Day 15-16: Sleeping by a river

Continuing on our journey through the Japanese Alps, we stopped for a few hours in Shirakawa-go, a historic village nestled in the Shogawa river valley. The roofs of the houses in this area are strong and are very slanted so that during heavy snowfalls, the snow would just slide right off. The local villagers continued their everyday activities as we dodged the caterpillars hanging on silk threads and made our way to the top of the hill.

From Shirakawa-go it was a short bus ride to Takayama. We did not have any sleeping arrangements and decided that it would be super awesome to stay up all night chatting. (Keep reading to find out how it goes!)

At a local ramen shop. The cat was told to stay in the back but it kept sneaking out. The owners apologized to us but I was rooting for the cat. And yes, I realize I take a lot of photos of animals. If I fail to find a career in biology, I'm going to be a pet photographer.

=P

The town was small and by night time we had pretty much walked through the entire thing. However, something quite interesting happened after dark. The street lights turned on and one by one tiny shops that we had not noticed before started lighting up as well. Each time we walked down a street it looked slightly different. It seemed that Takayama during the day was for tourists, but night was when all the locals came out to play.

Public foot bath/ fat picture of me

Let's be honest here. I'm not the kind of person to stay up late. Of course Will the Botanist knew there was no way I'd be able to chat with him all night long. With a map in our hand, we wandered around the town looking for parks to sleep in. Takayama was magical at night time. I felt like I was in a Miyazaki film and Totoro was going to come pick me up on the cat bus. At last we found a place by the river that was away from the town centre but it was far from comfortable. We huddled close to each other in the cold and tried to sleep.

At 5am we woke up to watch locals set up for the morning market.

I suppose not renting a room was a pretty stupid thing to do but Takayama turned out to be a very special place for us because we didn't.

But I am NEVER sleeping by a river in the cold again.

Day 13-14: Kanazawa and a very awkward Japanese man

Hours before we slipped into our last slumber in Kyoto, we finalized our plans for the next day. We would take the train north east to Kanazawa, a city bordered by the Japanese Alps. A Couchsurfer, Hirotaka, had agreed to host us last minute and would pick us up from the train station. Our first stop was the famous Kenrokuen Garden, considered one of the most beautiful gardens in Japan. In the park we saw trees being supported by ropes and bamboo to keep it from collapsing under heavy snow.

But to be honest, not a single attraction in Kanazawa especially stood out to me. Days after, all I could remember was the awkward encounters with our host. Being Japanese, he tried everything he could to make our stay comfortable, borrowing his friend's place for the night that was bigger than his and allowing us to sleep in her room while he made his bed in the living room. He ensured that we would receive the best treatment available, which we were extremely (uncomfortably) grateful for. His English wasn't that bad; however, he seemed so nervous when he spoke to us that conversations eventually became awkward silences.

For dinner he drove us to a restaurant with a sushi conveyor belt. We ordered from a touch screen and waited for our orders to come to us. Hiro kept his eyes on his phone the entire time.

The next morning we had sushi for breakfast at a chain restaurant. Once again, it lacked conversation. Afterwards, he drove us to the Higashi Geisha district and hung out with us for a while. I think it was a relief for all of us when we parted ways.

Uni (Sea Urchin)

A fish head on the ground outside a restaurant

Postcard sales honour system

Because bikes with baskets are so common...

Hiro picked us up from the city with his friend, Yuki, in the passenger seat. She spoke fluent English and was extremely easy to talk to. For dinner we went to a restaurant where you got to make your own Okonomiyaki! It didn't look too authentic but I was pretty proud of our creation! Even Hiro seemed to relax when we started cooking. I think he might've even laughed!

Hiro and Yuki

Our creation!

That night, we transported our stuff from his friend's place to his university dorm. Our bodies covered all the available floorspace in his small unit. In the morning he woke up early to make us breakfast. Will the Botanist and I discussed what kind of review we would write for Hiro on Couchsurfing. It was a strange experience but if it wasn't for him we would have never experienced the life of a Japanese university student. Making the Okonomiyaki was also a pretty unique experience. In the end we wrote Hiro a positive review. I've never had any host go through so much grief making sure that I had a good time!

