The British Tourists

We started St George's day (or the more appropriately named, day after Ben's birthday) with a relaxing Onsen experience in the Ryoken. As they switch the male and female baths each day we got a different experience to yesterday, this time we both had them to ourselves for the whole time which meant we didn't have to avoid eye contact with other naked people... It was EXTERMELY hot though and I believe any weight I put on from the gorgeous meal last night was lost through sweat!!!

At 9:00am we were down for Japanese breakfast which provided a mountain of food.... when you thought you were done they only brought out a stew and dessert! As we both don't normally do breakfast it was a struggle but we powered on like good honest British folk and ate almost all of it... some of the key dishes were:

Grilled fish (something like a mackerel)
Grilled miso paste with mushrooms and other veg (this was AMAZING)
Tofu with miso
Etc.... as you can see a ridiculous amount of food

We left the Ryoken shortly after to take a short train journey back to Takeyama, this time to do the touristy stuff.

Our first stop in Takayama was to Takayama Jinya an old local government building in the region due to the importance of timber to the shogun. Similar to many of the tourist attractions we'd been to so far it was well priced at only ¥500 (just over £3) or less than a medium sized beer. Although rather sparse inside it was still an impressive building and it housed one of the largest traditional rice storehouses.

After exiting we were reasonably close to the old town in particular Sannomachi Street where all the traditional houses have been well preserved... but with a fair few now transformed to shops... you guessed it... TOURISTS!!

Once we'd survived the tourist apocalypse we headed towards Yatai Kaikan (the float exhibition hall) where we saw 4 of the impressive autumn floats used during the Takeyama festival that occurs bi-yearly, spring and autumn. We were gutted that we missed the Spring festival by a few days as it looks like a cracking festival.

In Hida earlier we'd picked up a map that suggested a couple of walks covering Kitayama Park, Ayuzaki Castle Ruins and the Higashiyama Walking Course. The first of which was a short climb giving views over Takayama but if you don't have the time then you won't be missing out but it was an opportunity to stretch the legs away from the crowds and only took about 45 min.

The second walk had much more to offer although if you are all templed out from Kyoto or Tokyo then it doesn't offer anything unique but as we hadn't seen to many temples as yet we quite enjoyed the experience of being quickly move from one temple to the next and it was very well signed so you won't get lost. After we finished temple hopping, the route takes you through the back of Shiroyama Park to the castle ruins (there isn't much to see). We skipped a little bit out for time reasons as we needed to catch a train but it seems that if you want a good walk then it should be easy enough to complete but don't think you need to do this part of the walk as it's through a largely wood area.

We returned to Takayama Station to take the JR train (not the bullet this time unfortunately) through the scenic countryside to continue our adventures in Nagoya.

Shirakawa-go see blosom trees

This World Heritage site is well worth a visit, the thatched roofed houses are really beautifully maintained and the place has a calm and relaxing feel - even with loads of tourists.

We arrived from Kanazawa at 10:30 earlier than we wanted, as the later buses were fully booked. WARNING its worth noting that there were spaces on the busses but not sat together as you can not book a female seat next to a male you are not travelling with, so book early as we did leave it a bit late.

When we arrived, we headed right out of the bus station to avoid the standard tourist route and walked up the 61 steps to the view point overlooking Shirakawa-go and giving great views of the mountains in the distance.

We went in the Wada-ke house which cost ¥300 each and we braved the tea again - it was much sweeter than the green tea in the geisha house in Kanazawa, a real comfort that it's made from wild grass and boiled in the iron kettle on the fireplace - yummy! It was Ben's birthday so the dated photo was a bonus.

We didn't stop for any food but there are a few restaurants if you wanted lunch or dinner and there are huts serving ice cream and takeaway foods. We covered the whole area and took a walk over the bridge to the other side where there is an open museum that costs ¥600 per person but we didn't have the time to go in.

We stayed for 3 hours as we were booked onto the 13:30 bus to Takyama but found out there were also unreserved buses at different times. However 3 hours was about right as we sauntered along the village roads.

