"Little Kyoto" TAKAYAMA or bust!

Picking up where I left off, we had just finished freezing our booties off in Magome, Kiso Valley and were on our way to Takayama. The trip was several hours long and involved taking a combination of buses and trains. We used our time on the train to research where we wanted to eat dinner. We didn't know it at the time, but Takayama, despite being awesome for a number of things, was the stop where we had the most memorable dining experiences (with the exception of the Irish/Italian restaurant we visited in Kanazawa, which was our next stop on our journey). We were craving something substantial after our couple days of hiking and several kaiseki style meals. We read about an American style burger joint called Center 4 Hamburgers (you can also like them on Facebook!). Center 4 Hamburgers is the only burger restaurant in the city and had a substantial number of excellent reviews. Takayama is a bit off the beaten path and there is probably a pretty slim chance that most people reading this will find their way there, but IF YOU DO...visit Center 4 Hamburgers for sure.

From our research, we knew the restaurant closed at 9:30 pm and our train was not scheduled to arrive in Takayama until 8:30 pm. We also still had to check into our hotel and make sure the bags we sent ahead from Tokyo had arrived. Luckily the hotel was right across the street from the station. We checked in, retrieved our bags (Yes! They made it!), and dropped them in our room; then, we took off running! Eric was great and had figured out the route ahead of time so we easily found it. When we arrived, we were the only two customers there. The place is run by a dude and some of his friends.  It had an American Eagle, ski-lodge, cabin-in-the-woods, rustic feel to it. We were starving so we went crazy. Eric ordered the double cheeseburger, fries, and a beer and I the cheeseburger, fries, and a strawberry milkshake. Honestly, I am drooling just thinking about it. The burgers were diner style and absolutely perfect. Perfectly cooked, perfect bread, perfect fresh and crisp veggies, and the perfect amount of sauce. It was so good and so perfect (have I gotten my point across yet?) that Eric and I spent the rest of the trip trying to come up with excuses to visit the place for a second time. Unfortunately (or fortunately) we spent the rest of our time in Takayama too full to squeeze in another burger. Hands down, though, best. burger. ever.

How bad do you want this right now?

Eric and I went on and on to the guy about how much we loved the food. He was not surprised to hear it. We waddled out of there completely satisfied, stuffed, and exhausted and stumbled our way to our beds to crash for the night. 

Breakfast the next morning was a nice treat because we could choose between Japanese or Western style breakfast. We both chose Western style as we were still (are still) not accustomed to eating Japanese style breakfasts. The Western breakfast came with eggs, sausage (kind of like Vienna sausages), salad, fruit, yogurt, potatoes, a chunk of bread, juice, and coffee. It wasn't half bad!

I assume they call Takayama "Little Kyoto" because old town Kyoto looks a lot like this.  

 After breakfast, we walked around town and checked out the morning markets and old village areas. There were many stores and vendors selling local crafts and crops. We sampled some food and purchased  some sarubobo "lucky monkey baby" souvenirs. The sarubobo is a faceless doll associated with Takayama and three wishes: protection from bad things, a happy home, and easy childbirth. They are a little creepy looking since they don't have faces. According to Wikipedia, the reason that the dolls have no faces is unclear, but two theories are that they were typically made from scrap fabric and were meant to be simple dolls and that they are faceless so that the owner can imagine a face...a face to match their own current emotional state. I don't know, but the wishes sounded good to us so we went for it! We got two little Christmas ornament dolls and a colorful set of dolls for the baby's room. 

Takayama is famous for sake, lacquerware, and wood carving. There are sake breweries all around. Eric bought a sampler pack so we could try some of it because we were overwhelmed by the selection and have no idea how to choose sake. We still have a lot to learn in this area, but there could be worse lessons to learn, right? 

When the morning markets closed up shop, we hiked up into the hills of Takayama to see Hida No Sato, which is kind of like a preserved town. It was opened in 1971 for the purpose of preserving the traditional housing and lifestyle of the Hida region between 1750 and 1850. More than 30 buildings were moved from different parts of the Hida region and assembled around a lake to make it look like a real, functioning village. Many of the houses are Gassho style thatched roof houses. There are also various tools and other items on display throughout the village. My favorite part about the place was that they provided biographical information about the folks who had occupied the houses and shops. 

