Andrea Hearts Traveling

Once again I decided to wake up extra early to catch an early train out of town and into my next destination.

Today's train took a little over 3 hours that allowed me to take a couple of short little naps and backup yesterday's photos since by now I have learned my lesson of how important it is to backup the photos pretty much on a daily basis!

When I arrived in Kanazawa I was impressed by its very modern train station!

I immediately walked to my hostel to drop off my bags, grabbed a map and off I went to discover the new city!

My first stop was at the omicho market!

The whole market was filled with fish, food vendors and lots of overpriced fruit and vegetables.

I used to complain about whole foods produce prices but I swear I'll never do it again! Here in Japan ONE APPLE can go to up to $5 a piece! That is just crazy! No wonder I never see anybody on the street eating an apple, but do see them eating a stick full of rice balls with soy sauce for 100¥! ($1)

I don't understand how these people are so skinny, all I see them eat is rice! White rice! Which has ZERO good stuff for your body, it's all empty carbs with no fat! On the other hand I look at white rice and I immediately gain 5pounds!

Anyway, I had a couple of fish snacks in the market (I have given up all hope of not being pescetarian here in Japan!) and really enjoyed just walking around and seeing people eat things like sea urchin and fish on sticks.

Here they have so many different types of vegetables!

People eating sea urchins!

... grilling squid!

After an hour or so at the market I walked over to the old Geisha district and enjoyed a stroll down the old streets.

I found this man making tiny crickets out of leaves

I had read that going inside a traditional Geisha house was a must do but I was so disappointed! I entered Shima house and it was such a waste of $5! I'm kind of counting my pennies here so to pay for that was just so disappointing! The house literally had 4 rooms upstairs with tatami floors and displaying some decorations... So not worth it!

After the disappointment of the geisha house I needed to cheer myself up and nothing does the trick better than Ice cream!

Oh my! Ice cream here is a little coo coo! I should have expected it though! Soy sauce ice cream... No comments! Miso ice cream... I am not screaming for ice cream! Sweet drink made with fermented rice milk... Yuk!

I am somehow adventurous when it comes to food but this I did not want to try!

I ended up getting red beans in vanilla... Beans have protein... So it's healthy :-))

After the geisha district and looking at many people in kimonos on the street I walked to the Kanazawa castle. The castle was just like the others I have seen so I decided to only walk around the grounds.

Then I visited the Kenroku-en garden, supposedly one of the three most beautiful Japanese gardens. I was so tired so I really took my time to enjoy the garden, sat at multiple benches and just watched people walking around and enjoyed the beautiful scenery!

I just LOVE the reflection!!!

Once the garden closed I made it back to the hostel, showered, and met with the friend I made in Nikko, Sebastian. He did some research and found where we should go to party. We met at the metro station and walked for half an hour until we found the neighborhood but everything seemed very calm and we couldn't figure out where to go. Maybe it was because it was a sunday night and many restaurants were closed and there wasn't really a party scene.

At one point we went up the stairs to a restaurant that looked open but it turned out to be closed and with signs we communicated with one of the staff and asked him for a restaurant that was open. OF COURSE he did not give us any directions, he actually left his work and walked us to a restaurant! He went inside the restaurant and made sure they would take care of us.

Sebastian and I went in and sat at the bar, we were both a little lost and couldn't communicate at all! The staff spoke close to no english so our interactions were just beyond funny! The menu was all in Japanese and we couldn't figure out what to eat!!!

I ended up asking for tempura and using my favorite sentence "O nicu damé, vegetarian, fish ok" which clearly translates to "No meat, vegetarian, fish ok" haha

Sebastian on the other hand could not figure out what to eat and fortunately the menu had ONE drawing in it... the drawing looked like a dish with something like meat and a salad so he decided to order the drawing! hahaha I was not sure he would get anything close to it but when the food came we just started laughing because it actually looked almost like the drawing!

While we waited for our food we talked to the staff with hand gestures, and we all tried our best! The conversation was hilarious!!! I was laughing probably 90% of the time but the experience was just beautiful! The waitress loved talking to us so much that she even went to get her own beer and sat next to Sebastian!

After having a great dinner we wanted to go have some fun. We had said that we wanted to go do karaoke but thought it was a little lame just the two of us in a Japanese Karaoke, which means you rent a private room with a tv and a microphone and sing all you want. We walked for a while and were not able to find anything fun; I kept saying that maybe it was because it was sunday.

All of a sudden we heard Bon Jovi playing and thought there was a band in one of the buildings so we decided to go check it out. We were pleasantly surprised when we opened the door and it was a regular karaoke!!!!

