Day 6 - Takayama

Not the greatest night's sleep on the 'floor', and woke early as the windows lacked, erm, curtains. Kept telling ourselves though that this is 'traditional'! More onsen action, then into town for coffee and waffles at a nice coffee shop before a walk along the river and a look at the daily market - a mix of people selling crafts and farmers selling produce. Added more things to the souvenir collection - good to buy things off people you know actually made them. Then a walk down the three streets that constituted the old town - wooden buildings containing shops and sake breweries. Very quaint. Lunch in a traditional noodle joint - large bowl of ramen for £4. Yum.

Afternoon spent at Hida No Santo, a recreated folk village 10 minutes by bus from Takayama. A very pleasant place to spend the afternoon, seeing old buildings that have been saved and rebuilt there. Fed some carp in the lake, saw rice fields. Just great.

Bus back into town (an adventure in itself), and rewarded ourselves with coffee and cake at "Coffee Don", a lovely little Viennese style cafe run by an old Japanese couple and their daughter who happily practiced a bit of English with us. Dinner in "Origin" by the station, sitting on tatami mats and 'buzzing' the waiters with a small button every time we wanted something! Ginger pork, tempura, grilled miso and rice washed down with more Japanese beer.

And then back to the sake bar from the night before - would have been rude not to...

(Best viewed BIG btw!)