Fresh Dave’s helpers came in bright and early to quickly and efficiently magic away the bed and create tables and chairs using traditional origami techniques.

As they left, Fresh Dave announced her arrival with breakfast.

Whereas original Dave was demure and softly spoken, Fresh Dave seems rather aggressive and shouty. I get quite nervous every time she speaks so I’m always on guard in case she draws her Katana. Think Kato from the Pink Panther films.

Not a clue what breakfast was, spotted something middle left that may have once been part of a trout. We could have all played ‘identify the food’ with a daily prize (win my actual breakfast!) – but unfortunately I thought of it too late😫.

I have a terrible admission to make. I just couldn’t face the breakfast, so rather than incur the wrath of Fresh Dave and appear an ungrateful westerner, I put most of it into a plastic bag and shoved it in Brigitte’s hold-all for later disposal. (Let’s hope we remember or it’s going to get smelly). Shame on me, I know, but it was one fishy breakfast too far.

In the old days the phrase “My people will speak to your people” was often used. Now it seems to be “My app will speak to your app”.

I have my translation app that I speak English into and the app repeats it back, only in Japanese. Then I press a button and the Japanese person speaks Japanese into my app and it repeats it to me in English. Occasionally its translations are even understandable.

However, many Japanese, especially in restaurants, have their own little translation devices so I speak into mine and they speak into theirs.

Sometimes we just put our devices on the bar together, side by side, and let them get on with the conversation while we get on with our lives.

We were met in the lobby by Hisa, our guide for the day.

I couldn’t imagine how we could spend eight hours walking around Takayama. Especially as it was over 30 degrees. There didn’t seem to be that much to see, but I was wrong.

There’s a morning market by the river every day so we started there.

This lady just bought a coffee in a handmade biscuit cup! It’s like reverse dunking only it doesn’t dissolve. What a great idea, drink your coffee from the biscuit cup and nibble as you drink, tasty and no washing up. I’ve seen the future!

It’s incredible how culturally diverse we are. We walked the market for 15 minutes but the only food I could recognise with any certainty was the bananas!

We visited Kusakabe Heritage House, which is a house dating back some three hundred years and is now a museum. Built by traditional craftsman, this also couldn’t be more different to European housing.

The ’comfy’ living areas always have tatami mats on the floors and this is where shoes are not allowed. Working areas such as kitchens have bare floors.

Interesting fact- Tatami mats are a standard size. 1.8m x 90cm. Nearly all houses, for hundreds of years, have been designed so that their rooms are a multiple of these dimensions so the mats can always be fitted without cutting them. Even today when you see houses for sale, the room dimensions are quoted in the number of tatami mats that can fit in.

There is virtually no insulation having single wood panel walls and they often don’t fit tightly together so light shines through the gaps. When you consider they regularly have over 2 meters of snow here you realise that they were either freezing cold, or much tougher than we are.

The house was owned by a very wealthy banking family and when the son was dating his future wife who lived in a village over 60 miles away, she used to visit in her carriage…

Carried by two strong men with that large timber beam on their shoulders!

We then visited the Floats Exhibition Museum. Takayama is also famous for its twice-yearly festival where each area wheels out it’s highly ornate shrine to parade through the streets. It’s spectacular by all accounts and 200,000 tourists arrive to witness it! This museum houses some of the shrines for those who can’t get to the festival to see them. They really are incredible huge works of art…

Over 300 years old, they are up to 5 meters tall, highly decorated and each tells a story of local folklore. The government now pays for their preservation and they are very valuable. One was recently partly restored at a cost of $2.8m.

This was followed by more shopping….

Lunch (and breakfast) was delicious, Udon and Soba noodles with tempura.

Followed by another sake brewery tour at the Harada sake brewery. Yey! Did I mention we like sake?

As we came out, I started to run towards this shop before realising it wasn’t going anywhere….(look closely).

And then we went to visit the Hida Folk Village. It is a collection of around 30 houses, from the Edo period (1603-1868) restored and moved together in beautiful countryside to illustrate Japanese life from long ago.

Whilst exploring, we came across a perfectly preserved example of a late Edo period disco ball.

As we only have today and tomorrow left 😩 and we need to unwind the time difference a bit, we’re going for what they call here an early Hida beef supper. (Or maybe it’s just me that calls it that).

I may have mentioned this, but Wagyu is the collective name for Japan’s main cattle breeds and is synonymous with high-quality. It has different grades with A5 being the best and the quality is strictly controlled. Different areas have their own slightly different versions. The Kobe wagyu is the most famous because they marketed it well outside Japan. Hida is also very well-known and equally as good so, as we’re in Hida, that’s what we’re having tonight.

Fast forward two hours….

Dinner was delicious. I’ve said it before, but it’s difficult to express just how nice the beef is.

