A brief stint in Kanazawa

Another Nohi Bus brought us to Kanazawa. By the time we reached Kanazawa station, it was 3pm and it was raining. We went in the nearby department store - Forus Building while waiting for the rain to stop, which it did after a short while.

After asking for direction, we set out looking for the guesthouse we made reservation online prior to departure. I remembered walking past Nikko Hotel, and Pongyi Guesthouse wasn't too far off from there.

Upon reaching Pongyi Guesthouse, we were greeted by Masaki-san. He was quick to notice my cheapo-ugg boots-wannabe and that it wouldn't withstand the snow. According to Masaki-san, there were free snowboots on loan in Kanazawa Station. I didn't look them up as I believe my other pair of boots would be alright, so I don't know the exact place.

Pongyi used to be a kimono shop of 100 years old, and part of the guesthouse is located above a river. Likewise all other ryokan, Masaki-san took great care of the tatami mats. It was a small but cosy guesthouse. Dorm-like room downstairs and private room upstairs.

There was a small lounge room with kotatsu to hang out...

This thing is awesome!

Common area with computer with free internet provided, books to read, free flow of tea and coffee.

Masaki-san was disappointed that our stay in Kanazawa was short, but he did recommend some places for us to visit, like walking to the samurai district, also food to try. Considering the weather that night and that it was getting dark, we decided against walking to the samurai district but just hanging around the city.

We were back to the train station and had dinner in one of the restaurant in Forus Building. It was a very big bowl of udon. All this blogging about Japanese food makes me hungry.

I'm not sure what was the occasion but at that time, in the train station, there was this booth for students to write down their wishes on passing of exams.

I decided to write too...umm.. pardon my handwriting

... and yes, I passed N3

Outside of Kanazawa Train Station, there was this big arch gateway...

On our walk back to Pongyi Guesthouse, we notice little water sprinklers on the road, presumbly to prevent snow from building up on the road.

It started to snow again before we reached Pongyi, and suddenly we felt the snow hitting on our face with increased intensity, and wind was really strong. Then we realised - it wasn't snowing. It was hailstorm. We seeked shelter in a car park and continued our walk back in strong win after the hailstorm stopped.

We had an early night, but I can't help thinking that if opportunity permits, I would return to Kanazawa, for a longer period.


Side note: Korokke... korokke... korokke....

Shirakawa-go: Open Air Museum

After our walk back to village from the viewpoint, we visited the Open air Museum. In Takayama, there was a open air museum as well - Hida no Sato (Hida Folk Museum), exhibiting farmhouses and other buildings from Hida region. We didn't go to Hida no Sato as the main attraction in that museum were gassho-zukuri houses, which were moved there from Shirakawa-go itself. In fact, Koemon is a gassho-zukuri farmhouse which is made into a minshuku.

Gassho-zukuri is a house built of wooden beams combined to form a steep thatched roof that resembles two hands together. In Shirakawa, they are called "Kiritsuma-Gassho-zukuri," and the roof can be looked triangular just like a standing book open. The structure is built to suit the environment in Shirakawa. It is made to with stand heavy snowfall. The house face north and south, to minimize wind resistance. They are also built for be comfort in both summer and winter. The houses stand in a certain direction to adjust the amount of sun in order to keep the room cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
(source: Shirakawa Village website)

Back to the museum, this gate leads to the entrance of the musuem. On the left after this gate is a handmade soba shop. We didn't eat here though.

Entrance fee to this open air museum was 500 yen. There were umbrellas and boots on loan. Remember when I said about needing to shed before entering any place? There were a few buildings, and each time we entered, we shed off the snow from our jacket, bag and umbrella. This time we have to take off our shoes as well, so no need to brush off snow from the boots.

Here's how the roof looks like upclose...

Likewise most of Japanese houses, the floor is of tatami mat. Tatami mats are being taken with great care, for example - heavy luggage are not to be put directly on top of tatami mat and wet things are to be dry so water would not drip on tatami mat.

View in the open air museum were breathtaking.

Some parts of the river were frozen...

Cold weather make me hungry... it was time for lunch. I had korokke don. In fact, I had this craving for korokke ever since I saw a little shop selling korokke in Hiroshima and didn't get around to buy it. So when I saw korokke don on the menu, I want! The set comes with miso soup, fruit and tsukemono :P

We went for a little walk after lunch, before boarding the bus to Kanazawa. As I was still sore about the momiji that I didn't buy, Moo Moo Gal introduced me to buy this Shirakawa-go house senbei. I think the cold weather made my hand a little stiff (Me not clumsy!)... I dropped the bag of beautiful senbei right after I paid. My heart sank but upon inspection, it still looked pretty ok. However by the end of the trip and upon reaching Sydney, this is the best-looking senbei left in the bag. :(

Side note: Back to Canberra again...

