Day 7 Travelling to Osaka

We have booked Swissotel Osaka as there was a promotional offer. This is the only luxury hotel we stayed at.

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View from our hotel window

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They really have good service. I've noted that a toddler will be with us so they prepared a bath sponge and tooth care kit for YT.  This is the first time YT showered with a sponge! She's so happy.

Day 6 Takayama

Again, it was a rainy day and because of that, we didn't really manage to see much sights. We did visit the local library though and it was housed in some cool colonial style kind of building. We spend our time sampling food.

 Ahh, mitarashi dango, my favourite. Japanese rice ball coated with a sweet and salty soya sauce

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Takayama old town

Ice cream on a rainy winter day? Nice! The Hida beef yakitori is oishii too!

Various sarubobo, there are even hello kitties ones

Colourful sweets on display

Day 5 Takayama - Shirakawago

The day started out promising. The sun is out finally after days of nothing but rain for hours. We were going further up the mountains to Shirakawago. The bus ride took about 90 mins. This was a vastly shortened time from before they built the expressway. The ride used to take more than 2 hours. We went straight to the folk village in Shirakawago which is an open air museum of thatched roof houses. 

 

 

 For some reason, YT is not in a very good mood and eventually the rain still arrived to dampen the overall mood. We had some very nice buns or rather ‘paos’ there though. We tried one with chestnut filling, this is seasonal and may not always be available, and the famous Hida beef filled pao. The beef one is nice but all the food in this area are much more expensive than in Takayama. Then again, this is an open air museum afterall. It is like eating within Singapore Zoo, even the drinks go up in price. But of course, we are well prepared with snacks and water. 

 Look carefully at that little face. A closer shot below.

Store selling some food stuff. It is some rice cake thing on stick with soya sauce. Nice but cheaper elsewhere

It seemed to be our fate to take the more vertical path in this region. Once again we climb mountains only find that a gently sloping road is on the other side. Oh well, at least climbing down, which I considered the more hazardous action, is easy going. Many of the gassho houses are preserved households, each a miniature museum in their own right. We visited only one of the houses. It costs 300 yen per adult to enter one. The pictures are shown above.

Mountain climbing with a toddler strapped infront of me

 View from the top

Shirakawago could have been more beautiful if there were less touristy shops and tourists around. It felt a bit over-commercialised, especially when the newer buildings are so conspicuous among the thatched roof houses. I believed it could be very beautiful in deep winter though, where fewer tourists will be around and everything gets carpeted with snow such that only the thatched roof houses will stand out in sharp contrast.

 A meal of self cooked okonomiyaki at the end of the day. Oishii!

Day 4 Takayama

Its a wet and cold day. The rain made it difficult for us to cover much ground but we managed to get to the morning market in front of Takayama Jinja. Both the red and green apples were delicious but we really like the green one. The morning market is equivalent to the pasar malam of Singapore and you can buy things like fruits, confectionary and omiyage, the usual travel gifts. The local speciality is a faceless doll that the elders make for their kids or grandchildren for blessings. It’s called a sarubobo and is usually red but now you can find them in a variety of colours, sizes and forms including hello kitty dressed up as one. Takayama is also known for wood carvings and hb is very excited over the various wooden utensils like chopsticks and rice bowls. There is also an interesting animated doll outside a restaurant which will move its head and lift a cover under which different dishes will appear each time the cover is lifted. It is driven entirely by a wooden waterwheel underneath it which is turned by moving drain water.   

We ate at this restaurant that's more than 300 years old. If you are ever served something frothy and gluey looking on top of your udon or soba, DO NOT stir it into the soup. It is grated yam and it is an acquired taste. Either you try to eat it all up or scoop it off. I made the mistake of stirring it into the soup, making my noodles a horrid gluey bubbly mess. Hb said looks like they pour every patrons' spit into my bowl. :/

Ebisu - a centuries old restaurant serving handmade soba

Takayama old town with buildings dating from the Edo period

We also went mountain climbing... I don't know what prompt us to take a steep vertical "cut into the mountain-side" type of stairway on a wet day when the foliage underfoot became treacherously slippery up into the mountains. The worst thing is, we realised only when we are on the top that there's a road up. Should have gone up via the road rather than attempt mountain climbing (okay, not exactly but...) with a toddler strapped to one's body.

Our prize at the top. The rain just makes everything look dreary

 

Day 3 Travelling up to Takayama

We took a long ride from Shinjuku all the way to Takayama. The entire journey took up the whole day practically. We had our lunch and nap on the train. I had initially planned to stop over Nagoya for lunch but in the end, after realising that we can eat and drink (and go to the toilet!) on the train, we went for an uninterrupted journey. As we were down to the last few pieces of YT's diapers, I told her to go to the toilet on the train. Dropped one of her crocs into the toilet but luckily it was the Japanese squat type. Never place the shoes on the shelf of the toilet in a moving train... just place it on the floor! It was a nightmare trying to make her pee on the train cuz it was shaking so much and I had to help hold onto her. The toilet did have a handle right in front though so YT hanged on for dear life on that and braced her knees against the toilet front (YIKES!).  She seemed to enjoy going to the toilet though and made me bring her once there even though she had no pee. Grrr.

We managed to see Mt. Fuji on the way to Nagoya where we changed to the Hida line up to Takayama. Sit on the right side of the shinkansen connecting Tokyo to Nagoya! Do you know that you can check the train routes and timetable by going to this website: www.hyperdia.com There's another one too but I think this suffice. I didn't know that we can change the seat directions on some of the trains. Hb was complaining about our rear facing seats until we saw a group of old ladies came up and a pair of them turned the seat to face their friends. We didn't get to try because there was a lady sitting behind us so it would be weird to turn to face her. (We were in the reserved seats cabin) But the train eventually reversed directions after a few stations so we were in the front facing directions afterall. I considered this journey as a type of sight-seeing as well; sight-seeing from the train.