Hida No Sato an interesting experience and beautiful to see. We were lucky to be there in the fall because the colors of the changing leaves were truly gorgeous. It was pretty touristy too...they had a place where you could dress up in the traditional clothing of the period and pose for professional pictures in front of the lake with the village as the back drop. We passed (we were too cool for that), but now I'm not sure why...it would have been fun! 

In one area of the village there are workshops where artisans who are experts of traditional arts and crafts can be observed while they work. You can also purchase their handicrafts. Eric bought a wood carved owl from a man who was truly a genius with a chisel. He was awesome, and the owl is pretty cute, too.

By the time we finished exploring Hida, it was about 2:00 pm and we were close to starving. We walked the long way back to our hotel and got ready for a very extravagant lunch. 

We ate at a place called Cafe Le Midi, which was an upscale steakhouse where Hida Beef is served. Hida Beef is comparable to Kobe Beef; very rich and very tasty. I am not kidding when I say that these steaks could be cut with the dull side of a butter knife and did not need to be chewed. We truly indulged...even got dessert! Along with the beef we had some vegetables and a really lovely soup that tasted a lot like potato leek, but a little more...Japanese. I loved the soup and was trying to be polite by not sopping up every last drop with the delicious crusty bread on the table. Well, the waitress came over and said, "excuse me miss, it is really good if you use the bread to get the soup." This was my kind of place! Eric and I took so much time to savor our meals (a first for us...we are professional scarfers) that we stayed through the end of the lunch hour and got to see the staff sit down for a family-style meal before gearing up for the dinner shift. They were all really cool and we seemed to mutually enjoy observing each other consume our meals.

After lunch we made an attempt to keep our food comas at bay by strolling around, but this was done in vain. Instead we strolled back to our hotel and crashed...until the sun went down. 

We were not particularly hungry when dinner time rolled around. Our Hida Beef felt like it was still sitting somewhere near the tops of our stomachs. We were pretty close to talking ourselves into staying in for the night, because in addition to not being very hungry it was cold and rainy outside. However, we had heard about a Mexican restaurant called Chapala's that was run by one man alone. He was owner, chef, waiter, busser, etc...he did it all! Plus...Mexican food in Takayama...we had to see this for ourselves! We decided to walk over for some late night munchies. We are so glad we did! 

We sat right at the bar where we could watch him cook and visit with him. Because, yes, in addition to running the entire operation, the owner also spoke excellent English! He was really funny and entertaining. The food was good- apparently he had spent a little time in Mexico before coming home and opening a restaurant of his own, but the true joy of the experience was meeting him. He was an absolutely charming, vibrant, and lovely person. Many patrons came in while we were there. In fact, he eventually had to turn people away after a large (and drunk) crowd of Japanese people came in to celebrate something. It was the kind of small restaurant where by the end your meal you have chatted with everyone else in the place. It was a really fun way to end our time in Takayama.

We got to bed late, slept well, and woke up the next morning ready to hop back on the train and continue on to Kanazawa. 

PS- Yes, I am writing a PS to my blog post...

You may be thinking it's crazy that we didn't eat much Japanese food. I should explain that we didn't feel pressured on this trip to eat exclusively Japanese food because we will be living in the country for another 2+ years. We did, however, make every attempt to try local favorites and delicacies whenever we heard about them/it was possible.

That is all. 

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program...

First of all, I have vowed to myself to finish blogging about our trip around Japan, but things got just a liiiiiitle crazy after that last post and I would be remiss if I failed to talk about why...four days after my last post, Baby Bean (here on out also referred to as Bean, Peanut, Gizmo, Nugget, etc.) rocked our world! It has been a whirlwind since then, but mostly a completely wonderful whirlwind...

