We were now wise about how the train system works, and knew to ask at the JR office for help, so we got our bookings, tickets and directions fairly easily. We bought two bento boxes at the station and, mindful that it is frowned on to eat in public, joined the commuters in the waiting room and shared one there for breakfast. Turns out it wasn't what we thought we ordered - fish- but an omelet wrapped round rice, plus pickles, a little hamburger and other things. Quite nice though.
We went up to the platform to wait, and discovered we were surrounded by Spaniards. The sleek bullet train pulled in,
we got into our seats, and I settled in to watch the scenery while Bob got up to date with his report writing.
The route takes you along the sea shore, past kilometres of fairly dreary, flat towns which seem to reach right to the edge of the sea. However, the continuous urban sprawl is broken by rivers and canals, hills and mountains, pockets of farming ( rice, persimmons, espaliered fruit trees, taro, cabbage, radish, onions, manderines...)and pockets of forest. It all got rather boring after a while so we had our second bento box:
which looked pretty, but was rather bland.
I expanded my understanding of the toilets of Japan when I went to dump our rubbish in the correct receptacle outside the carriage. The men's one has just the bottom part of the door obscured. I was very careful to keep my eyes high as I went past an occupied loo. The western loo was occupied, so I decided to wait rather than attempt using the Japanese style ladies' one in my tight jeans.
Nagayo is a bit of a relief after all the tightly packed, utilitarian housing, as the houses and gardens are larger and more in the old style. We changed to a semi-express train here and the views immediately improved as we climbed into the hills.
We decided that the neatly pruned hedges in the vegetable plots were tea bushes.
We were reminded of the road up to Bogong in Victoria, as the railway follows the river which has been dammed for hydro-electricity. The rock formations are beautiful and the plants vary from firs, to bamboo, to deciduous trees. The colours are beginning to change as it is getting cooler, and the rhus and dogwoods must be a real sight later in the month. In the gardens, the last of the cosmos, marigolds, coreopsis, Jerusalem artichoke and a yellow flower (goldenrod?) were flowering, and everyone seemed to have a vegetable garden and/or bonsaied trees. We are still amazed at farming here. It seems so little comapared to Australia. In fact life here makes us realise how wasteful of space we are in Australia with our big houses and cities, and our continual destruction of farm and bush land.
We had some very charming older Japanese as our travelling companions and the women seemed to be having a hoot of a time. I decided to try the toilets again and discovered a very gadget-filled Western one, which of course played with my little brain as I had to figure out how to close and lock the door, and use the seat cleaning devices, and flushing devices, while avoiding the water squirting gadgets. I was giggling by the time I made it out, relatively unscathed.
All the towns and villages up here are in the flat valleys, and Takayama is no exception. We trundled along with our luggage until we found our hotel down a little lane. Turns out that the Minshuku Kuwataniya Hotel is a traditional hotel. We had to take our shoes off at the entrance and put them in a little cupoard by the door. We discovered that our room was more spacious than the Agora Place, with big cupboards, much better air-conditioning and windows that opened properly. We had two medium size futons on tatami mats,a little traditional mirror covered by a sashiko cloth, green tea in a kettle, birch rafters - charming.
Until, prudish, anglo-Saxon, Bob discovered that he has to use a male communal bathroom! Hee hee. I am loving it and would love to be a fly on the wall when he bathes. I checked out the ladies' loo. You have plastic slippers provided so you don't get wet feet if someone is rude enough to splash, and the toilet has a bidet, seat cleaning device and a squirting thing. The ladies's bathroom has an ante room where you strip off and leave your clothes in a basket. The steamy bathroom has a section where you wash, soap and shampoo, then rinse, then a hot bath to steam and soak in.
I dragged him away from considering his fate ( wonder whether he will wash in Takayame?) for an explore of the town. A few doors down from us is the Hida Kokubunji Temple which was built in 746 to pray for the nation's peace and prosperity.
There was a huge, gnarled, old ginko tree there, and we were lucky enough to encounter this young man who was making the rice paper used in the door screens
We also found a graveyard, with some beautiful headstones overlooked by some dozy local cats.
some rather cute little shrines, with odd little women in them
We wandered round the town which is famous for its shrines, old buildings, statues and traditions. Of course, we also had to have some more icecreams and try the local steamed buns. We had the one on the right - chestnut filled)
We are really looking forward to tomorrow after seeing sights like the shops, more temples, more food, great houses, more graveyards, old houses and lots of shibu inu dogs, but I am afraid you'll have to wait for those. My neck is aching and I need to sleep.
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