To carry on the celebrations I booked us in to Yatsusankan Ryokan in Hida just outside Takyama. We arrived about 4pm, checked in and walked around Hida then we took advantage of the hot spring baths before an amazing dinner in our own dinning room, the number of courses was insane, so many little tasty dishes that were full of flavour, I can guarantee a food comer! It was a bonus that the cherry blossoms were out so they took us on a 10 min bus tour to see them lit up - it was well worth it!

The water in Fukushima is potable

We arrived at Narita Airport very excited to start our Japanese adventure but after over 20 hours of traveling we still had to get to Fukushima.

This was actually relatively straight forward, we first had to exchange the JR vouchers, we'd bought online before traveling. This was located right next to the tourist information and the helpful staff swiftly booked us on the Narita Express to Tokyo to get a connection to Fukushima City.

Upon arrival in Fukushima around 6pm we wearily dragged our bags through the station and thankfully only for a few hundred metres to the Richmond Hotel, which on the face of it seemed very nice (found out it only opened last month).... before realising I'd booked a double room for one person and it cost more for another guest!!! So it wasn't such a good deal in the end.

As it now had been over 30 hours since leaving our home in the Manchester, England we were a little hungry. We figured out that Fukushima City isn't massive and stumbled across Tikmada Farm a traditional looking Japanese restaurant where we had a decent meal, we even got a homemade "Thank You" written in chocolate with some mango jelly. After this we walked back to the hotel and crashed....sooooo tired.

Next day..........

"Urgh but it's so dark" I mumbled after being nudged by Laura... It was actually around 10am (and actually wasn't dark at all)... So much for getting up early.

Our plan of action was to go see the Sakura (cherry blossom to our English friends). This was a major factor in us travelling to Fukushima as we'd heard great things about Hanamiyama Park.

It was a little overcast but still warm enough to walk the 5km from our hotel (it's possible to also catch the number 8 bus from Fukushima Station which gets most the way there)... The walk enabled us to explore the city and although there's not much to it it still had a certain charm about it.

We randomly stumbled across a Japanese deli (see Google map below) on the way to the supermarket which proved to be a superb find, although our Japanese was limited we successfully managed to point at items we thought would be tasty.

After this brief stop we were on our way to the park... Although oddly we didn't see anyone going in the same direction but... GOOGLE knows best?? When we'd almost reached the entrance we realised we'd come a back way to get to the park and should have followed a stream (where we saw a fair number of Japanese tourists).

Although a good week or so past their best, the Sakura were still impressive and we followed (trying to avoid clusters of Japanese tourists) a marked path approximately 60 minutes up and down this area....  

Warning!! The path itself has a few steep ascents and decents but if you take your time anyone should be able to do it... Plus it gives plenty of time to admire the views of the city and the Sakura.

Our first experience of Japanese people very much lived up to their public image, they really are lovely people. We were stopped by one of the park staff for a good few minutes as he explained to us about the particular types of blossom and was interested to find out why we'd come to Fukushima.

We took the main route back out of the park and headed along the stream to the Abukuma River before crossing a bridge back into Fukushima city centre.

After navigating our way around the massive horse racing track we headed to Iwaya Kannon at the base of Mount Shinobu, home to a collection of over 60 Buddhist engravings that date back over 300 years. These were quite impressive, and I would recommend going to see them if you're in the area and they gave us a flavour of Japanese Buddhist culture. 

Warning!!! The steps up were not for the faint hearted as they were incredibly steep!

Now at the base of Mount Shinobu we decided to walk back to the hotel via the walking paths up the mountain and proceeded up yet more steps!!! Which spiked the heart rate but led us to observation deck numero 2... This gave impressive views over Fukushima and as an added bonus had a few impressive cherry blossom trees.

Given our success we decided to venture on to observation deck 3.... This proved a little more difficult and a descent worth a black run in skiing!.....Although it gave views over the other side of Shinobu it wasn't as impressive so you could easily skip this. 

On the route back from observation deck 3 after weaving round and down the mountain we arrived at the surprisingly neat Yakuoji Temple which provided a welcome rest stop before the final 3km back to the hotel.

After exploring Fukushima earlier in the day we now had a good idea of where to go in the city for food so headed the other side of the station to Neneya Fukushima Ekimae where our Japanese skills... If we had any would have been very useful.