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Day 3 in Takayama dawned sunny and hot. I guess Mari (our guide) was right when she said that when the rainy season ends, it ENDS! I didn't think I would look back on those rainy, overcast days with fondness, but the sun is just so hot. Oh well, no complaints about the weather so far, we have been very lucky.
Christine started her day with a trip up to the rooftop onsen to loosen up her muscles for another day of walking. Once she was finished, we got ourselves all packed up and headed down for breakfast. Kent tried the Apple Vinegar drink, which is apple cider vinegar mixed with honey and apple juice or water. It was still vinegary, but all in all, not bad.
Once we had finished our breakfasts, we brought out luggage down to the front desk and checked out. We still had a few hours in Takayama though, so we decided to do part of the Higashiyama Walking Course which is a 4 km route that takes you past 13 temples and 3 shrines. We visited 8 of the temples, before turning off the course to try and find the castle ruins before we had to head back to the hotel. We found the ruins of a massive castle gate, and given the size of the gate, one can only imagine what the size of the actual castle would have been.
We made our way back to the hotel to meet up with the group, but before we left Christine decided to buy a Yukata set that they had for sale in the hotel. It came with the robe, a sash, wooden sandals, a purse and a fan. Kent found some of the wonderful cherry blossoms that you make into tea and bought them after remembering how amazing the cherry blossom tea was in Narai.
After we finished picking up our last-minute purchases at the hotel, we headed down to the bus station to get our bus to Shirakawa-go. It was about a 50-minute ride to get there, and when we got there we noticed that there were a lot of other tourists around. It turns out that this is a long holiday weekend in Japan (Monday is Marine day) so there were lots of people on bus trips. The daughter of the lady that runs the minshuku that we were going to stay at met us at the bus stop to pick up our luggage so we didn't have to carry it on our walk through the town to get to our accommodations. When we arrived at the minshuku, our luggage was waiting and Mari showed us to our rooms. The minshuku provided us with tea, cookies, and some delicious local cucumbers. It was a nice break from the heat before we headed out to explore the town.
The first stop on our tour of Shirakawa-go was the viewpoint high on a hill overlooking the town. It was quite the steep hike to get to the top, but the views from the top were worth it. Kent took several panorama photos and Christine took some shots of a soaring bird, we think perhaps it was an eagle. We slowly worked our way back down the hill and went on a tour of one of the grass-roofed houses that Shirakawa-go is famous for.
When we entered the house it was very hot as they had the fire going in the middle of the first floor. Normally they wouldn't have the fire going in the summer, but this was for demonstration purposes. The smoke from the fire goes throughout the entire house, helping to preserve the wood and also turning it a dark black colour. Once we got up to the third floor, we had to put slippers on to keep our feet from turning black from the floor. In the winter the people in this town made their living making gunpowder and silk, so we saw the tools and facilities that they had in the house for both. The house was a decent size, but when you think that sometimes up to 30 people in a family would live in the house, it must have been very cramped.
We continued our tour of the town, seeing the town's shrine, some larger houses from the outside, and one house that had what appeared to be a brand new roof. The roofs need to be replaced every 20-30 years now, but back when the fires were in daily use and there was always lots of smoke, a roof would last 40-50 years.
Once we had made it to the other end of town, we headed back to the minshuku for dinner. Dinner was another Japanese style feast, but this one featured the small individual burners that cooked a delicious plate of onions, mushrooms, bean sprouts, and some of the wonderful local Hida beef. This was our last dinner of this type on the tour since we will be in Kyoto, Mount Koya, and Tokyo the rest of the way.
After dinner, the lady of the house brought out several Japanese outfits for us to try on. Christine and Tanya volunteered to try on the Yukata's, while Kent and Chris got dressed up as traveling Samurai, complete with sword. Lots of pictures were taken and lots of laughs were had by both the group and our hostess. After the dress-up time was over, our hostess wanted us to help her with a Japanese folk song by playing some of the local instruments. Kent played a percussion instrument made up of made small pieces of wood tied together with string. You played it by flipped your wrists to make the wood pieces clap together. After her song, she wanted to hear folk songs from our countries. Only Christine sang, doing the first verse of "Land of the Silver Birch". This got a great reaction from our hostess.
During dinner, we had been told that once it got dark, we could walk a little way back into town to see some fireflies which had been seen in the area. Apparently they are attracted to very clean water, which this town has. We picked up some flashlights from the minshuku and headed down to the area where we were told the fireflies were. We were very lucky and managed to see several of them flashing around. This was a completely unexpected surprise and a real bonus for both of us.
We headed back to the minshuku, had our showers and were getting ready for bed when Mari (our guide) came and asked if we wanted to go see a baby cow. Kent was working on some pictures, so Christine and Tanya headed down with the owner to see the animals. He opened up the barn doors and there were two cows and a calf inside. He gave the girls some weeds to feed to the cows along with the leftovers from our dinner. Tanya and Christine both picked a cucumber and headed back. It turns out that the other cow was also pregnant and gave birth the next morning!
When the girls got back, we all went outside to share a beer with the owner of the minshuku. He laughed and joked with us (in Japanese of course, Mari had to translate) for a while while we enjoyed the beautiful night air. It is very dark in Shirakawa-go at night so the stars were spectacular. Once the beer was gone, we headed to bed.
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Mom/Doren Your adventures just seem to get better and better. Love the outfits! Christine you look like you fit right in!