I spent about seven months seeing the same OB and planning to have our baby in Japan (with my mom's help) in the middle of a Misawa winter! Then came word that Eric was selected for an eight week class at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, AL, which overlapped my due date. We had a very short amount of time to act and by New Year's Eve, I was on a plane to the good ole USA!  Bean would be born in Alabama, not Misawa (didn't miss the Misawa winter too much on those 70 degree days in Montgomery). This huge change in itinerary was initially extremely stressful and continued to be unpredictable and ever-changing. It could have lead to an unhappy last trimester, but completely the opposite occurred. Amidst the chaos and stress, I had a happier third trimester, birth (don't get me wrong, that part was challenging like whoa!), and postpartum period than I ever thought possible. I can not say enough wonderful things about Eric's classmates, their families, and his instructors at SOS, the OB/GYN Associates of Montgomery, Baptist Medical Center East, or the Residence Inn of Montgomery.

Striped shirt picture is almost the most pregnant I got...taken on Friday night before first trip to hospital. 

The first six weeks of Eric's class were so much fun! The members of Eric's "flight" were incredible people as were their family members who had also accompanied them to Montgomery. The group felt much more like family than new acquaintances or colleagues. The love and support we received from them was invaluable and their company during the last weeks of pregnancy made the time fly. And it was time well spent. I could go on and on about these special people and I will never be able to thank them for all they did (including giving us a most generous baby gift, loaning us baby gear that we did not have, driving us *multiple times* back and forth from the hospital when d-day arrived, and surrounding us with love and tons of admiration for our new baby before and after she arrived). His instructors were great too! Staying involved and in the loop as the end of my pregnancy drew near and even as labor progressed! They all cheered us on! A bonus from our time at Maxwell was that we also got to see our friends Chris, Sarah, and Jared from Altus while we were there. Chris and Jared were also there for SOS and Sarah for a different course. Oh! And without Chris' generous gift of the use of his ride, I would not have been able to make it to all my OB appointments!

So as for the birth...

I am not going to go into all the details, but the care I received from the OB/GYN Associates of Montgomery and the nurses, techs, staff at Baptist East was second to none. I would go back to have a baby with those folks any day of the week. I was lucky to be under such amazing care. I will never forget many of those people either. The super quick version of Bean's birth story is this: I went into labor at around 4:30am on Friday, February 14th (Vaentines Day) and baby girl was born on Sunday, February 16th at 9:19am. She weighed 6 pounds 9 ounces and was 19 inches long! She was the most beautiful thing we had ever seen. I am going to cry just thinking about it...

Here are some amazing things about her timing:
- She arrived one week and one day before her due date, which gave Eric a whole extra week's worth of time to be with her before he had to go back to Japan for a month. (Yes, he had to go back to Japan for a month between two courses he had at Maxwell).
- She was born on a Sunday morning of a three-day holiday weekend. This meant Eric could spend more time with us and not miss too much class.
- She was born the day Eric's dad was in Atlanta for business and had already planned to make the two and half hour drive to Montgomery to take Eric and me to dinner. This meant that he arrived at the hospital just an hour or so after Bean entered the world.

My parents also left their house to drive to Montgomery as soon as they heard I had finally been admitted to the hospital (2am) and picked up my sister on the way. My whole family arrived at the hospital just hours after Baby Bean was born.

The whole thing was incredible.

Going "home" from the hospital today!

After she was born, we had to move out of our base housing accommodations and into an extended stay suite...we chose to stay at the Residence Inn and it was one of the best decisions we made. The staff was incredibly warm and accommodating and we had plenty of comfortable and CLEAN space. We had a two bedroom suite with a large living area and full kitchen. My mom, dad, sister, Eric, baby, and me all stayed there together for the first week, then my dad and sister went home. A week or so after they went home, Eric's mom joined us in the suite for a few days. She was able to be there for Eric's graduation from SOS (because he had still been going to class during all this time). The hotel gave us all the space we needed to surround our baby girl with love during her first weeks of life (my uncle and cousin from Atlanta were even able to make the trip over for a visit). We felt so lucky to have this opportunity. Had she been born in Misawa, it would have been months (over a year for some) before most of these people would have been able to squeeze her.