Shirakawa-go: Warm breakfast & Shiroyama Viewpoint

Our first proper Japanese breakfast was in Koemon. Our usual fare was bread from different different kombini and coffee, this one involve rice and dishes. Very fulfilling breakfast but I think if I am to eat this much every day, no matter how much I walk will never walk those fat off.

Breakfast was a luxury set of hoba miso, seasoned omelet and some side dishes. I love miso from Hida prefecture.

Hoba miso is another local specialty of Hida district - miso with some vege grilled on a dried hoba leaf over fire. Apparently hoba leaf is magnolia leaf - that I googled from the net.

Our first stop for the day is Shiroyama Viewpoint, we were told that we could walk from Koemon on other seasons aside winter. the walking trail or short cut to the viewpoint is close during winter days. However, there's a bus ferrying people to the viewpoint from bus stop, from the opposite side of where we get off the bus from Takayama. Bus fare was 200 yen one way.

So, we crossed the bridge again to the bus stop. The snow shovelling car cleared some of the snow, but it was still rather thick. As we reached the other side, a lot of people were trying to clear the path to leading to their shop,

...or removing snow from roof.

We took the bus up to Shiroyama Viewpoint. Unfortunately, snow was great. So the view was blur.

We didn't linger long. It was snowing and cold, with blurry view (umm... pretty sure there is a better word but ...) but the next bus was in 30 mins. If I remember correctly, bus is every 30 mins. Haha.. this sounds stupid but we mis-read the time, in fact, we were hovering around the bus, waiting for last minute before boarding the bus. Next thing we know, the bus went off without us. = ="

As the next bus was in another 30 minutes, we thought we would have a little walk instead of staying put. Ermm.. the longer we walked, we thought we might as well walk back, but walking via the bus route.

Likewise I said, it was cold and snowing but the 3 of us, walked back to the village. And.. the shuttle bus did come but we continued walking. :P We even observed that there was 2 drivers, one nicer one who, from his expression can tell that he wanted to stop for us but he was going the other direction. He was the one who drove us up the viewpoint, while the other doesn't show any sign of stopping :p


Side note: To bring lappie or not to bring lappie....

Yummy dinner and night time in Shirakawa-go

We booked for room with breakfast and dinner in Koemon, especially after reading that shops are closed early in this little beautiful town. It's winter after all, sky get dark earlier.

That was a long awaited dinner, cos it was much different from our regular meal. Dinner, of course included the local specialty of hida beef with vegetables and miso. Very, very delicious.

Of course, that was not all. Here's the whole spread.

Hida beef with miso and vegetables, salt-grilled fish, tempura, soup, tsukemono... :)
And I finished all of it *yummy meal makes happy me*

As we had our dinner, our beds were being made.

Comforter cover with the "hole" side up

There are no private bath in Koemon, and allocated time for bath is set at 5pm to 9pm. There were 2 public bath available. At 5 pm, they will ring the bell to indicate the beginning of bath time. When we were there, there was only another couple staying in the minshuku. Right after dinner, Miss Mo went for bath while Moo Moo Gal and I decided to see how the little town is at night :P

We each brought along a little torch, on loan from Koemon. It was dark, we didn't wander far but played a little short while outside of Koemon, under street light. As we were playing, I heard a honk. As I turned to look, the driver indicated to me that I dropped my glove. :) I'm grateful. Thank you.

Can't play too long outside, remember I mentioned earlier that bath time ends at 9pm? So... back to minshuku for bath. Bath in Koemon is not hot spring water, hence it wasn't onsen but お風呂. As I dipped myself into the bath, the little phrase I learned in Japanese class flashed crossed my mind - "お風呂にはいります”. すごい！I enjoyed myself so much that I didnt hear the 9pm bell rang. :P Luckily they didnt come and knock on the door to boot me out. Pai seh...

It was a very comfy night stay in Koemon, aside from the fact that the snow shovelling car (don't know the correct term for it) started working at wee hours in the morning. Understandably that they need to clear the road, or otherwise it cars would not be able to pass.


Side note: Its Friday again!

