Four Seasons Takayama

... and some old relics dating back to before the Jomon period (each period in Japanese history is marked by the Emperor who reigned at the time. Even today official dates and many business transactions are marked by the year of the Emperor – we are in the 21st year of the current Emperor, Akithio) It is located in the Japanese Alps and called “the roof of Japan.” It is surrounded by beauty and natural hot springs.

We did some shopping in the little old part of ...

... so they are super cautious and have people who walk around the village at night in the spring and summer to look out for any fire that may have started so it can be put out quickly.

After a while walking around this we did a little shopping and had saki – at 9:30 in the morning! It was delicious and strong! My trips with the Mano family are always filled with interesting (and sometimes scary) food and drink.

More later . . .

... tub in an enclosed space outside and proceeded to soak in that on my own for a good 20 mins (i believe the term i would use to describe my complexion after that was beetroot!).

Post soak and it was time for dinner at a local eatery which was kind enough to introduce us to a local delicacy of the region- Hida beef. While quite fatty, this beef is quite lean on the outside with most of the fat content coming from the multiple, fine marbled lines that run through it ...

... je suis donc en terrain de connaissance.

Il pleuvait a boire debout a Tokyo a cause du typhon qui a passe au large de la cote est. J'ai donc pris une journee de conge de mes vacances et je n'ai pas fait grand chose. Je voulais aller visiter un temple mais le temps que je traverse la rue pour aller a la station de train, j'etais deja trempee et beaucoup moins motivee ! J'ai quand meme pris le metro pour aller au ...

... tickets instead of using our JR pass. Big financial ouch. Thoroughly broke, we went back to Banri.

Another fantastic dinner: hoba miso chicken, along with (different) mountain veggies and “+3.” The miso soup had squash in it tonight. Pretty good and also the only miso we saw with something other than tofu or mushrooms in it. Also had seared Hida beef, baby eggplants with cheese (wtf?), tuna ...

... student.....being that we are soooo far behind, this will be - a picture is worth a thousand words...enjoy the pictures. Your students/children are doing great...we have been sleeping Japanese style on the floor for six nights and are anxious to move on to Hiroshima for real beds and bathrooms in our room. We have been taking the Japanese style baths every night!!...
Gosh, hard to believe our trip is almost over!!!

... she owns the whole of japan, this going on the " if i like it it's mine, if i see it's mine" principle.
i love you sweetheart. we both miss you both. i'm getting some stares here, so i need to go. i'll try to get on computer tonite. have to do laundry too.
i'll tell tim about orientation stuff. that was very thoughtful of you.
miss you much, you too kate :)
love you forever, like you for always
mom

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...

... al naso. Penso (dalla panza e dal fatto che era da solo): che schifo sti americani, ci manca solo la lattina di birra in mano e poi siamo a posto. Dopo un po' mi casca l'occhio sullo zaino che aveva di fianco: "compagnia della natura". Noooo... ditemi che non e' italiano per favore, che bruttissima figura per tutta la nazione! Ovviamente, a 3 minuti dalla stazione di Takayama arriva un probabile figlio in eta' brufolazzi - tapparella giu' con maglietta "la ...

The village was interesting. My mom and I poked our heads into a few of the homes. There was one home where they were making some sort of decoration out of mochi, which is like a sticky rice goo... I don't know how else to explain it, but usually it's served as a dessert. Either way, the decoration is you stick the mochi around a branch... I took some pictures of what finalized decorations look like. If you have just one, it looks pretty lame... But if you have an ...