Our travels Video and Pics Cycling Walking About us News Part 2 : Japanese Alps Saturday 1 September It is six thirty and the phone rings... Antoinette was afraid we wouldnīt be on time and she arranged a wake-up call for the entire group! Not everybody is pleased with that, but no one is too late at the bus. At 8 the bus leaves Tokyo, in the direction of Matsumoto. After a lot of talking and the driver takes a detour to show us Mt. Fuji. But the clouds block our view. The group decides to pay the extra toll and our bus drives up the mountain. Our driver says it is 100% sure we can see the mountain from inside the park. He is wrong. The bus drives to 2305 m the highest a bus can get, but still nothing but clouds. At the souvenirshop we get a free bell, and the picture of us with the Mt Fuji sign is a nice souvenir. After this short stop we go on. And after half an hour, we do see the mountain, for a short moment, through the clouds. The pic we took didnīt proof anything, all gray....... To hide our disappointed and to keep from getting bored we start the Crane project. We get some origami paper and a description from Antoinette en we start folding. But it is much complicated then we thought. Bart is the first one to produce something that looks like a bird. And after some more practise and a little help the rest succeeds too. We get quicker and quicker and soon we donīt need the description anymore. We get all excited and we talk about folding a thousand cranes before we get to Hiroshima. (The story of the cranes and Hiroshima can be found at part 6 : Hiroshima). Because we made a detour to Mt Fuji we arrive late in Matsumoto. We drop our bags in the hotel and go directly to the castle. Because that closes at five. The castle is certainly worth visiting. It is a little bit crowded though. When the castle closes we walk through Matsumoto. An old man on a bike stops and starts asking questions. īWhere are you from? Holland? Ah, windmills, tullips, clogs, yes, yes. What do think of Japan, and howlong are you staying?ī The entire conversation takes about five minutes. We go on and find a nice terrace at the river. While we enjoy a delicious pizza and some beer, the man passes on his bike again. He waves and drives on, just to come back after five minutes. He bought six cans of Japanese beer (Kirin) and six cans of Heineken for us. We are very surprised, but like his taste and except the gift. We write down the address of Morio Seki, who is a retired postman, so we can sent him something from Holland. The cans of beer are emptied by the four of us in the lobby of hotel Spica Inn. Sunday 2 September We take breakfast in the coffeshop under the hotel. And then visit the 100 Yen-shop to buy some origami paper to do some folding while we are travelling. The local bus to Takayama drives through a beautifull area, the Japanese Alps. We drive through the mountains. And after two and a half hour we arrive in Takayama. The brochure of our travelcompany says it is a small traditional village. In reality there are about 70,000 people living in Takayama. And the traditional is only one street kept traditional for the tourists. Because it is sunday there are a lot of Japanese all buying souvenirs in one of the many shops. It looks more like an amusementspark then like a traditional village. We visit a sake brewery and look at some souvenirs. After a short period we have enough of that and take a can of soda from one of the many machines you will find on japanese streets. While we are enjoying the cool drink at the road side, a shopkeeper asks us if we speak japanese. Not sure what she is going to ask we answer: no, just very little. She manages to tell us that we get this box of sweets as a present. A present from someone walking on the parkinglot......... Strange country, strange people, but why do we a get a present? What did we do? We open the box immediately, but most of us donīt really like the sticky sweet stuff that is inside. What else is there to see in Takayama? By coincidence we walk past the provincehouse, the Takayama Jinya. It dates back to 1603 and is now a museum. One can see the rooms of the former shogun and his personel. In the prison there are some torture displays and in the storagerooms is a display about Takayama. At night the entire group meets at the station to get to a traditional japanese restaurant. We are trying sukiyaki for the first time. Meat and vegetables are cut in small pieces, you have to cook it your self in a small pot over a fire. Next you dip it into raw beaten eggs. The taste of the egg is not really noticeable, so i decide to cook the egg too. Back in our Minshuku (traditional Japanese hotel) Antoinette buys everone a drink as a compensation for not seeing MT Fuji. And sitting there enjoying this drink she learns us 16 important japanese words. Soon we know that domo can take you a long way. It means: sorry, i have misbehaved, but also: thanks. We also learn the standard words like goodmorning (ohayo gozaimasu), enjoy your meal(itadakimasu), it tastes good (oishi desu),a toast (kampai)and left (hidari), right (migi) and station (eki). Bart asks what the japanese word voor beautifull lady is(kakoi) and how to say someone is ugly (buta). And ofcourse we had to learn the only japanese namecalling word: bakka. Time for another beer in our traditional japanese room. Sit on the ground and not much later lay down, because of the pain in your back and legs. Maybe it is better to get the futons out of the cupboard and go to sleep. Monday 3 September It is raining and at last we can use the umbrellas we bought in Tokyo and carried with us all this time. We walk to the openair museum and want to have breakfast on our way, but nothing is open. We hope there is something to eat inside the museum and enter. Many old wooden houses are shown. To show the real old atmosphere there is a woodfire inside. Some houses have people showing an old craft. The park is nice but very tiring. Place your umbrella in the umbrella stand, take of your shoes and enter the house. And if you leave the house again: Put your shoes on, take your umbrella from the rack and go. And all this about twenty times. In a resthouse are some coffeemachines. Everything on the machines is only in japanese, we think there must be a button for sugar or no sugar, but we didnīt find it! The rain stopped. On our way back we finally find a bakery where we can buy something to eat. Lovely warm bread. In the centre of Takayama we have another coffee in a coffeeshop. And again we walk the souvenirsshops. A speciality from this area is sembei, a ricecookie. Because it is less crowded we can see how it is cooked. And it is really funny to see how the baker is beating the cookie into its shape. We buy a few to eat during our trip and walk to the station. In the train to Kyoto the entire group is folding cranes again. A Japanese woman sitting near canīt believe her eyes and offers to help, she does it just a little bit different and a little bit more precise. When we arrive in Kyoto it is raining again, pooring. The hotel is just opposite the station. After a quick shower we have dinner in a chinese restaurant in the stationcomplex. One floor below the restaurants is an amusementshall. All kind of arcade games can be played here. And to our surprise there is even an aquarium where you can catch fish or turtles, which you can take home as a price! Part 1 : Tokyo Part 3 : Kyoto Part 4 : Koyasan Part 5 : Osaka Part 6 : Hiroshima Part 7 : Aso vulcano Part 8 : Nagasaki Our travels Video and Pics Cycling Walking About us News