Imadakan Gifu

... 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!

Soba restaurant "Takano" that stands on the half way of the two main streets of Yatsuo, I heard, is famous among soba manias. Soba plant is cultivated by Yatsuo farmers, so there are many soba restaurant that serve locally made soba noodles.



You cannot leave Yatsuo without having soba!!

A stone-path street and houses with lattice doors are good match!! They surely create an atmosphere of nostalgia. Lattice doors are quite functional as it can breathe and at the same time it can ...

Stone-walling streets of Yatsuo is a sight to see!! As houses are built high up on those stone walls, they almost look like a castellated walls. Those houses create unique view.

... shop in town and we stopped in to have a look around. All of their furniture was made by hand of beautiful wood. Some very ornate and traditional looking but much of it was what I can only describe as Japan meets Frank Lloyd Wright. Absolutely beautiful – and WOW! The prices were out of this world!

After leaving the city we drove to a sky resort area there was some snow on the ground but the ski season hasn't started yet. We turned to a hot springs spa (called an ...

... manhole covers in each of the towns we visited.

It was noon so we went to grab some lunch. There was a soba (a type of thin Japanese noodle made from buckwheat flour. It's served either chilled with a dipping sauce, or in hot broth) restaurant named Nomugi that was recommended by Lonely Planet. According to the guidebook, the owner was a famous soba maker in the region. We were only given an address of the restaurant and ...

... building in the centre of the old town, complete with torture chamber, a few free tastings at some sake breweries and a trip to the float museum which stands next to the town's largest shrine and which shows off a rotation of the beautifully detailed floats that are brought our around the town every spring and autumn for one of Japan's most popular festivals.

We reconvened around 7pm for some more hida beef and then managed to find a great little sake bar ...

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 ...

... 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 ...

... guy is koni and we have also been hanging out a lot with keiko. Anyways its freaking sad because everybody knows that we most likely wont ever see each other again btw virgil went crazy on karaoke tonight ok i gotta go - its 230am now and we have to go to a ceremony at the school tomorrow and ride the bullet train 2.5 hrs to tokyo i will try and update tomorrow but im not sure of the status with internet at our next hotel peace