 Mt. Fuji from the Shinkansen window











Upon arrival at Takayama, it was already dark. Luckily the streets were well lit and our hostel, the J-hoppers Takayama was easy to find. Our luggage literally exploded all over the place within a few minutes after hb took satisfactory photos of our room. See below:

If you are wondering what the little imp is doing....

She specifically came to me and ask me to take pictures of her. She wanted to show her father too! That's the left over chopsticks paper cover from our disposable chopsticks.

Princess and the pea

The hostel is really cheap and the space is luxurious. It costs us only 30 000 yen for a 4 nights stay. I had to cancel the 2 nights at Kanazawa because hb complained about having to move too much. Then again, seeing as how slow we are, I think it is the right thing to do too. My only complaints are that the duvets are quite dusty and the toilet have a weird stench. The other problem is that the bathroom was really cold as it was some distance away from the room heater so I couldn't shower together with YT and had to bathe her separately. Otherwise, the staff is friendly and one of them can speak English really well.

Pics before we messed up the room 

 

Day 2 Shinjuku - Harajuku, Akihabara

Big Torii Gate at entrance of Meiji Jingu

Hmm, today we still didn't get to do much as we spent much of the morning packing and sending off our two backpacks to the Takayama. It costs us 3950 yen to send both backpacks. We came out of the hotel only after noon time and by the time we reached Meiji Jingu, it was already 2 plus. We went for lunch and came back to see Meiji Jingu being closed... In the end, we took a walk around Harajuku instead which is within walking distance from Meiji Jingu. In retrospect, we should have gone on to Yoyogi Koen instead but I didn't know why I didn't suggest that particular route.



Harajuku has some interesting shops and people as usual but YT was asleep for most of it and the diaper overflowed. I ended up wetter than her though cuz I was slinging her. Managed to get her pretty dry by changing her to an extra set of long pants that I bought out but I got nothing else to change into. Both my top and jeans were wet but luckily it wasn't too cold.

Busy Harajuku

We then went on to Akihabara to look at the electronics but nothing really interesting caught my eyes and mind. We went into this shop where they sell model and remote control cars. They had some old toys on sale too. Diecast cars that were made in the 1990s. We got one nice yellow car for YT. YT said that it is a police car, but I think is actually some kind of garden patrol car. Something like NEA in Singapore perhaps?

Trying out a 100 yen shoes polishing machine in the subway

Dinner was rather... dreadful. We went into this restaurant with no English speaking staff nor menu. One of the waiter was Chinese but it seemed like he doesn't know his menu all that well... We ended up having this horrible fats and innards stuffs and vegetables cooked in a slightly spicy soup; it was some kind of steamboat. YT basically had nothing but white rice for dinner.

Only remembered to take a picture after finishing most of the vegetables. Left the yucky fats and innards floating in peace.

Extra pics

 

Day 1 Narita - Shinjuku

Nothing much because we were all tired out from plane ride. We arrived at Narita at 7+ am Japan time and took the airport limousine bus to Shinjuku. It was a cold and wet day. There was a jam which the ticketing office had warned us about so it took us 2 hours to reach Shinjuku but it was still okay as we all had a nap on the bus to varying degrees. Hb knocked out first, then I and then YT.

YT zonking out at Narita airport while we wait for the airport limousine bus to Shinjuku. Look, she's still holding onto her crayola twistable colour pencils. 

We stayed at Nishi Shinjuku hotel, a rather typical small business hotel. Our room overlooked a small park and a small cemetery. The check in time was 2 pm so when we arrived, we left our luggage with the hotel and took a short walk around. Had a cheap lunch in one of those shop where you buy meal tickets. We got a big bowl of soba and pork chop with egg rice for only 500 yen. Hb got the same pork chop with egg rice for 450 yen! I thought the set meal was supposed to come with a smaller bowl of rice but it was the same size!!! The soba had nothing except some kelp and spring onions but still... 

For sight seeing, all we did was visit the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office and went up to the top at the 45th floor at one of the towers and had a view of Shinjuku from top down. Supposedly you can even see Mt. Fuji on a clear day but the weather wasn't that good. Hb bought YT a Tomy Dump Truck. Then we finally checked in to our hotel. Went shopping a bit at Tokyu Hands for some essentials that was left behind (at home) like clothes and dish washing detergent. They are selling this  Danger bomb clock that is kinda of cool and funny. Suggested to hb that he should buy for BIL. 

TMG, nice view from the top and best of all, it's free!

YT fell once on the way to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office and though it was terrible of us, both hb and I laughed. She did a perfect dive to the ground with both arms outstretched and skidded with a zssk sound face forward. It was really funny to watch. She behaved like a drunken person too sometime in the late afternoon, singing and speaking gibberish and walking about as if she's tipsy.  

We had Yakitori dinner at Omoide Yokochou. Hb wanted some "authentic" Japanese style food but of course, after sitting down at one of the stalls, we realised that a number of them were operated by Chinese people... The food wasn't too bad but was kinda of expensive but of course, yakitori was expensive stuffs anyway. 400 yen per glass of hot chinese tea, 1100 yen per set of 6 different yakitori consisting of a stick of chicken wings, green capsicum, mushroom, meat balls, beef and chicken meat each.