Best Western Hotel Takayama

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 ...

Bonjour,

J'en suis a ma 2e journee avec le groupe. En fait, 3e mais lundi, aucune activite n'etait prevue sauf la rencontre de groupe. J'ai encore un tres bon groupe. Un peu plus vieux mais je m'y attendais. Les gens sont gentils mais etant donne que la guide n'organise pas vraiment de lunch ou de souper en groupe, je ne leur ai pas vraiment encore parle. Ma co-loc est vraiment gentille....Elise, Sophie, elle est ...

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So sorry that you havent received any news from us....from Mt.Fuji on, we didnt have any access....We stayed at the World Heritag Cultural Site in Gokayama, which was like staying at a camp.Basically, we have been in a mountainous area...the students have been writing a journal every day - One student writes about our day and at the end of the trip these pages will be copied by the leaders and a booklet will be made for ...

couldn't get to the computer last nite. only have a minute this morning.
took a train here yesterday. it's up in the "mountains", which are like big hills. it's really such a neat town. their specialty here is making sake and woodworking. i think i'll get a few real pretty bowls.
tim said yesterday on the train "show me the pictures of sedona", he was really missing her and he continues to narrate. as of ...

A Takayama on loge dans un temple, plutot sympa ! La ville est assez touristique et on comprend pourquoi : elle regorge de temples, vieilles batisses, distilleries de sake. Il y a beaucoup d'artisanat local : bois laque, sculptures, herbes sechees... Les sobas (nouille) au sarasin sont la specialite du coin et on approuve ;-) Toujours impossible d'aller a Kamikochi, meme de ce cote. On declare donc forfait et on part vers le sud...

... found shelter, it was in an overpriced restaurant for more soba, which I'm sick of by now. The saddest thing is that I know that this place has some really beautiful views--not only in postcard, but there's a section where you're walking on planks over a bog that is running between a forest of trees, and it's eerie and it's totally unique. Plus, occasionally, the snow open up and you see some shadows of mountains all around you. But four hours of dealing with hellish ...

... is, it was cloudy and then full on sun. And all the activities were on--floats (3 storied high and guilded up the wazoo) pulled out on the streets, kamakiri (marionette shows) performed on the floats re-enacting noh dramas, and more engergetic lion dancing in the parade (two person lion apparati that dance about purifying the streets ahead of a gold Shinto shrine). And lots of festival food--lots of fried stuff, okonomiyaki like heaps of lode, and in the ...

... Poi certo, la bellezza delle cose esiste soltanto nella mente di chi le contempla (ho scoperto chi l'ha detto: David Hume, filoso illuminista scozzese), e questo sicuramente vale anche per tutti gli altri sentimenti. Quello che io leggo in questi posti e', soprattutto, rispetto e onesta'. Due cose molto difficili da trovare... e anche due propositi difficili da perseguire, ma per cui vale sicuramente la pena di impegnarsi. Non si arriva molto lontano se no...

... guts... I can't say I was too thrilled about it. I plucked a little piece of it off its side and tried it. It was a little lemony, but I wasn't too keen on it. I decided to leave it on my plate. The dessert was good! There was a piece of mochi with red bean paste inside (it's a sweet dessert), and a piece of almond jello (it was okay... The consistency was a little different from what I'm used to...), a small piece of cake or pound cake and this odd maroon colored thing ...