July 15, 2010

Takayama Day 2

Day 2 of my Takayama Trip, for the first part of my trip click here and here for part 2.

Day 2 started not long after we got back from the onsen, we decided to grab some alcohol, some snacks then head back to the hostel, we stayed at JHoppers which is a great and very cheap hostel. A very good option for anyone wanting to travel around Japan but make sure to book early because during the holidays they get booked out pretty fast.

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We all just chilled in our room drinking $6 bottles of wine and talking to Carlos giving him relationship advice, let me say it was a night to remember. I'm sure he did because I'm sure he made progress after the trip.

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Later on in the night, or should I say day as the sun was starting to come out already we all decided to head to bed, also because we ran out of alcohol. This was my bed for the night and I found it more comfortable than the one in my room back at the dorms.

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This is the gang getting ready for a big day of action ahead.

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We all headed to the post office right across the road from the hotel to withdraw some money, I also had an issue with my bank account and some missing money but that is all resolved now but I was so paranoid I didn't really spend much during the trip, which maybe is a good thing.

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This was our choice for breakfast, a really nice small cafe with some decent food for a decent price. They were also playing some very chilled out music, reggae remixes of a lot of well known songs.

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Check it out, they have Engrish menu too.

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Afterward we jumped on a bus and headed for the Folk Village about 10 minutes away by bus.

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Saw this crazy looking temple/shrine on the way, I still don't know what it is but it did look pretty cool.

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When we arrived we were greeted by some very nice scenery, this is the Folk Village. Some preserved houses and so forth and there was a lot to go through, but we took the shortest route possible and didn't get to see all of it because we were short on time. But I'll definitely be heading back here for the whole thing during the summer break.

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First thing we did, well I did was buy this bread stick for 30YEN I think and then fed it to the Koi fish.

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There were so many and all in different sizes and colours.

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I really like the white ones, this one was my favourite looking one. White with red on the head with a bit of black as well. I might go with this colour for my tattoo too.

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We all then headed off to see the rest of the village and check out old Japanese people's houses.

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Some of them looked really cool like this one here.

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No surprise that they required you to take off your shoes just like every other house in Japan.

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I started getting tired of taking off and putting on my shoes all the time so for this one I opted not to and became the photographer for this group shot.

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Just some more random photos of places here and there within the village.

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There were also a lot of little activities and things to do here too, it would have been really nice to do them if we had time but unfortunately we didn't. All the more reason to come back here when my girlfriend comes in the holidays.

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At this place you could paint your own lucky charm cat, I always thought this was a Chinese thing as I always saw them back home in Chinese shops and restaurants. But it's also used here in Japan as well and there are different types as well.

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Luckily it was all explained in English.

That pretty much sums up my 2nd day of my Takayama trip, we spent all of the day at the Folk Village then when we headed back to the station to book out bus tickets back they were all sold out, so we either had to wait til 7pm for a bus, which was pretty late since we wanted to catch the bus around 5pm. Instead we decided to catch the train back, not the best train ride I've had since we were all very tired and I found it really hard to get comfortable on the train. I seriously don't know how the Japanese manage to sleep on the trains all the time, they just slouch over and drop their heads and they manage to sleep. I on the other hand struggled to find a way to get comfortable and fall asleep.

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