Before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye to Eric. This was the hardest part of the entire journey. It was terribly painful to separate at that precious time, but we kept reminding ourselves that so many other people we know (and don't know) make much larger, much more dangerous sacrifices. That mantra helped us get through.

After Eric was back in Japan, my mom and I began the long road trip home to Maryland with Bean. She did amazingly well in the car. She slept the whole time waking only when she was hungry.

Side note: she is not like this in the car anymore. She now despises car seats, but that is a whole other story.

The trip from Montgomery to Columbia took us three days, but we took our time stopping to see many friends along the way. Another crazy thing about timing: one night we stayed with my mom's good friend in Hickory, NC. My sister just happened to be visiting her boyfriend's family in a nearby town about 30 minutes away. She, Clint, and his family all came over to see us and meet Bean on the night we stopped in Hickory. What luck!

Back home in Maryland, the next month was spent enjoying a steady stream of visitors. Baby Bean met so many of our favorite people (with the exception of those who were still too far away). She was loved on and snuggled by grandmas, grandpas, great grandma, aunties, great aunties, cousins, long time family friends who are like family, all my best girl friends, and more. It was wonderful. In fact, the only thing that could have made the whole time any more wonderful would have been having Eric there to experience it too. My mom took incredible care of me and I was quickly back to feeling like my old self. I only had to worry about caring for and loving Bean.

All women should be so lucky to transition into motherhood this way.

The month flew by and on April 4th, it was time to pick up Eric at the airport. He flew into Maryland to scoop up Bean and me for the trip home to Japan. He got to share a few precious hours with family (which included getting to meet our new nephew...another crazy thing about timing!!) before having to get back on the plane for yet another long flight.

Reunited and it feels so good!

On April 6th, Bean took her first international flight (out of the womb) at exactly seven weeks old. She was such a trooper on that plane. She didn't have any problems with her ears and slept for most of our journey...and it was one. long. journey.

Since we have been back in Misawa, I have been adjusting to solo motherhood...meaning mothering her without all the love, support, and company constantly surrounding me. This has been every bit as challenging as many mothers before me warned it could (would) be. But it has also been wonderful.

She is the love of our lives and we are so glad she is here.

And I will finish the dang blogs about our Japan trip! The upside of her hating car seats so much is that I am not more behind on my blogging than that...it's not like we are racking up the adventures right now. We are only on one adventure...the newborn adventure...

Three Hergs, One Adventure.

KISO VALLEY, "The Japanese Alps"

The next two days of our trip were to be spent in Kiso Valley, which is known as "The Japanese Alps." The plan was to take several trains (including our first ride on the Shinkansesn or "bullet train") and a bus from Tokyo to a town called Tsumago. From Tsumago, we would hike an 8km section of the old trade route from Kyoto to Tokyo, ending our time in Kiso Valley in a town called Magome. We had planned to spend the night in a traditional Japanese hotel, called a ryokan, which was located somewhere between Tusmago and Magome. Needless to say, with all of this foot travel, we did not want to drag our luggage around with us. We had planned to use a service called, "Black Cat," which picks up your luggage from one location and delivers it to another for an affordable fee.

My hair "blowing in the wind" on our first Shinkansen ride.

We woke up on our last morning in Tokyo, packed a small overnight bag, and went down for breakfast. After breakfast, we went to the reception desk of our hotel to work out the transfer of the rest of our luggage. Despite the language barrier, the folks at the hotel were very kind to help us fill out the Black Cat forms as they needed to be filled out in Japanese. They then told us that the fee to have our luggage moved would be $20.00. Eric pulled out a credit card, assuming that since we were in the hotel we would be able to use it, but we were told that since they were accepting payment on Black Cat's behalf they could only accept dollars or yen. Eric and I had zero dollars and were the equivalent of $3.00 short of yen (all the yen we had in the world included). At this point it was about 8:30am. We knew that we were scheduled to be on a 10:00am Shinkansen train out of Tokyo Station and that in order to get there we had to walk the almost mile to the subway station and take two separate subway trains to get there. But we had no fear! Because right across the street from the hotel was a Lawson's (a popular convenience store) with an ATM. Eric ran across the street to retrieve the cash money! He came back defeated and reported that Lawson's ATMs no longer accept Master Cards. The people at the reception desk told us that there was an ATM we could  use at the post office, which was also (conveniently) right around the corner! Eric ran out again. A few minutes later he texted me (It was about 8:40am at this point) and told me that the post office would not open until 9, but that the employees were nice enough to let him wait inside. We spent the next 20 minutes anxiously tapping our toes and watching the seconds tick by. Fortunately, right at 9am, Eric was able to get some cash and run back to the hotel. We paid for the luggage service, grabbed our bag, and RAN to the train station. Despite our delayed start to the day, we made it to Tokyo Station with about 9 minutes to spare before our Shinkansen was to depart. We asked for help and quickly found the correct train and track. Phew, what a morning!

