I'm ashamed to say it, but this blog entry is the first one of the entire trip which was not written at night before I went to bed. I'm actually writing this on the afternoon of the 18th, because last night I had the makings of a killer headache, and couldn't face an hour or so in front of a computer. We bid farewell to Yokohama, our home now for the past 8 days or so, and boarded the 8:50am Shinkansen bound for Nagoya. We had a feeling it was going to be a crowded train when we attempted to reserve tickets with the JR passes, and were told there was only Smoking seats left (on a 16 carriage Shinkansen!). We've never had problems reserving seats before, and when we have actually sat in them instead of finding a non-reserved seat, the carriages have never been more than ¾ full. So we tried our luck with the unreserved carriages, in order to get some non smoking seats. In order to maximise our chances, Veronica took Angela, and I took Charlotte, and we lined up at the doorway to different cars. Lucky we did, because Charlotte and I got the last 2 seats in our carriage (even though they werent together, and she was in the row in front of me), and Veronica got 2 of the last seats in her carriage too. After about an hour and a half, at the stop before Nagoya, many of the passengers got off, and we were able to get a group of 4 seats for the remainder of the journey. After a 20 minute stopover at Nagoya, we boarded the train to Takayama, which was a Limited Express service, meaning it only stopped 3 or so times on the 2.5hr journey. And as far as scenic train rides is concerned, this one has to be up there with the best that I have had. The train snaked its way up through the mountain valleys, following the Hida river, which is apparently one of the 3 fastest flowing rivers in Japan. The valley is famous for its vertical tree lined valley walls, and due to the recent rain the river was flowing quite strong. One thing I noticed as we got further away from Nagoya, was the ratio of vehicle types. In the cities for obvious reasons, small square cars are the status quo, aside from taxis. The futher into the mountains you get, the less of these cars you see, and the more 4 wheel drives (such at Toyota Landcruisers and Mitsubishi Pajeros) you begin to see. These stuck out like pink elephants in the cities, but out here they seemed to be normal. Also popular all the way along the Hida river was fly fishing. We were never in one spot long enough to see a fish being caught, but by the look of the river I can imagine it would produce some excellent trout. Upon arrival at Takayama, we disembarked, and initially I was underwhelmed with what I saw. Around the train station area is the most plain and unattractive area of the city. Convenience stores and several larger hotels dominate the view, along with several tourist trap souveneir shops and coffee shops charging $7 for a cafe latte. I consoled myself with the fact that the city could only get better from there as we wandered off in search of the ryokan. Without any problems we found our accomodation, and they have made every effort to make the place as authentic as possible. We were greeted warmly, and we were a little early for check-in, so we left our baggage and went for a walk to have a look around the town. The closer we got to the river, and away from the main shopping street, the prettier the town got. The little back streets containing the traditional Japanese style residences, with the open stormwater channels with small wooden bridges running down each side of the street were really surreal, and a big change from all of the cities we had just been through in the past weeks. In these streets, if not for the odd group of tourists walking around, or the cars occasionally passing, it was easy to feel like you had stepped back in time. We continued on to the river, which seemed like the scenery hub of the city. About 30m across, and spanned by 10 or so quaint bridges the river flowed fairly quickly. Even though it was flowing fairly quickly, there were masses of huge coy fish in the river. Whether they are naturally occuring or are nurtured and replenished for the benefit of the tourists i'm not sure, but they were pretty nonetheless. When we were done with the river, we decided to head back to the ryokan. We stopped at a raman shop which we had noticed was crowded on our journey up to the river, but which was now almost empty after the afternoon rush. After a very nice raman meal (I had hida beef raman, Veronica had pork) we headed back. When we got there we were greeted by the management and our official hostess, an elderly lady dressed in a kimono. After introductions it became obvious that she didn't speak a word of english, and she led us to our room, and seated us while she welcomed us and made us all some green tea, for a ceremonious style welcome. Again I tried green tea and again I