Day 12: Matcha in a slice of heaven

Our last day in Kyoto was our most memorable one. We had exhausted our interest in crowded touristy sites and needed a rest day. Lucky for us, our host, Masa, decided to take the day off work (he builds traditional Japanese houses!!) to bring us to his favourite place in Kyoto. He mentioned something about a garden and temple and I wasn't quite sure that I was ready to see yet another temple. However, after skilfully manoeuvring his stubby Japanese car through the winding roads, we arrived in the rural town of Ohara, situated in the mountains just north of Kyoto city.

The most well-known temple in Ohara is the Sanzen-in Temple which was established some time between 794-1185 by a monk named Saicho, who founded the Tendai sect of Japanese Buddhism. In the same area, there were also many smaller temples, all belonging to the Tendai sect as well. The pathway leading up to the temples was lined with shops selling pickled vegetables and rice crackers. The shop owners spoke with a heavy Kansai accent (Kansai is the region that Kyoto is located in) and often said "ookini" instead "arigato". We walked past the famous temple, only stopping for 2 seconds in front of it and deciding to move on.

Shorin-in Temple stood out to us because of its architecture. We asked Masa if he had ever worked on a building like that. He said no, but that he had a friend who had worked on its maintenance. As we started towards our next destination, we heard a low hum echo from the main hall - a group of monks had started chanting! This Shomyo style of Buddhist chanting had originated from China.

Shorin-in

Hosen-in Temple had a very modest entrance but quite a steep entrance fee (800yen!!). Upon entry, we were given a ticket stub and I made out the words "tea ticket". The main building was constructed with traditional Japanese architecture, meaning it was held together without a single nail. Impressive, eh?

Posing with a traditional fireplace

The place was surrounded by different shades of green - ferns, mosses, trees, shrubs, etc.. Finally we got to the farthest room. The floor was completely covered with tatami, a common flooring in Japanese buildings made of a rice straw core and a soft rush straw covering. On one side of the room there was a small shrine. On the other two sides, we saw paradise.

The pillars acted as picture frames and the pictures we saw were absolutely surreal. The first picture featured a 700-year-old pine tree and the second, a luscious bamboo forest. There were only a few people around us and not a single one of them was foreign to the country. A young Japanese lady took our tea stubs and served us each a bowl of matcha and a wagashi, a small sweet made of mochi, azuki bean paste and fruits. Sitting in seiza style, with my legs tucked beneath my thighs, I sipped my matcha and took it all in.

700-year-old pine tree

Sneaky blurry photo

The making of tea with tea leaf powder was first seen in the Tang Dynasty in China and the process of mixing the powder and hot water with a bamboo whisk was developed in the Song Dynasty. This practice was brought over to Japan and became popular while it died out in China. Each matcha bowl is hand-made and unique with asymmetrical designs that show the beauty in imperfection. Will the Botanist and I both agreed that this was our favourite place in Kyoto, and definitely one of the highlights of our entire trip. I'm usually not big on buying souvenirs since it's hard to travel with so much stuff, but I couldn't help picking up a matcha bowl before leaving.

On our way out, we walked through the beautiful gardens around Hosen-in, and watched a group of monks exit a beautiful house and into shiny black cars. Nearby, a cat was taking a nap on the back of a scooter, not noticing the huge commotion happening just steps away.

The next thing on our agenda was to walk along the Philosopher's walk, a 2km pedestrian pathway that ran along a stream and under cherry trees. Unfortunately at this time all the cherry blossoms had already bloomed and fallen off. Nevertheless, it was a pleasant stroll accompanied by many stray cats.

At the end of the walk, we came to Nanzen-ji Temple. It was very spacious. To be honest, I don't remember much about it except for the aqueduct that stretched across the temple grounds. I was quite surprised to see this architecture here. The structure was a part of a canal system that carried water and goods between Kyoto and Lake Biwa.

Since it was our last night here, on the way back we stopped at a florist and picked up some flower's for Masas lovely mum!

We got ready to go out and meet some friends, one of them being Cisi, someone I haven't seen since I was 17!! We had met on a 5 week-French program in Quebec. I noticed from her photos on Facebook that she was in Japan. Luckily we would be in Kyoto at the same time for one day! She was more beautiful than I had remembered and just as lovely as ever!! We hung around the bank of Kamo River before heading to an Izakaya.

That was a long post. Thanks for reading! Especially you Russians. I have no idea how you guys even managed to find my blog but much love to you all :)