Technical difficulties prevent me from sharing better shots of Fuji...

The train ride that morning took us through beautiful countryside, but the highlight of the trip was seeing Mt. Fuji out the window of the train. The massive mountain seems to pop up out of nowhere and is an amazing site to see. We can't wait (and really hope to be able) to plan a trip to tackle that thing! 

We got off the train in Kiso Valley and had a little time to kill before the bus we had to take to Tsumago departed. We were starving by this time and walked around a little to look for a place to eat lunch...but there wasn't much in the way of restaurants at this little bus stop town. We ended up finding a grocery store and collected a few items for lunch from there. We got apples, fresh gyoza, and a bag of chips and took it back to the train station to find a spot to sit and eat. As we enjoyed our picnic, we watched the people of the town go about their daily lives and enjoyed the beautiful views from the valley to include soaring mountains peppered with the colors of fall, waterfalls, and a river. There were groups of school children arriving home by train. We waved at them and they practiced their English on us saying, "Hi!" or "Hello!" and "How are you?" There were plenty of smiles and giggles to go around. 

After lunch, we walked over to the bus stop to wait for our ride. As we stood there, we were approached by a rugged traveler. He handed each of us a warm can of coffee, which he had purchased from a vending machine (yes, you can purchase hot drinks, among many other crazy things, from vending machines). In broken English, he told us all about himself. He told us that he was hitch-hiking from his university in Hokkaido (which is the northernmost island of Japan) where he studied veterinary medicine. He told us that he was Muslim (to explain why he was sporting a beard) and that he was happy to be able to practice his English. He was absolutely convinced that Eric was an Air Force pilot despite our best attempts to explain otherwise and thought that being able to fly planes was super cool. He loved Eric's teeth and showed us his own indicating that he would love to trade with Eric. He said that I was beautiful (by congratulating Eric on having a nice looking wife). He was an incredible person! He was very kind, animated, and memorable. The thing we loved most about him was that each time he told us something about himself, he would point to himself on the nose and say, "I" or "me." Our conversation ended with the arrival of our bus. As we parted ways, he told us that he loved us both, pointing to his nose and saying, "I love you and goodbye."

After about a 10 minute bus ride, we hopped off in Tsumago and began our hike. It was starting to get really cold and I was starting to realize that, per the usual, I was under-prepared for the cold temperatures in the Japanese Alps in November. Eric has learned to laugh at me for this quirk (and keep one eye open for the things I may need to survive the elements). In this case, what I needed was a long pair of pants. All I had with me were capri length leggings. Oops! Tsumago was an absolutely beautiful old post town full of small homes and businesses. It was so well preserved that it looked like it came right out of an old post card. The only things around to remind us that we were in fact in the present were the cars parked under car ports.

We took a lot of time exploring the town because we thought we were closer to the ryokan than we were. As we neared the end of the town, we saw an information center. We stopped to ask for a map and for directions to our hotel. The woman there pulled out a map, indicated where we were on the map, ran her finger along the path all the way across the map, flipped it over and than ran it over about a third of the other side of the map. She stopped and told us that our hotel was there. Eric and I were shocked by how much farther we had to go and a little alarmed by the setting sun and drizzling rain. We picked up the pace a little! We ran into some friendly English speaking people along the way to our hotel. They told us the tiiiiiny town we were looking for was close, but noted they had not noticed our particular ryokan when they passed through that town. We thanked them and kept on moving. Finally, over a little hill, we saw a tiny stream of smoke rising out of a chimney. As we came around the side of the hill, we saw the sign for our ryokan. We made it inside just before the rain really picked up and the sun really set. 

