To Takayama

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Day 7 on the big world tour ...

The lovely Kiyoko took us to the station saving us a bit of a trek with our bags. She even gave us a little bag of breakfast for the train - if you're ever in Nikko go and stay with Kiyoko!

After a day of train travel (where we saw Fuji from the window of the train - amazing) we arrived at our next destination - Takayama. We checked in to our youth hostel which was actually in a Temple - how cool! We walked down into the town which is well-known for all of the Edo-era buldings in the centre of town. We sampled some of the famous Hida beef on skewers which was absolutley delicious.

We felt a little foot weary today after the miles of wlaking we have done in Tokyo and Nikko so we didn't do too much. We went out to find a cheap dinner and Mark finally got the big bowl of noodles he had been craving all trip! Heading back to the hostel we met with two cool Aussie girls Prue and Tiana and chatted way past lights out time until the hostel man told us off! We went to our tatami matted rooms and set out our futons without really being sure which layer was to sleep on, under etc.! Think we got it right though.

Day 8 - We went into town early with Tiana and Prue to have a wander around the morning markets where Mark tried a strange egg cube thing and I had a rice lolly for breakfast and we sampled some other free nibbles. After this we visited a temple which has a 1200 year old tree in its grounds. Marney - did you see it as a sapling? Just kidding!

We caught the bus out to Hida-no-sato, an open air museun where old houses had been moved from various places around the region to preserve them. We had a fantastic morning wandering around all of the old buildings - it was a beautiful place. We did have to take our shoes off a lot though! We all had a go at ringing the huge bell at the top of the village to be heard for miles around.

In the afternoon we pottered around the north of the town near to the place we were staying where there were lots of fab temples. Mark was sure that we saw some Samurai graves which he thinks is very cool!

We only had Y1000 left in cash so we went down to the local shop and introduced Prue and Tiana to the Hayward dinner challenge. Armed with just Y500 each (about 2 pounds) we had to get the most nutritious dinner possible - Mark headed straight for the sake aisle and I went for chocolate! Umm! it was a good laugh and we managed to have quite a feast between us all.

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Photos

Our temple hostel in Takayama...
look out for the monk type man!

Mt fuji
check that out ....

Comments

[simon King]

blog address
Hi Mark, whats going on with the change of blog address from mark and chirssie to fred? Hope you got to Dong the gong in the village.

[Mum H]

Sounds wonderful
In my usual computer literate way have just lost my comment somewhere so will start again. Have just read day 5 and 6 since they oroginally came through as 000000 on our computer ........still a few 000s but can now read that entry. You seem to be having a wonderful time in Japan and glad to see you are feeding well ......really enjoy the pictures.it brings the whole thing to life.. Lots of love for now

[Yum Yum]

Miss Chus!!!
Why Hi!!!! Missed you guys this weekend, we had a BBQ at mine yesterday but there was defo 2 fitties missing! No dry humping nor any smoking of chips nor any bundling that almost killed me.. well its not all bad news then! All is good in, get this, 'sunny' manchester. However I am still totally jealous sitting here at my desk, although I have not done any work yet as I have been reading your blog! Love Mt Fuji by the way ... incredible! And impressed with the temple.. is that rented accomodation? xxx

[mark and chrissie]

Simon king ...
hay ? fred?i am glad to say we donnged itgood an propper just for you! M and C