Off to the even colder Shirakawa-go :p

Travelling from Takayama to Shirakawa-go by bus (we took Nohi bus) was a short 50 minutes with beautiful scenery.

Once we reached, we tried to look for your minshuku as soon as possible... as it was snowing heavily...

As we reached, there were some tour group about to leave. A couple of aunties and uncles asked us to help them take pictures.

The minshuku we booked was Koemon, a short walk after crossing the bridge. Yes... THE bridge. haha..

View from the bridge. During daytime, I believe there were a lot of daytrippers, so it was really busy.

And no, I didnt carry the 2 bags and still spent so much time taking pictures. Those were all taken after we checked in and dropped our bags. It was heavy snow but roads were cleared, so it was still alright to bring a trolley bag, maybe also due to the time we reached. As for shoes, I was still wearing the cheapo-ugg-boats-wannabe, as I thought it would be warm the feet better and and mid length calf. Actually my Timberland ankle boots was good enough, my initial worry was unfounded. I guess the most important is to wear waterproof shoes.

The rule before entering any place, after being outside in a snowfall is to shed like a dog :P
Yup, shed off the snow from your clothes and bags. Just making sure you dont leave any snow and drip water in people's shop or place.

Koemon provides snow boots without fee for guests. So technically, I don't need to buy the cheapo-ugg boots-wannabe. :P

Dining area in Koemon

After checking in, we dropped our bags and went out... that's when those pictures were taken :P

Before dinner, we stole some time to snack again.. haha :P

Side note: I miss beef miso sauce rice from Takayama :( Maybe I should try to stop the craving with having nice soba or udon! :D

Takayama: Miyagawa Morning Market & Jinya-mae Market

I like to walkabout in markets, its a great place to see how people go around in their lives, provide colourful scenes to shoot, see new things, and in Japan, food to try :P

There are 2 markets in Takayama - Miyagawa Morning Market and Jinya-mae Market. I strongly believe (despite no concrete reason) that there should be more stalls than what I saw... can't be it was too cold and they decided to stay at home... hmm.. but both markets are rather quiet, particular Jinya-mae market (in fact the whole town seems a little too quiet)

As Rickshaw Inn is closer to Miyagawa Market, we headed there first... after breakfast. Breakfast of the day was this kare udon.

Ok...back to Miyagawa Morning Market...

... just right after the bridge.

Along the road, there were souvenir shops. Or should I say, the stalls were on the roadside facing the shops - from memory, probably all are souvenir shops.

The most common souvenir to take home from Takayama are these charm call sarubobo which translates as "baby monkey". The origin is said that in the olden days, grandmothers made it for their daughters or granddaughters for good luck, good marriage and relationship. Hence I believe originally it was red in colour. Anyway, it is now available in a different colours, representing different things.

Blue sarubobo - good luck in studies and work, Pink Sarubobo for luck in love. Green Sarubobo for luck in health. Yellow Sarubobo is for luck in money, Purple Sarubobo to banish evil spirits, black to remove bad luck

After buying more sarubobo (LOL), I saw food! Street food that looks like tofu.

It's call Owara Tamaten - made out of egg white, though looked like tofu and tasted like marshmallow. It would made a good, different type of dessert but a little too sweet for me.

By this point, we were getting rather cold and a lady in a shop next to this owara tamaten stall called out to us, asking us to try this black bean tea. She even heated up the tea again as it was getting cold. It was good, and probably extra good in the cold weather. We were sold! Moo moo gal and I shared a pack of 12 small packets.

There were more stalls selling pickles and snacks. We then left, and walked towards Jinya-mae market. On the way there, the glutton thoughts in my head was back in action and I grab a stick of mitarashi dango.

I didn't quite like the taste of the first dango I tried back in Kamakura but I thought I'll give it another go, this was alright. I'll try some more next time :P

On the way there, we saw a man stopped his car to let a cat crossed the road. As he couldn't see if the cat has safely crossed under his car, he asked us if it was safe to go. I think that's very kind of him.

See how quiet Jinya-mae Market was...

I didn't get anything from here.. but Miss Mo got some apples, 6 or 7 of them.

We then hopped to get an earlier lunch before departing to Shirakawa-go.

This was beef miso sauce rice, 500 yen and was really good. I like it very much...the miso..

But this... beef yakitori, easily the worst thing I ate in the whole trip - stiff and rather tasteless. Also very expensive. It was the same price as the rice...

Here's a random shot of sarubobo at Hida Kokubunji Temple

Side note: Phew... that must be the longest post I wrote...