Our first challenge in the ryokan was to take off our shoes and put on indoor slippers. After doing that, we could ascend the steps and ring the bell at the front desk for service. Eric was paralyzed by a difficult decision. There were two types of slippers: medium and very large. He did not know whether the size difference indicated male and female slippers or if he was allowed to chose the pair that would actually fit him best. Always a staunch rule follower, he did not want to make the wrong choice. As he agonized, jumping back and forth between the two options, I slipped on a pair and rang the bell. Despite my encouragement to chose the slippers that fit best, Eric was unable to do anything but wait until the person came to the desk and he could ask. He was told he could wear any pair he wanted. Mission accomplished. This was just the first crisis of "how to behave in a ryokan" that we faced and endured together.

Our host gave us a tour of the ryokan along with a brief overview of how it is operated. He explained that there were two other couples sharing the ryokan with us that night. He showed us where the hot bath was and briefly explained how to know and indicate that the shared bathroom was in use. We were informed that dinner was served promptly at 5:30pm; breakfast at 7:30am. He told us that he would come and retrieve us from our room for both meals. He then showed us to our room. The first thing we did when we got in the room was drink the hot green tea and eat the sweets that were sitting out for us on the small table in the center of the room. We then read about how to set up the tatami mats and made our beds for the night. Next, we had to bathe before dinner and change into our robes. This was the second crisis of our stay. Let's just say, we did not have a firm grasp on the etiquette of using the hot bath. We took our robes down to the bath and found that it was occupied. This gave us a few minutes to pace the halls and debate and discuss our options. Ultimately we survived the hot bath experience and I think we enjoyed it, but it was not exactly the relaxed experience we were hoping for. I am not going to point fingers, but a certain lover-of-rules-and-boundaries could have had more fun if he had been given a more thorough briefing. We made our way back to our room in our robes to wait to be summoned for dinner. 

We were retrieved from our room, as promised, promptly at 5:30pm. Our host lead us down to the dining room. When he slid open the door to the dining room, we saw three tables each beautifully set for dinner for two. We enjoyed a kaiseki (traditional multi-course Japanese) style dinner. Unlike dinner courses in the West, all of the courses in a kaiseki meal are presented simultaneously. I am unsure whether there is etiquette for the sequence in which the courses are consumed, but Eric and I went all willy nilly in our approaches. Here was the spread: smoked and salted small fish, salmon sashimi, cold soba noodles, various veggies, various pickled things, rice, bbq peanut sauce rice cake on skewer, miso soup, tempura vegetables, persimmon, something that had the texture of a sponge, green tea, and sake. The other two couples who dined next to us were significantly older. At one point during the meal, the owner of the ryokan came into the room, greeted all of us, and began facilitating conversation and (presumably) talking about the history of the ryokan. Everyone was very kind to us and curious about our story, but no one spoke more than a few words of English and, of course, our Japanese is useless. When we said we lived in Misawa, everyone knew that we were Air Force. Again, they were all convinced that Eric is a pilot and excitedly made lots of airplane noises. They also politely laughed and giggled about Eric's and my inability to sit on our knees or with our legs crossed for the duration of the meal. These 60-80 year olds sat in a single position for the entire meal while Eric and and I shifted approximately 30 times during the same time period. It was a really fun night- and one of the best meals we had on the trip!

After dinner there was not much to do but get some rest, which was fine with us because we really needed it. The room was warm and sleeping on the tatami mats was actually really comfortable. Eric and I fell asleep listening to the rain fall outside and hoping that it would clear up in time for our morning hike to Magome. 

