Today we were leaving Kyoto after three awesome days and nights, cause we are headed to the Japanese alps before we end our amazing trip in Tokyo. We had to get up at 06:00, which is not a lot of fun when you sat in a reggaebar the evening before, drinking some odd Japanese liquor made out of fermented wheat, that the barkeeper was a bit too enthousiastic in pouring 😉

Anyway, I made it, feeling a bit hungover, which felt weird as I only had one longdrinkglass of that and two regular Malibu’s on ice. Anyway, two Advil and a bottle of sweet ice tea (so happy I found it!) later, I was feeling a bit better, being on the train to Sirakawago. I was reading a book, thinking, listening to music and I really felt relaxed for the first time on this holiday. Like really relaxed.

When we arrived at the train station we went onto a bus, that took us on a beautiful journey through the Japanese alps, that are covered in snow. It is such an interesting thing to be in a city first, and then all of a sudden you are in winter wonderland. Even in the little town of Sirakawago there were a lot of piles of snow. It was really beautiful and the sun was shining on the icey snow, making it melt like crazy.

The town is very small, like one big street, and our group was split up in three to all have accomodation. Tonight we are sleeping in an old farm house that has the typical building style of Sirakawago. Beautiful hay-esque roofs and thick wooden walls, combined with those beautiful Japanese sliding doors, oh my lord, it was such a pretty sight to see.

After we dropped off our stuff and looked at our tatami mat beds (meaning: the floor), we went out to walk around in the souvenir shop area, and it was very nice. At one point my parents needed some coffee, so I said: let’s just go here, and we ended up sitting at a place that looked more like someone’s living room, and an old lady that was running it was chatting away with another old lady friend, super cute. She made us coffee and tea and we even got a speculoos cookie with it, which was quite funny. It was just like having tea at your grandma’s, super cute.

At 06:30 it was dinner time, so we were making our beds first (we could have a thin blanket under us, and our carpet was actually electronic so it was warm!), and we were happy to be inside cause as soon as the sun was gone, it was freezing out there. We then had dinner in the living room area, which was super great. There was a full veggie meal for me and it was excellent. The best dinner until now I think. I was already looking forward to breakfast, yay!

We were talking to the other people in the group that were in our house aswell, and it was just a very nice evening. I even had some time to sort out some blogs and photos, which was needed, so it really was a good time. In the evening I will sleep next to my parents, which was a bit weird, but also cosy. It is getting more real to me that this trip is coming to an end, even though we still have another night in the valley, and four in Tokyo. People at home start asking me when I come back… I do not want to know about it!