We had a super fun night singing and looking at Japanese people sing. When I do karaoke I am always kind of shy because I am a terrible singer so we started our karaoke night by selecting duets just to start warming up. Once I heard a couple of Japanese people sing I knew my singing voice would not be a problem! One guy was hilarious! He clearly didn't speak english and chose a Journey song... he mispronounced almost the whole song and missed a couple of sentences... I would be just fine!!!

Sebastian started his solo singing by choosing a hardcore rock song... watching him sing just made the whole bar crack up! He really got into character and delivered that song like no other!

My singing choices were "shake it up" by Taylor Swift and then I did "Water under the bridge" by Adele... so much fun!

... This kind of photo happens when a drunk guy asks for your camera to take a picture!

My new Japanese friends.. haha

Sebastian and I actually closed the karaoke night by singing "La vida loca" in Spanish! The night was unforgettable and we had so much fun!!!

This morning I woke up at 5:45 am to make sure I would catch the 7:10 train from the main station who happens to be 5 mins away! I know, my anxiety over these things is kind of crazy! Of course I was waiting at the platform for at least half an hour!

Originally I had planned to leave Matsumoto at 11am but then I thought it would be a waste of my time so decided to go earlier. I did not get a reserved seat because I didn't think I needed one with my Japan Rail so on the first train I got charged 310yen ($3) and when I got to the next station I made sure to go to the ticket counter and reserve seats for the next two trains to takayama!

The first train was a Shinkansen and I needed to go to the bathroom. I usually would rather hold it than use a bathroom on a train but OMG this train has a fancy bathroom that I just needed to use it AND take a video!

The train for toyama to takayama was very scenic! The limited express Hida8 train is called a wide view because there are Windows all around and you get to really enjoy the journey.Most of the ride we were in between beautiful little towns with rice fields and beautiful green scenery with rivers and waterfalls.

Once I go to my hostel in Takayama I took a map and asked the front desk for their advice on what to do. Their advice was to go to Shirakawa-go, a UNESCO world heritage village with traditional gassho-zukuri houses.

I decided to go on a tour group since it was only $4 more expensive than the regular bus and I would get to hear a little bit of history and what Shirakawago is all about.

The drive took 50 mins and our guide, Tomoko, did not stop talking the whole time! She was very funny and repetitive!! Her favorite word is "enjoy" and she said it on average 3 times per minute! "enjoy shopping, enjoy drinking, enjoy taking pictures, enjoy resting in the bus, enjoy the village, enjoy the tea, enjoy eating, enjoy eating danjo, I hope you enjoy your time, enjoy your free time" and my favorite... "Did you remember to enjoy?" How would I not remember??!?! She only said it like 500 times!

After driving for 50 minutes and passing through 14 tunnels, including the 3rd largest tunnel in Japan, we finally arrived! Our first stop was a viewpoint high above the village so we got a really nice view of the houses below.

These houses are 300 years old and their main attraction is their Gassho style which apparently resemble the Buddhist praying hands. The roof is made of something that resembles hay or thick grass and it's hung only by using ropes (no nails used) and it lasts up to 30 years.

All the houses have fire places, irori, which are very important because the smoke kills all the insects, bacteria and bad stuff that is on the roof plus it helps to keep the roof dry.

I visited one of the houses in the village, Kanda house, and was able to go all the way up to the 4th floor. As I went up I could really feel the smoke getting to me. By the time you reach the top you can barely breathe!

After going all the way up I came back down for a cup of tea!

And kept exploring the town, taking a gazillion pictures that I have a hard time not sharing!

I have noticed that in every town there is mascot of the area (in Matsumoto it was the frog) and here in Takayama it is the sarubobo. The sarubobo comes from saru which means monkey, and Bono which means baby and now the figure is popular for good luck and you see it all over town and they sell it in every single corner!

Once back in town I joined a couple from Spain and they showed me a little bit around town and pointed out the restaurant were they had dinner the night before. Then we went our separate ways and I went to grab some dinner to the place they recommended.

I entered the restaurant and they sat me at the bar overlooking the two chefs cooking. I was able to see how they made every single dish and how their main utensil, even for cooking, are the chopsticks!

I started my dinner with a mochimichi, a potato cake with some kind of sauce. The sauce looked "different" and I wasn't quite sure how much I would like it so I told myself that if it was bad I could pretend it was chocolate! Fortunately, it wasn't that bad and I was able to happily eat it!

My 2nd dish was Okonomiyaki, a traditional Japanese dish that was highly recommended by my uncle who comes to Japan every year for business. My uncle had sent me a picture of an okonomiyaki and this one looked a little bit different. It was a huge plate and to be honest I didn't really enjoy it all that much, it was very salty for me.