You cook it at the table yourself. (Yet the price is the same. I never figured that out). There seems to be so much fat that you’d think it would completely disintegrate..…

Et voila Delicioso!

Long journey back to Tokyo tomorrow where we have tickets for the Sumo wrestling!

Hakkiyoi!!

20:40 – 18th May – Ryokan Tanabe – Takayana

A leisurely breakfast this morning, once we’d packed the overflow luggage made necessary by unexpected shopping in the Osaka region.

We then had a five-hour journey to our next destination, Takayama. One tube train, one bullet train to Nagoya, one normal train to Takayama and a taxi. We are staying at another tradition Ryoken for the next two days, where we have another opportunity to work on our crawling, eating and sleeping on the floor skills. Brigitte is really looking forward to it – not!

I have some work-trousers with integral kneepads at home. I wish I’d brought them.

We arrived mid afternoon and, well, you know the score by now. Bags dumped and off we go.

Takayama nestles in the Japanese alps and is 600 meters above sea level. It’s known for traditional crafts and sake. We like sake.

It’s a strange place. Firstly, we expected it to be cooler than everywhere else as it’s in the alps but it was 30 degrees. Not too bad for a leisurely walk as long as you keep to the shady side of the street, but unexpected.

Secondly we expected a picturesque alpine type village like the ones you find in the Swiss alps but, whoever came up with the term alpine first, neglected to standardise an architecture plan with the other (s).

I know ‘alpine’ just signifies a mountainous area but you get a picture in your head don’t you? We still have a lot to see (full-day tour tomorrow) but it’s not a beautiful town, although there are a few streets in the historic district that retain the original buildings from the Edo period and these are beautiful. This part is exactly how I imagined old Japan to be.

This is a very famous building in Japan…

It’s the headquarters of Japan’s main satellite tv broadcasting company !

After yet more shopping we went back to the Ryoken to rough up our knees.

It’s quite a similar deal to the last Ryoken we stayed at in Hakone except it has a public onsen (spa Bath) rather than a private one so I may give the male-only skinny dipping a miss.

I know some of you said you were missing Dave but fret not, we have ‘Fresh Dave’. She’s just as lovely and equally proficient at bowing.

Unfortunately it seems that we are back to unrecognisable food again.

Yes, the food is beautiful and beautifully served by Fresh Dave but we do struggle with some of it. I recognised the wagyu beef, the giant snail (why?) and the raw prawn’s head (why oh why?) but, after that, it got a little difficult. Raw fish, but not sure what, the usual miso soup which is delicious, two small balls in a bowl (animal or vegetable?) Also, they don’t tell you what order to eat the food in so we thought the hot sweet egg custard must be dessert but, when we started eating it, we discovered the seaweed and vegetables lurking below the surface.

If I didn’t know it was a reputable hotel I’d think they were just having a laugh. I can imagine the conversation:

Fresh Dave: “Boss, what can I give the westerners to eat tonight?”

Boss: Ooh, there were a few giant snails eating my vegetables in the greenhouse earlier, you could get rid of those for me , and I think there’s some raw prawn heads in the bin “

Fresh Dave: How shall I cook them boss?

Boss: Oh don’t bother, just shove ‘em on their plates, they’re westerners, they’ll think it’s sashimi. And make up a fancy name for the menu, they’ll like that. It’ll give ‘em something to blog about!

Fresh Dave : Great idea boss!

There’s no western breakfast option either😫 lets see we what turns up.

It turns out that Fresh Dave is more senior than original Dave was. Fresh Dave, although she serves the food, does not make the beds. She has two helpers who come to do that. They don’t wear Kimonos either, it’s far more industrial and not as charming. Fresh Dave just comes in at the end and takes all the credit like all good bosses. She doesn’t bow as frantically either. We miss original Dave😩.

Also, check out the duvets. Much better idea than ours in Europe. It’s the duvet that has the pattern and the cover is plain pwith a huge hole that makes it really easy to put on and take off for easy washing. OMG I’m discussing the merits of different sheets! when did I get that boring! – Careful!!

After ‘dinner’ we went out to what Google said was the best bar in town. It was closed, so we shall never know.

As we walked down a tiny street we heard strange music coming from behind a closed metal door with only Japanese writing on the wall next to it.

I had to see what was behind it, so I pulled it open and inside was a little bar with two Japanese men sat at it, one singing Karoke in Japanese!

Once he’d stopped singing he insisted on us drinking sake, only like tequila – with salt. Then he started singing again…

He was really good!

Then we started singing, then another song, then he introduced us to ‘sochu’, which is distilled sake quite shtrong shake, then it all got a bit blurry. And more shongs were shung.

Anyhow, I’m sure you’ll all want to see the video of us singing but, what happens in Japan, stays in Japan – we took an oath with our new friends..

Nite nite!

22:27 – 17th May 2023 – Ryokan Tanabe -Takayama