We were woken by the guests on the coach leaving. They had dressed, breakfasted and checked out by 7.30 am. We were not far behind. The Landlady and her daughter and grandchild wished us Goodbye and we realised that not a word of English had been spoken since we arrived. Joan explained in a round about way that she had once lived in Gifu-ken, After another potato salad "Morning set", we headed towards the UNESCO heritage site at Shirakawa valley. When Joan first ...

The inn we were staying at was on the outskirts of town, so we drove in to Takayama, parked by the station and ate breakfast in a cafe serving "Morning set" which are usually at reasonable rates. Kevin and had different breakfasts but both seemed to come with ice cream. Kevin was surprised when it turned out this was potato salad. Takayama is a small city but has lots of heritage. We crossed the river and came across the market where vegetables, pickles and Hida...

After a good night's sleep we turned up for breakfast 15 minutes early which seemed to throw the hostess into a flurry of activity. Whilst eating breakfast the landlord came doen, Mr Ichiro Yumoto, and he asked why Joan spoke Japanese! He seemed to like gadgets as in the breakfast room was both a juke box and self-plying piano which he duly turned on. He was a very kind host, and asked us where we were going, producing English language pamphlets and meticulousl...

Today we drove from Nagoya to Yudanaka to see the famous snow monkeys. It wasn't too difficult but there were not many signs to the monkey park. Luckily we had a map. Access was via a windy road with passing points. Having paid for parking and parked, there is a short climb through woods to the entrance. (It isn't suitable for the disabled.) On the way up we occasionally saw the odd monkey nonchalanatly passing by. Once past the pay kiosk, there were lots of the...

The morning started with gruel - literally. Breakfast was either super thick white toast or okayu, which is Japanese rice gruel, a bit like thin porridge. Buoyed up for the day by this sustenance, we walked to the hire car office via the tourist office at Nagano Station. There they gave us several useful maps. The car we hired was a small Mazda automatic. We set off with some maps that really didn't give the information required for driving, yet somehow arrived ...