I ended up eating almost half of it and then I couldn't eat anymore and although I knew I wouldn't eat it later I thought I could take it to the hostel and put it on the free bin for somebody to "enjoy" haha.

I asked the old lady for a box ("boksu") and immediately both of the chefs stopped what they were doing and looked up... both horrified of my request! hahaha It was beyond funny to look at their expression! I immediately understood that probably a doggy bag is not customary in Japan so I said "I'm ok, I'm ok", paid for the meal and walked back to the hostel!

The next day I was ready for another full day exploring the city.

I woke up early to check out their two very famous morning markets.

The first one, Jinya asaichi, was very disappointing, maybe because I was compairing it to the farmers markets I am use to. This one was super small with only a couple of vendors selling super overpriced fruits and vegetables.

The second market, Miyagama market, was great!

It had food stalls, cute little shops, and was along the river. I had a great time eating and looking around.

A rice cracker cart!

The rest of the morning and afternoon I spent it walking around the hills and looking at their gazillion temples and shrines!

Another purification fountain

This I think was a cemetery in the middle of the forest! It went on and on and on up and down hills! Really relaxing to just walk around trees for hours!

This was a beautiful temple with garden that looked very Japanesey! haha

Peace cranes hung around the statue.

A big happy Buddha!

In one of my first temples I got to witness a traditional Japanese wedding (from outside) and then waited to see the bride and groom leave the temple.

I literally walked for 4 hours following the purple route in the map and I got tired of temples and although I felt like I should keep going I just didn't have it in me to keep walking up and down big steep hills to go see a temple that pretty much resembled the 140 temples I previously saw.

During my temple chasing journey I stopped by a rice cracker factory that I have read about in a blog and learned how to make rice crackers! Super fun!

I spent the rest of the afternoon strolling the main streets filled with souvenir shops, sake shops, and food!

Look.. a sarubobo made of stone!

Giant Cat statues!

and so many more statues all over!

I got into a shop and saw everybody with a little cup trying sake and although I don't drink I had to try sake.. I can't say that I came to Japan and never had any sake! For 200 yen ($2) they gave you a little cup and you could taste 12 different kinds of sake. I put just a couple of drops in my cup but most people filled up the cup to the top!
All the sakes seem very strong to me and wouldn't be able to drink a full little cup but at least I tried it! :)

... Sightseeing for the lazy people...

Takayama is know for their pickles and all around town you will see pickled fruit, veggies, and anything you can imagine! Most stores have little bowls so you can taste as many types of pickles as you like!

At night I decided to go to a town close to Takayama to see the Fox Fire Festival!

The main street leading to the carnival had lit up lanterns on the side of the little river, it looked so nice!

Once I got to the main festival area there were a lot of people, most of them with their face painted as a fox. There were many people painting faces and I decided to get mine painted, I even got a lot of photographers taking my picture! haha

I was amazed to see that (almost) every cook in the food tents had their face painted too! It was all very cute.

I strolled around for a little bit and saw the parade and then headed back to Takayama.

People wearing Fox masks!

I was super hungry so I went to look for some of the recommended restaurants. The first one that had vegetarian food had a sign by the door that said that they were full for the night! Bummer!

So I decided to go to a tempura restaurant. I had the name of the restaurant in english but all the restaurants have the name in Japanese so I couldn't figure out where was the one that I was looking for.

I decided to ask a woman who was coming my way for directions and she happily helped. She did not know where the restaurant was and she decided to walk with me until we found it. I have noticed that about Japanese people, they are so kind that if you ever ask for directions they would actually turn around, go the opposite way, and find what you are looking for.

I arrived at the tempura restaurant, Toshi Ten, and it only had 8 seats so I sat next to one of the two couples in there. They all started talking and looking at me and then I realized I had face paint from the fox festival! haha But it was a good ice breaker because it made us talk.

Every one at the restaurant was very kind and did their best to communicate with me. The menu was all in Japanese so I had no idea what I could order, I decided to let the chef pick for me!

After a little bit another guy came and sat next to me, we started talking and when he got his food I asked what it was and he made me have some! Then he decided that every dish he got I would get half of it! I kept saying I was ok so then he cut his tempura in half and put it on my plate! So kind of him to be sharing.

When one couple was leaving they asked the restaurant how to say "Have a nice trip" and it was funny to see the interactions and then hear the whole restaurant discuss how to say "have a nice trip" and start correcting each other! Before they left we had to have a picture!

The meal was the perfect end to my stay in Takayama! Tomorrow... Kanazawa!

Kanazawa

Takayama

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