..and now, my time is almost done...
holy cow! I'm leaving tomorrow, (well, today), at 7pm Tokyo time, and I arrive at 6:30pm Toronto time.
So yesterday's blather..
The trip to Hida Takayama was lots of fun. We didn't have reserved seating and so with standing room only by the time we got on, I ended up sitting where extra luggage would be stored. Right by where everyone smokes between the non-smoking cars!. Usually, I can withstand a bumpy ride, or excessived cigarette smoke - this time, I began to feel naseous with the combined effect. Finally, a seat opened up after 30-40 mins and I quickly ran over to it.
Arriving in Takayama, I pushed my way through the crowd for english information and then we began to walk to the ryokan. I was told that it would be about a 15 minute walk.. it took us 25 or so in the light rain with all our luggage. 0_0 This would be maybe the second or third time that it had rained during our stay and we were all hoping that it would clear up for the festival that evening. We had been pretty fortunate with our weather though - it's supposed to be way rainer during this season.
Since check-in wasn't until 3, we left our luggage at the ryokan and took a taxi to the festival area. The taxi driver was trying to tell us something, but since it was all in Japanese, all I could do was smile and nod. But he dropped us off at the area where they store some of the super tall floats for the parade in case of rain, which incedentally, was not where we asked to be dropped off, but I think he understood our intent and not our random pointing at the map.
We walked around the town a bit and returned to the hotel just before 4. Since the Japanse baths opened up around then, Tamara ran to soak while Benny and I killed the time to diner playing FFTA on our GBA's. We were staying at a traditional Ryokan, so it was a traditional tatami mat room with a table set out. we would take dinner in this room at the low table in the center. afterwards, it would be moved out of the way to make room for the futons for sleeping.
But dinner - I have so much food porn - I will upload them when I get back. It was quite tasty with many little dishes. Sadly, Tamara and Benny don't eat seafood so I got all their yummy sushi bits and stuff. I did, however, have to give up my Hida beef to them in exchange.
We took the hotel mini bus to the edge of the parade route and set up. (we finally found a camera stand!) The parade was really great with the floats and we took many pictures. They're all the handcrafted kind of floats with tons of decorations and people riding on them playing their flutes and drums. They're about 20
The parade took a couple hours, and we returned to the hotel to take our bath. It was a pretty good time.
I had a soak and breakfast the next day and then we were off. We left at 10am and we would arrive in Tokyo at 3pm via Shinkansen.
Of course, we were rushing home to get shopping.
AND OH mY did we shop.
bought the Final Fantasy Trading figure set 1, Kill Bill DVD box set, magazine, books, a ton of plushes that were cheap at this awesome anime hobby store we found at the end of the aki main strip. SO GOOD. I was sooooo sad that we didn't find it the week before, but we hadn't wandered that far.
We ate a Mos buger, which was pretty tasty. smaller than what you would consider a traditional burger, but bigger than Mc'd in height and substance.
So last night was packing, packing. This morning, we will hit up the dollar store and the toys r' us to get some last minute things. We leave the house at 2pm and our flight is at 7pm.
so... this is it from Tokyo!!
So yesterday's blather..
The trip to Hida Takayama was lots of fun. We didn't have reserved seating and so with standing room only by the time we got on, I ended up sitting where extra luggage would be stored. Right by where everyone smokes between the non-smoking cars!. Usually, I can withstand a bumpy ride, or excessived cigarette smoke - this time, I began to feel naseous with the combined effect. Finally, a seat opened up after 30-40 mins and I quickly ran over to it.
Arriving in Takayama, I pushed my way through the crowd for english information and then we began to walk to the ryokan. I was told that it would be about a 15 minute walk.. it took us 25 or so in the light rain with all our luggage. 0_0 This would be maybe the second or third time that it had rained during our stay and we were all hoping that it would clear up for the festival that evening. We had been pretty fortunate with our weather though - it's supposed to be way rainer during this season.
Since check-in wasn't until 3, we left our luggage at the ryokan and took a taxi to the festival area. The taxi driver was trying to tell us something, but since it was all in Japanese, all I could do was smile and nod. But he dropped us off at the area where they store some of the super tall floats for the parade in case of rain, which incedentally, was not where we asked to be dropped off, but I think he understood our intent and not our random pointing at the map.
We walked around the town a bit and returned to the hotel just before 4. Since the Japanse baths opened up around then, Tamara ran to soak while Benny and I killed the time to diner playing FFTA on our GBA's. We were staying at a traditional Ryokan, so it was a traditional tatami mat room with a table set out. we would take dinner in this room at the low table in the center. afterwards, it would be moved out of the way to make room for the futons for sleeping.
But dinner - I have so much food porn - I will upload them when I get back. It was quite tasty with many little dishes. Sadly, Tamara and Benny don't eat seafood so I got all their yummy sushi bits and stuff. I did, however, have to give up my Hida beef to them in exchange.
We took the hotel mini bus to the edge of the parade route and set up. (we finally found a camera stand!) The parade was really great with the floats and we took many pictures. They're all the handcrafted kind of floats with tons of decorations and people riding on them playing their flutes and drums. They're about 20
The parade took a couple hours, and we returned to the hotel to take our bath. It was a pretty good time.
I had a soak and breakfast the next day and then we were off. We left at 10am and we would arrive in Tokyo at 3pm via Shinkansen.
Of course, we were rushing home to get shopping.
AND OH mY did we shop.
bought the Final Fantasy Trading figure set 1, Kill Bill DVD box set, magazine, books, a ton of plushes that were cheap at this awesome anime hobby store we found at the end of the aki main strip. SO GOOD. I was sooooo sad that we didn't find it the week before, but we hadn't wandered that far.
We ate a Mos buger, which was pretty tasty. smaller than what you would consider a traditional burger, but bigger than Mc'd in height and substance.
So last night was packing, packing. This morning, we will hit up the dollar store and the toys r' us to get some last minute things. We leave the house at 2pm and our flight is at 7pm.
so... this is it from Tokyo!!