was reminded that I dont much like it. As an ice-cream it is great, but as a drink it is pretty ordinary. Milk and sugar wouldn't have hurt, but as this was traditional, I was forced to do without. Also on offer were some waffle style biscuit things, and for the 2nd time this trip bean paste fooled me into thinking it was chocolate. I'm not going to be fooled again. From now on, Charlotte and Angela are going to try anything that appears to be chocolate before I attempt it. After a short rest, we decided to all have an onsen, or a bath in the volcanic spring water, which this ryokan has. There are separate bath areas for men and women, so Veronica took the girls and I set off by myself. Before getting into the bath I washed and rinsed off as per the instructions on the wall. I was the only one in there at that time, but it was still a little weird strutting around what appeared to be a big swimming pool area with showers around it while I was completely naked. I'm not sure why, but I was expecting the onsen to feel different to a hot bath. But pretty much, the onsen was just a huge deep bath which has very hot water constantly pumped into it. It was so hot in fact that I didn't enjoy it. In winter it would be fantastic, but I just found it too hot to really relax, so I got out, and quickly got dry and put my clothes back on, just to avoid any uncomfortableness if another guy came in. Back to my room, followed by Veronica and the girls about 10 minutes later. I was worried it would be too hot for Charlotte and Angela, but they apparently didn't want to get out. Relaxed until dinner time, which at 7pm on the dot our hostess came back with the dinner. Rarely in my life have I seen so much food. The meals came out on large trays, and consisted of plates of raw prawns, raw hida beef, raw fish, vegetables, vegetables, noodles as well as a few other plates of stuff I'm still unsure about. In the corner of each one of the trays was a mini lantern, containing a silver bowl on top filled with water. Veronicas and my meal was bought out first, and I assumed that Charlotte and Angela would receive kids sized meals, but when theirs came out they were a similar size to ours, and contained all of the same dishes as ours did. Our hostess lit the lanterns, and we were left alone to have my first try of a dining experience called shabu-shabu, which basically translates to taking a piece of raw something-or-other, and dipping it into the hot liquid until it is cooked to your liking, and then optionally dipping it into one of a variety of sauces on offer. Angela, as was expected, took a fanatical liking to the most expensive item on the trays, the Hida beef. This famous beef is a wagyu style beef from the Hida region (i.e. around here) which, like wagyu, is prized for its tenderness and high fat content. And judging from the restaurants around town, where $30 per steak seems to be the starting price, it is costly. Out of the 4 trays of Hida beef on the table, I would estimate that Angela ate more than half of it. We were very satisfied with the size of our meals, but about 10 minutes into the meal the hostess knocked on the door and returned with the 2nd course. More foods, soups and deserts for us, and an entirely separate kids plate for the girls, consisting of prawn cutlets, rissoles, chicken, fish, prawn mornay pasta bake and salad. The amount of food was rediculous, and required another table to keep it all off the floor. I also learn't another thing. Sake tastes like cough syrup. We were given a small conical shaped glass of it, so I thought I might as well try it. It didn't burn as I expected. Rather, apart from it having the viscosity of water, if you put this sake and a small cup of nyal decongestant syrup side-by-side, blindfolded you would not be able to tell the difference. All in all, the meal was amazing, and also a lot of fun. The girls had fun watching daddy drop stuff, spill stuff and nearly set the place on fire. It was a very fun meal, if not a little messy. One thing I learnt though, is that the little jiffy fire brick which was keeping my shabu thingo hot burns quickly. Initially I took my time, and when I realised that my fire was burning down rapidly, I found myself having to shub like a madman so that I wasn't left with plates of expensive but raw foods at the end. I took advantage of the cauldron on each of the 4 trays, and had my food shubbing in all 4 bowls to make sure it was all cooked by the time the fires went out. I wont be making the same mistake tonight if the meal is the same. After our massive dinner was complete, we dialed 9 to get the front desk, and our hostess came in to clear away our huge mess, and once she was done she dragged our tables out into the corridor and pulled our futons out the cupboard and made our beds. We were all exhausted, and full to the eyeballs with food, so we turned in for an early bed.