Resort Inn Chirorian Takayama

... design!

I was told that each room of the hotel is uniquely designed. Each room reflects a theme. Unfortunately, their website doesn't show any of their rooms. Only hotel guests have a privilege to see them.

There is a library on the second floor of the building, where you can take a look at books on art and architecture.

I really wish to come back for lunch and spa!

... was a little shocked and surprised to see little girls (between about 4 and 9!) walking around the onsen, just as naked as we were! WOW! It was a little weird and I got all Western and suddenly felt naked! The Japanese have a very different view of the human body than we do!

On our way out of the onsen to the van it was snowing!! I have always thought snow was a good sign and I love it so it was the perfect ending to the perfect day. But it wasn’t over yet, we still had to ...

... Before we exited the grounds, we visited a gift shop. I was going to save my souvenir money for Hiemji Castle which I was really looking forward to. My brother started his souvenir key chain collection. To our delight, we discovered Japanese Kit-Kats! They came in different flavors - apple, blueberry cheesecake, and hot pepper. That's right, hot pepper! We didn't try hot pepper but we got blueberry which was pretty delicious. Why ...

We travelled from Tokyo on the super high speed clean shiny amazing shikansen trains run by japanese rail who, outside Japan, offer the JR Railpass- a discount pass only available to tourists abroad that offers unlimited travel on the shiansen and train network for 7, 14 or 21 days- invaluable if you want to see as much as possible in a short space of time.

After arriving at our ryokan in Takayama, Erin ran through the basic ettiquette of the onsens- red curtain ...

Settling in in Matsumoto. Spent about 4 1/2 hours on trains today, slow one from Nikko to Utsunomiya, a shinkansen to Omiya, another shinkansen to Nagano, then another slow train to Matsumoto. Signs of civilization at the Matsumoto station - a Starbucks!

Hoping that I can find the castle tomorrow. The ryokan has bicycles to lend, so I'm going to try and ...

... but delicious, flavor (something akin to cooking food in banana leaves). The beef was superb. Hoba miso and Hida beef were on my “To Eat” list, so I was happy to get them both the first night. Also had an assortment of mountain vegetables, most of which I could not recognize in the least, including this weird thing that had the texture (but fortunately not the flavor) of pickled roe. Neither jes nor I ...

... Although I'm not a dam mania, I quite enjoyed to see water coming out from the mouth of the dam.

About 10 min drive from the dam, there is a big store that sells local products. The store is called "Hietsu Fureai Bussan Center". One of the main local products they promote was "Rakkyo (scallion)". Rakkyo is well-known food in Japan, but we normally eat ...

... br>lol...but i have also a lot of experiences in the other way...here examples...

hitchhiking...quite easy, even as japanese never do it...funny thing is they invite you to food or give you money...almost always... i refuse always three times, and then i take what they want to get rid of...funny behavior, theoretically it schould be possible to earn money that way.

Otherwise japan is nice, very clean, not as ultramodern as you might think, also it seems that ...

... speak Japanese. After one of them finish their food , he begins to smoke! I hate cigarette smoke and am allergic to the smoke too. So we hurriedly get out of that shop. One thing which I think is a very unhealthy habit in this very health -conscious society is " smoking in public". Why aren't there a rule prohibit smoking in a restaurant?

... Mon Amour. Hiroshima is a modern, bustling city - it's hard to believe that its core was obliterated less than 70 years ago. The Peace Memorial Museum should be required viewing for all world leaders shortly after taking office. A short train and ferry ride brought us to Miyajima island known for it Otorii Gate and overly-friendly deer ...