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Published: September 16th 2008
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Temple room
Our first night in the temple was spent right next door to the alter (lucky there was no 4am service) We arrived in Takayama in the early evening and headed to our accommodation. Jill had mentioned it was a temple and she was correct. In fact due to some confusion on the guy runnings it's part, we slept in the temple, the actual temple, just to the left of the alter. The following night a room was found for us. The place was ryokan in style, we had to take our shoes off and had the rice paper window doors. It was ok but very hard to sleep. So much noise from the doors sliding and people walking on the creaky floors and we were at the front of the building so heard everyones movements which resulted in a restless night, but hey it was an experience!!
Takayama has been on the same site since the 8th century, but the current town was built in the 1930s. (Japan seems to have many 'old' buildings that are not that old..). The area was known for it wood craftsmen and the first morning we woke up and headed for the morning markets (selling a mixture of food, homewares and souvenirs. Aimed at locals and tourists alike. On the way we wandered down
Us
In the Old Merchants part - very pretty! (the houses not us..) the Old Merchants street - rows of private homes, shops, restaurants and sake breweries in the old style. The rows are gorgeous- dark wood, lattice windows. The area is a National Recognised Important Historical Building Preservation Area. It funny so many parts of Japan have been destroyed due to fire (hence the not old 'old' buildings), that there are whole areas were you can not smoke in the street - but you can still smoke in a restaurant!
Through the merchant houses and markets we did stop and try some local produce - grilled rice soy balls (ok), a local sweet made from egg white, soaked in sake and honey (very yummy!) rice crackers, fish donuts (fish shape, not flavour!) and of course sake. Now previously I have tried this and it must be one alcoholic drink I don't really like, but hey will try again...Well now I can safely say I am not a sake person. It was better and definitely could taste the fruit flavours...but give me wine any time...
Keeping with preserved buildings theme we went out to the Hida Folk Village. This is an area where they have moved whole farmhouses. They were damming
Sarubobo
'Monkey baby' Local good luck dolls - red to ward off evil and no faces to reflect the owners feelings a valley and instead of flooding and destroying the houses, they moved them to this park! It was a gorgeous setting with the forest, lake and mountains as a backdrop. And interesting to see how their houses were laid out. They had a couple of house where the roof was a certain way due to being able to cope with 2 meters of snow on it. Well we found that amazing as it is so hot over here!! And to think that it gets that much snow as well!
Ok I just need to say how fantastic and lovely the Japanese are. They are so friendly and accommodating and nothing is a problem. Everywhere we have been someone has helped us and has been efficient and so nice. Japan can be a difficult country to travel around. Only due to the language. When traveling most other places you can learn some words and pick it up. Japanese is so different. As their alphabets (they have 3) is mostly symbols its is very hard to read signs! And yes there are 'english' translations, but it is still difficult. However due to the Japanese and how lovely and easy they are,
how easy going and willing to help and along with how efficient everything is - this is a great country to travel in!
also apologies for the wording of some of this - apologies for the wording of some of this - Japanese keyboards are very difficult!!
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