This was the perfect morning for a number of reasons:
1. Didn’t see a single tourist
2. Nice mix of clouds, blue sky, and mist
3. Temperature was perfect
4. Breakfast was coming and, based on the past night’s dinner, I knew it would be fantastic
5. Prior night’s rain left the air crisp and clean and the rice and flowers with water droplets my camera couldn’t miss
6. I love thatched roofs
Our trip to Shirakawago included a night in Takayama (高山市) on the way there and two nights in Kanazawa after visiting Shirakawago. Today’s pic is from Takayama (Hida-Takayama in Gifu Ken).
There are some really old buildings in Takayama. We had a fabulous lunch in the restaurant to the far right of this picture, Kibun (紀文).
And, as you can tell, it rained about half the time we were in Takayama. Traveling during rainy season on a weekday does have its advantages though. We saw very few Japanese tourists. I’m guessing the place is crowded with Japanese tourists on a weekend outside of rainy season or on Japanese holidays.
Takayama is a five and a half hour bus ride from Shinjuku and costs 6,500 yen each way.
Life doesn’t get much better than a stroll through the rice paddies of Shirakawago on a sunny morning after a downpour the night before.
The previously mentioned chanpon restaurant near our apartment has recently become popular. The seats are usually full now, and sometimes there is even a line out the door. There was no line at Chanpon Taro on this evening, but some bike riders appear to have been enjoying a meal inside.
In front of the Mori Tower, in the Roppongi Hills complex, there is a giant spider called Maman. We saw a smaller version of it in Denmark a couple years ago.
While on our walk in Niiza, we were becoming a bit hungry when we saw the above building in the distance. “Great,” we thought, “a few sushi pieces and we’ll be good to go until lunch.”
When we got closer, we realized that this was no ordinary kaiten sushi place. Not only can you get sushi off of a conveyor belt here, you can also get it to go or get it through the drive through!
Drive-through restaurants aren’t nearly as common in Japan as they are in the U.S.A. Above is a photo of the menu.
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