They say you shouldn't meet your hero's, because it's bound to end in disappointment. On the last trip we visited a hamburger restaurant in Takayama, called Center 4 Hamburgers. It was, without a doubt, the best burger I'd ever had. Risking tainting that memory, we decided to go back there today to see whether it really was as good as I remembered it, or whether it was going to ruin the memory forever. But before I get to that, onto the events of this morning. ...

The first half of today was a tedious endurance test of our sanity and patience, as we endured over 5 and a half hours of transit time, and 3 train changes, to get from Nagano to Takayama. Japan is blessed with countless vast and rugged mountain ranges, unfortunately one of the biggest runs almost vertically between the location we started in, Nagano, and the location we needed to get to, Takayama, in the Hida region. Some buses can make the direct journey ove...

We all slept in a little too long today. So much so that we were awoken by Veronica saying "Everyone get up. It's 10-to-8 and they stop serving breakfast at 8 o-clock!". Super. With bleary eyes and messy hair we made our way down to the dining room to see what breakfast weirdness awaited us. It turned out to be a lot better than I was expecting. Breakfast was a mix of both familiar and unfamiliar foods, most of which wasn't bad. Stuff like ham, pasta salad an...

Started the day by preparing to bid Yokohama farewell. Yokohama remains my second favourite city in Japan (behind Kyoto), not because of the attractions in the city, but because of its convenient location and laid-back and comparatively uncrowded populace. Stupid ramen museum aside, Yokohama is a good place to base yourself in Japan, especially if you dislike Tokyo as much as we do. Didn't even bother with the Toyoko Inn breakfast this morning, after the unins...

Started the day by heading to the Banquet Hall for the traditional Japanese breakfast. The food looked exquisit, and was obviously very carefully prepared, but I learn't something about myself this morning. I don't like traditional Japanese breakfasts. The breakfast table was a square, with the centre section of the table containing a sand filled pit, on which a cauldron of miso soup sat atop a gas burner. When we were seated the gas burner was lit, and the miso...