days 5 & 6

Matsumoto & Takayama

Have been having far too much fun to blog these past few days!! Will try and combine two posts into one here. Our next day we were in Matsumoto until about noon so our group went to. The famous Black Crow castle. Surrounded by all of the snow it was a gorgeous setting for the black and white castle and its grounds. Of course, with the snow comes the cold, so we were eager to get back to the hotel and head off for Takayama in a warm bus. The drive there was absolutely gorgeous, as the Japanese Alps were thickly covered in snow.

Once in Takayama we put our things down in the ryokan and headed off through the historic district to visit the local sake breweries! We had a tasting, much like a wine tasting and then proceeded to dinner and hang out for the evening.

The next morning Rahul, Andrew and I headed out to the morning market and looked around. I tried a bite of the local apples and it was hands down the best apple I have ever had in my life! We continued through the area and went to the Showa Museum which is home to antiques from the 50s and 60s. It was a neat little museum and we had fun looking at all of the old things and taking silly pictures.

We then got lunch in a small ramen shop and proceeded to a museum that has a collection of 1/10 scale miniatures of famous temples and buildings of Japan. The craftsmanship that went into creating each miniature was so finely detailed that the pictures I took are almost comparable to the real buildings. Next door we went into the Festival Float Museum to warm up and admire the floats from Takayamas famous festival. That evening we enjoyed dinner at a local speciality restaurant and then had fun watching Japanese videos and movies until late!

Kanazawa

This morning we had a leisurely start and boarded the trains again for a trip into Kanazawa. Still very cold over here, but absolutely gorgeous! After checking in at the hotel we set off for the samurai district and visited a samurai's house. It was beautiful! The gardens especially were amazing and we all took many pictures. Then we went on to the Ninja Temple which was built by a feudal lord who was paranoid of invaders. There were trap doors, pits, and one way screens for hiding and escaping. We then wandered about the shopping malls for a bit until dinner. We tried a cheap local curry place that was AMAZING!!! Japanese curry is one of my favorite foods, so having it be made so well for a good price was great!

Now we're back at the hotel relaxing and preparing for an earlier start to the morning!!