Takayama (Day 2)

It was snowing the next morning! But as I took too long to get ready, I missed the entire scene which lasted only 5 mins. (pinched this pic from my colleague) And talking about taking a long time to get ready, you'll soon realise that there will not be a breakfast post cos I never made it to breakfast for almost the entire trip. Dressing up takes up way too much time for me! My dear friends will tell you that I am incorrigible :p

Checked out of the hotel early & moving on to the next town Takayama

Some gorgeous scenes that I saw along the bus journey

1st stop is Takayama Jinya - a local government office headed by the Shogun. Note the flower pattern border on the top right tatami mat - it's reserved for top officials. The plain ones are for the common folks.

Check out the thick snow accumulated in the yard

The snow-capped garden was so picturesque.

Simply must have a pic! (I hated the beanie but it's too cold to worry about how I look :p)

Those clay figurines were once upon toys for the Japanese kids. And I realised that Japanese men were really short in the past. Seen in the collage is a tea-room with a really short door & very low ceiling. The other pic of the box-like thing is a carriage for the Shogun. I wish there was some means of comparison so that you can see how small it really is. Amazing stuffs!

This is their torture chamber - displaying some of the torture instruments

We saw the front of the building carpeted with thick snow & couldn't resist diving in for a shot.

End of tour & moving on to another place

My colleagues were all impressed with my skill of taking self-potraits. They had no idea how much practice was involved! :p

This is HIDA beef - only 2nd to Kobe beef

Ta-daa! Lunch!

Extremely happy to be out of the cold & of course happy that I'll be eating very soon

Naturally everyone will be tucking in to Hida beef

But I don't take beef so this is what I ate. Very honestly, I can't remember, even while looking at these pictures, what was it I ate. But it was extremely disappointing eating half-burnt vegetables while the rest were gorging themselves with meat. I remember though the leaf used was magnolia leaf & this is 1 traditional way of them eating their food.

Our tour guide Hiro san showing us the town's lucky figurine - a monkey (you can never figure it out in what way it actually resembles a monkey :p) It's also said that mothers give them to their daughters so that they can get a good husband. Hee~ I bought 1 for Meg :D

Ringing the temple bell

As we were walking, we saw a stall selling BBQ rice balls. Of course we stopped to buy. It looks like fishball but tastes of starch.

It was the week of the Girl's Festival (Maki Kubo) & we saw some houses displaying their dolls. I bought some sweets with the Maki Kubo theme & gave them to Meg. It's her festival too after all :)

We walked past another store, now selling ice-cream. And again, of course we stopped to buy. On sale are the traditional Japanese ice-cream - black sesame or green tea.

Yatai Kaikan - which holds the floats for the Takayama festival. There are a total of 11 floats, each belonging to 1 town. These elaborately decorated floats are over several hundred years old & will be paraded during the festival.

Visited another shrine

Write your wishes on the bamboo sticks then throw coins into the box for your wishes to come true

Can't remember what's this place but it's got magnificient lights that illuminate these miniature buildings - changing from daylight to dark.

Can you spot me?

Carried on walking to our next destination.Had wanted a pic of Yain Ping & Evelyn but Ivan loves the camera. -_-""

I love these few shots that I captured

Takayama Old Town - it's beautifully preserved with many buildings and whole streets of houses dating from the Edo Period (1600-1868)

I wasn't accusing him when I said Ivan loves the camera ......

Taking our pics in peace cos Ivan got busy with a bicycle he found at the the side. (For some reason or another, it must have been really funny cos I can see KC cracking up in the background :p)

Hello Kitty in the 'monkey' suit!

These are sake breweries which is characterized by the Sugidama (balls made of cedar branches) hung over the entrance

I learnt that there's a different significance or meaning in relations to the hand that's raised by the wealth cat. Right hand brings in money whereas left hand brings in customers.

And after a long day, we've finally checked into our hotel - Hida Hotel Plaza Takayama. Again it's a traditional onsen hotel & once again I dragged my futon to bunk with the 2 babes. I'm a happy person again when faced with this wide variety of food for dinner.

I was never a meat person but I found myself craving for meat in Japan.

Dessert!

Jeslyn taking a pic for Ivan in front & all the time he's oblivious to the girls playing pranks behind him. See ...... still can turn & smile into my camera :p

Go Cheri!

1 of the float is on display at the hotel instead

All showing me the exhausted look after a long long day

Yeah .... refreshed again after onsen! It's seriously addictive.

Since I wasn't using it, I gave up my room to KC instead. So we found the perfect place to have our gathering. We don't think he'll mind if we mess up the room. But thing is we never sought his opinion on what his views were in the 1st place :p As usual we were playing secret code - penalty was either drink or eat those beautiful looking Japanese pastries that we bought.