museum



Lots of dusty old models we couldn't figure out




Look at me! I'm gonna koncho the constrution worker statue! I'm so damn funny. Maybe I can be the next Hard Gay.



Cable car boarding station




On our way down to experience the shaft



Old mining tracks no longer in use.




The panflet we got with our cable car ticket mentioned that both Seikan Tunnel Museums featured aquariums with examples of aquatic life from the region. I sure hope the other museum's aquarium is more impressive than this poor solitary fish tank.



Drill bits, one of the many thrilling and awe-inspiring displays in the shaft.




One of many construction worker statues. I'm not sure if I heard the guide right, but I think she said there's a real construction worker encased inside each one!



No place in Japan is complete without a cute cartoon mascot.




The shaft in all its glory.



On our way back up to the surface.




Time for more posing!







Okay rocky shores of Tappi, you can pose too.