Osaka to Takayama

I said to Lynette on the way down the elevator I was reminded of the Friends episode where Chandler was moving in and as Monica said goodbye to Rachel who was moving out, she burst into tears and exclaimed "I have to live with a boy!". And so it is that I have had my last meal with Lynette and abandoned her in Osaka, we say goodbye to our fabulous Japanese adventure together as Craig, Kate and I move on to Takayama today. Sorry it is such a rainy day in Osaka to end what has been a dream run in the weather department.

We navigated a train, Shinkansen and accidentally snagged an express train to Takayama arriving just after 1pm. I don't think I realised how much regular feeding my 17 year old actually requires given she can usually forage for herself! So after stowing the luggage in a locker, we set off for a nearby restaurant which was excellent. We backed up last night's dinner with another yakisoba and it was delicious and inexpensive. It was light drizzly rain which kinda hampered what we could do for the afternoon, but I did find Takayama Jinya which was a large Edo period government administration complex we could look through, satisfying the "it's not in the rain" criteria perfectly.

With a bit of foraging in a supermarket where we also bought some sushi for dinner, we ended up back at the train station to catch the shuttle bus back to the hotel. This hotel is out of town, so no casual night time stroll into town for us. I selected it because of the onsen, but it is also a weird blend of why we think resorts catering to Japanese tourists sprung up in the 1980s in north Queensland. I have taken the opportunity to do washing for the first time in two weeks, and since I only brought two sets of clothes, I changed into Kate's clothes so I could wash everything. My nervous first time onsening family set off to the onsen, and I joined Katie not long after. She was boiling to death so didn't stay in long. This place has an infinity pool on the 5th and 7th floor, and takes turns alternating men and women. Craig was on the 7th today, we were on the 5th. Something about Craig in a yukata (or more so the slippers) made me sing Queen's "I want to break free" 🙂

Back at the room, the housekeeping staff were setting up our futons for the night, and we had our sushi and cheesecakes for dinner. Craig and I then went for a wander around the hotel to find the hotel shop was amazing! We used the sake tasting machine for six shots of different local sakes and a souvenir cedar sake cup which just so happened to be on Craig's list of souvenirs he wanted. We then hung out in the bar for a while before calling it a night.Read more