sanposhita.

Takayama is such a charming place. Rebecca and I woke to another overwhelming breakfast. I particularly enjoyed watching her face as she sampled umeboshi for the first time, although was unfortunately unable to capture it on film.

One of the very friendly women at the ryokan recommended we wander over to the nearby markets. The  morning markets are held next to a river, and almost exclusively sell locally made crafts or lovally grown fruits and vegetables. We bought some presents and knickknacks for friends at home and headed down to the river to say hello to the koi.

Most of the central area of Takayama is made up of stone-cobbled streets with traditional-style Japanese shop fronts selling various wares. We spent most of our day wandering, eventually returning to our ryokan to change into our yukatas.

And preparing for another feast.

The next day we had planned to hire bikes to explore more of Takayama, but decided to climb up to the park by foot instead. Too hot to face the descent, we searched for four leaf clovers instead.

My wish was the Bec would never go home, but I made the mistake of revealing my wish. Rookie error. We had one last cake together and said sad goodbyes. Overwhelmed by Rebecca’s good looks, Japanese people came up and asked to have photos with her, which were later posted on the café’s blog. Classic.

Although it was sad to say goodbye, I was so glad Bec was able to come and see some of Japan with me. I loved all the places we went together, and am excited to be travelling to Kyoto and Takayama again soon!

gujo.

As aforementioned, on the weekend I went to Gujo! I went with a strange mix of Japanese, Chinese, American, French, and German people. Heading to Gujo was incredible; I was so stunned by the scenery we drove through. I know that this will reveal my absolute ignorance of Japan, but I had no idea that there were areas that beautiful here, I felt as though I were in the middle of New Zealand or maybe Europe somewhere. The whole car trip, every corner we turned I would exclaim “Oh my goodness! Its beautiful!” In any case, I feel as though the photos below do not do the beauty of Gujo justice, it was impossible for me to capture its vastness on film. I won’t write a lot about Saturday since the pictures explain most things anyway.

On Sunday morning we rose early to climb a mountain. It certainly made me realise that if I wish to climb Mount Fuji whist here I am going to have to do some more training, if I were to attempt it tomorrow I think I would suffer heart failure.

There is an excellent feeling to bagging a mountain (if you can call my leisurely wander up a hill that). Since there were so many trees, the view from the top was still a little obstructed, but the overwhelming impression was of tree-covered mountains. Everywhere.

We slipped and slid down to the bottom of the mountain where we had a lot of fun playing around near a stream until the first leech was spotted and we all decided it was a good time to run home.

The rest of the day was spent wandering in the town of Gujo. Henry was desperate to jump off the bridge, and whilst that would usually be right up my alley, I was feeling unusually sensible and gave it a pass so poor Henry was on his own.

On the way back we stopped at an onsen, which was my first time. Although I think I managed not to look like an absolute moron, I was still told by my friends I must have done it all wrong since I ended up feeling exhilarated rather than lethargic. After, I headed back to Gifu with the cool cats.

It was such a nice weekend, I feel so indebted to the people who organised all of it and were so kind to me. Without them I never would have had access to those areas or experiences. Thank you!