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Sorry there haven't been any new pictures. The places we stay at have wi-fi but no PC computers to hook my camera up to. Trust me, there are a lot waiting to be uploaded! So for now, you'll have to put up with my words.
Staying with the Yamazaki family was again a fun and wonderful experience. The okonomiyaki we made, and even takoyaki (they have a cute little takoyaki griddle-thing) were all delicious! The futons were super-soft, and it was tough to say goodbye!
Alas, we had to catch our train to Takayama, which was a really nice sightseeing train through the mountains. It wasn't until we arrived at Takayama we realized just how nice and awesome the Yamazakis are. When we checked into our hotel room we found a card from them saying that the room was completely paid for as a wedding gift to us! O_o HOLY COW! That is way too generous, especially after they let us stay the night at their house and paid for the sightseeing!! Anyway, a HUGE thank you to the Yamazakis!!
The Takayama festival started getting crowded even at the early hour we got there. The floats were all out and I swear that 80% of the tourists here are professional photographers. People were whipping out Nikons and Canons and setting up tripods everywhere! I really love my Kodak z990 that I recently bought. It's easy to use and takes nice pictures! Either way, the crowds were intense, which I expected, but I think poor Jeph felt like a salmon swimming upstream. During the first presentation of the float with the marionette puppets I squeezed into the huge crowd while Jeph enjoyed some shade away from the pack. A parade began that carried various floats and a small procession, so we followed that for a while. Then it was time for a break in our room until sundown, when the floats would be lit by lanterns.
For dinner we perused the festival food booths by the river. Jeph enjoyed a gyro from the only booth not manned by a Japanese person, but some Turks (yo!), and a bag of baby castellas (a small, lightly sweet sponge cake). I got a hot dog on a stick and a strawberry crepe.
Once it was 6:00 another round of parades started with the floats all lit up and some had dancing dragons in front of it. I say this like I saw it. We saw the floats, but the streets were so packed and despite Japanese people being my height, I saw nothing that was under 6 feet tall. Ah well. We took some pictures, visited the shrine that presents the festival, and went to bed. As we told Hiroko, we are on old people time: we go to bed around 8 and wake up around 5.
Today we leave Takayama and go to Hakone to relax in a hot spring. I can't wait! Jeph, anything you want to say?
People are incapable of listening to directions. When a dude in a police uniform tells you to stay behind the line, you STAY BEHIND THE LINE. Freakin' idiots.
Also, I seem to get full very fast over here, but then hungry again like 20 minutes later. Very annoying and it makes me look like an ungrateful foreigner when I'm snacking just after dinner.
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