When we woke in the morning, it was still raining outside. We got ready for breakfast and, again, the breakfast knock came promptly at 7:30am. We walked back down to the dining room and when we got to our table, were surprised to see another whole (small) fish sitting on plates in front of us...for breakfast...at 7:30am. After a brief feeling of panic, we collected ourselves and began sampling all the small dishes (another kaiseki style meal). We kept one eye on our fellow diners to see how they conquered the fish. We realized after some time that they had all eaten the whole fish: head, tail, and all. We looked at each other, took deep breaths, and went for it. We opted to leave the heads and tails, but we have to report that the fish was actually quite delicious! It tasted very much like beef jerky! Along with the fish, we had various cold veggie salads, miso soup, rice, sweet egg omelette, pickled radish, and tea. This spread was, of course, unusual for us, but it was surprisingly enjoyable and provided just the sustenance we needed for our morning hike. 

The sky had miraculously cleared sometime between breakfast and packing to leave the ryokan so we set out to finish our hike to Magome. The rest of the trail took us through one of the oldest cedar forests in Japan and past a number of beautiful waterfalls. The morning portion of the hike took us about two hours to complete and was unbelievably beautiful! Along the way we encountered lots of nature and signs of nature. There were bells all along the trail with signs posted on them that read, "Ring the bell hard Against Bears." We also learned that the information centers encourage hikers to rent hand-held bells to ring while they walk. We did not have personal bells so we took every opportunity to ring the collective ones loudly. I came across a place (in the middle of nowhere Japan) where I could recycle the empty water bottles and coffee cans we were dragging around. As I approached it I said, "hey, Eric, there is some kinda bee on this thing!" Eric responded (frantically) not to go near it because it was not in fact a bee, but a Japanese giant hornet, which is apparently the most lethal animal in Japan in terms of number of kills per year! I of course felt it necessary to recycle my recyclables anyway and survived my close call with mother nature. We had another close call later on as we crossed a little brook. We heard a noise to which Eric responded, "well, excuse you." I asked what the noise was, to which he responded, "just a little gurgley burbley." I told him I didn't think that quite explained it and a second later we heard lots of hissing and growling. We didn't stick around to inquire, we ran down the hill away from the brook.

Karate in the waterfalls. What can I say? We couldn't resist!

A few minutes later, we came upon a clearing with a few houses. As we walked past one of the buildings, a man ran out of it and said, "stop, please come in, please come in!" He explained to us that we had made it to the oldest functional tea house on the trade route. He said that travelers had been enjoying tea in this house for over 300 years. We told him that people had been drinking tea in that tea house longer than our country had been a country. That was a pretty wild fact to wrap our heads around! He invited us to sit and enjoy a cup of tea and some candy. He spoke English very well and told us about the history of the trail, the building, and asked all kinds of questions about where we were from. 

Here are some shots of the sites we saw along the way: 

It was foggy, but you can kind of see the snow caps peeking through here.

Right before walking into Magome, we hiked up out of the valley and onto an incredible vista point. It was extremely overcast and cloudy, but breathtakingly beautiful nonetheless. The town of Magome was a lot like Tsumago; full of houses and little shops where people sold their handicrafts. Common crafts from the area included wood work, textiles, and baskets. It had been a nice morning temperature wise, but by the time we got to Magome the sun had hidden behind the clouds and it felt like the temperature had dropped a number of degrees. We were really feeling the cold! Especially me in my capri pants... We popped into a soba noodle house for lunch and to warm up. I had hot soba noodles and Eric had a kaiseki style lunch. When we finished lunch, we went back out to explore more, but after only an hour or so were so cold we decided it was time for a cup of something hot and some dessert. Eric had matcha, I had cocoa, and we shared matcha cake. It was all delicious and we ate it as slowly as possible so that we could stay inside for as long as possible.  

After our warm drinks and dessert, we made our way to the bus stop to wait for our ride into the big town where we would catch the train for the next leg of our journey.

We both consider the two days we spent in Kiso Valley a highlight of the trip. We love hiking and being outdoors and we got to do both of those things in one of the most beautiful parts of the world either of us has ever seen. Kiso Valley seems a little off the beaten path for the standard tourist of Japan, but it is definitely worth consideration for any nature lover or lover of history. We feel very fortunate to have been able to see it with our own eyes!

Next stop: Takayama.