After a good night of sleep next to my parents, hihi, we had an amazing breakfast before we checked out of our farm. It was really beautiful out here in the mountains, so different from the city, especially the city we are about to go to. However, we are going to make one stop first before we go to the huge and much bigger apple 😉 Takayama is a pretty touristy place, but it is actually bigger than any other city in Japan. However, most of the land (90%) is covered by forest.

Takayama is mainly famous for its super old Japanese wooden houses and wood carvings. They make amazing things out of wood, but it is all very costly. What I like about the town is that it is very artsy, there are a lot of hand made things and it is just cute and small to walk around in. I do not love our hotel though, we are staying at the Washington Plaza Hotel which is the crappiest hotel that we have stayed at so far.

But I can’t complain, we had a lovely day here, I bought some more presents, and one of them is a small pink being, that is available in multiple colors but every color has different meaning. They are very well-known in this area, the town we were at yesterday actually had them available too. I hope it will bring me luck. All I need is a Sakura leaf to fall on my head and I should be good forever. I already got a wristband put on by a monk.. Anything I can get for luck or wisdom I take on these days.

Anyway, in Takayama we saw this beautiful bird, just wanted to share a pic of it in case you are thinking: what the heck is this. There are many crows/ravens in Japan, but also a lot of eagles, that fly through the sky like they are the king of the jungle, very beautiful. Mainly we went in and out of shops today though, and we walked around a lot, which is getting more painful every day cause of my backpack and the fact that my shoulders are just f’ed up.

I was very happy to see a lot of shops in Takayama with a specific theme. For example, bunnies! Yes, again, there was a bunny store. Then there was also a cat store, which unfortunately I did not buy anything at, but I really wanted to. There are so many stores here that are totally worth while, and I would like to sponsor them all, but of course I can’t. I am already overspending here in Japan, even though I am not even buying that crazy many things.

While walking around we stumbled upon a beautiful buddhist graveyard, and a beautiful buddhist temple. I get so peaceful at this places, too bad it is not easy for me to get my mind in a peaceful state. I try really hard though. Should read more books on buddhism when I get home. Oh by the way, we finally tried some of the balls we have been spotting everywhere. They are actually called mitarashi dango and they are totally vegetarian friendly, yay. They are just dough balls made of rice flour, dipped in soy sauce and then grilled on bamboo skewers. Really, really delicious.

In the evening we had dinner at this place called Bistro Kanzo and it was pretty nice French food. I had some pumpkin soup combined with some garlic bread and it was delish. I did have some chocolates when I took a rest in my hotel for 2 hours (yes, that has been my first two hours of doing nothing but just being on my hotel room!) so I wasn’t that hungry. In the evening I went back to my hotel room, which I had all by myself (loved it!) and had some sleep. Not a lot, we have to get up early to go to Tokyo. Yay, Tokyo! I am actually a bit nervous for going there, seems so overwhelming. We will see! 🙂