Friday, May 1, 2015

Japan 2015 - Day 7 - Takayama to Kanazawa

April 13, 2015: Shirakawa-go, Kenrokuen Garden

Here's my breakfast for this morning.  My favorite thing was the arabiki sausages.  Oh yah, and the roll too.  It was buttery and flaky with a little bit of chocolate in it. And the egg drop soup was good too. And the apple juice also.
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I give you one guess what Sweetie had.
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Our first stop today on our way to Kanazawa was Shirakagawa-go, UNESCO World Heritage Site, famous for the gassho-zukuri (hands in prayer) farmhouses, some which are more than 250 years old.
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Our bus driver agreed to take us up a very narrow hilly road so that we could get a bird's eye view of the area. That was so nice of him.
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Rubbah slippahs in da snow.  Funny, yah!!
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It was rainy. Very, very rainy.  It rained pretty much all day.
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We had to take pictures holding our umbrellas like this. With me, I had to hold my umbrella under my chin 'cause I need two hands to shoot.
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But so nice the view, yah!
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There was one house, called the Wada House, that was open to the public. You can go inside and look around.  I actually didn't take a picture of the house because it was pouring when we got there and everybody was rushing to get in. It's situated to the left of the house below.  You can kinda see the sign pointing the way. Anyway, there was only one small entrance to get into and out of the house. And you need to take off your shoes.  People trying to get into the house gotta wait for the people trying to get out of the house because they're blocking the way. The people trying to get out of the house are trying to put on their shoes before they can go out so it takes kinda long. And did I mention that it was raining? 

Needless to say, it was a mess there at the entrance/exit. 
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I didn't take many pictures while we were in the Wada House. I was too worried about the congestion that would form when all 30-something in our tour group needed to exit. I whispered to Sweetie that we should dig while the digging was good.

So we did.  We had a nice walk back to the bus.
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One of the restaurants lining the road had these Studio Ghibli figurines in its window.
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I love the Hayao Miyazaki movies. My favorite is Spirited Away.
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My Neighbor Totoro is my next favorite. 
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On the way to the bus I passed another tour group. They looked pretty wet. I guess we did too.
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Lunch was supermarket fare. I love these. Do we have stuff like this anywhere in Hawaii?
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Yummm!!
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After lunch, our next stop was the Kenrokuen Garden, ranked as one of Japan's top three most beautiful gardens. And it really was that beautiful. I wonder what the top two are.
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It was raining here too.
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But the good thing is that the wetness helps with color saturation in photos.
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At least it wasn't pouring. "Pouring" would come two days later at the cliffs. But that's another story.
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For today . . . 
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a little drizzle . . . 
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would be fine.
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Well . . . sort of.
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Nice color saturation . . . right?
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Our hotel for the next two nights was the Kanazawa Tokyu Hotel.  It always felt so good after a long, busy day to just drop our stuff on the bed, take off our shoes and just kick back and go, "Ahhhhhhh".
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Here's our view.
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This is what we did in the evening.


Here's my prize. Cost me 500 yen.
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18 comments:

Dd said...

Wow...another breathtaking day....so pretty !! Ummm...dried chili peppers!! What are those guys doing in the "rushing water??"

jalna said...

I think they were sweeping up debris, Didi. Not sure.

Honolulu Aunty said...

Those garden pics should be posters - SO beautiful!

Congrats but couldn't see what you won because you were waving it around so much. Was it worth the yen it cost to play? And was it really the last try?

Anonymous said...

J: omg WINNAH WINNAH WINNAH. I was pulling for ya, thinking 'hey dat buggah rigged' but you won...something? wat dat? -N

jalna said...

Awww . . . thanks, Aunty. I added the picture of my prize to my blog post. It cost me 500 yen, not worth the toy, but worth the entertainment. It really was my last try. But I edited the video to show only my last three tries. I had five.

Thanks N! I added the picture on to show you. I only won because the claw got caught onto the elastic band. Otherwise, it's impossible.

Honolulu Aunty said...

Oh, sooooo cute!!! He was worth every yen, and more.

Mark Shelby said...

You can only be cool if you can wear Shorts and Slippahs in da Snow! ; )

K and S said...

too bad about the rain, but you still got great shots!

jalna said...

I think so too, Aunty!!

LOL, Mark, I kept thinking that Wendell would totally be in shorts and slippahs too.

Kat, shots come out waaaaay better when it's not real sunny, so it actually was a blessing for me.

Susan said...

I felt like I was actually there while looking at your pics. I wanted to touch the scenery...your pictures are so beautiful! That game frustrates me, lol

jalna said...

Thanks Susan! I know what you mean about the claw game. It's impossible. I got so lucky.

Kay said...

What fun! Yes, we've been to all these places. It brings back so many memories. It snowed on us when we were there too. That fellow under the umbrella was wearing shorts??? That is amazing! And rubber slippers! wow! When we went the ryokan provided boots, thank goodness!

jalna said...

Kay, there were a couple of guys on our tour that wore shorts and slippahs!!

SW said...

despite the rain, the scenery is so green and lush. That village look like a really cool esp from afar....WOW.. you won! I've never EVER won in that game...must be skill..

Leslie's pics said...

sooooooo beauuuutiful!!

jalna said...

Both places really were beautiful, Les.

Nippon Nin said...

Did you feel like singing after you got him? Let it go, let it go! Wait...he could live in sunny place like he always dreamed! Amazing!

You're so cute!

We were there at Kenrokuen last September. Yukie Nakama the Japanese actress was there. She looked like a goddess.

jalna said...

I looked up Yukie Nakama. She is so beautiful. Really like a goddess.