Konnichiwa!
I am having a fun time in Japan.
Last night I slept well. It was my first time in a traditional Japanese room -a futon on a tatami mat. It was awesome. We’re currently staying in an original edo era house. It even has the washi paper sliding doors. I love it. Our host had prepped a green tea for breakfast which we enjoyed in our yukatas after a melon pan and persimmon breakfast.
Then we set off to explore Kiso valley. I put the location into google maps and it took us to the middle of nowhere – not very useful! We wandered around lost for a bit before ending up Okuwa library where a very friendly helpful librarian gave us some very useful maps. I ended up using them to help us navigate the route. I felt very proud of myself.
We saw the beautiful Hachiman Shrine and passed Okuwa secondary school where the students were very excited to see gaijin(foreigners) and called out hello in English! Then we followed the path around the ‘difficult pass’.
It did look difficult and potentially leech infested so we decided we better not. Okuwa was very pretty and one of the original post towns. We saw a house with a koi pond, some newts and even frogs!
Then we passed Ai-no-shuku town which had some beautiful views of the rice fields. Whilst we were sat having a snack a bus stopped to let some primary school aged children off. They were so cute but so surprised – I think it might have been the first time they’d come across gaijin. One really little girl looked quite wary of us and her older sister was trying to reassure her! After we walked by sayori stream and along Inagawa bridge headed back towards our rented home in Suhara-juku.
It is beautiful here but not so good for Michael as he’s so tall. Hе keeps hitting his head on the door frames repeatedly and it looks like it rather hurts.
For dinner we went to the local Japanese restaurant called Honjin. After a bit of tooing and froing and use of google translate we managed to order a vegetarian dish. It was a tempura rice bowl fried vegetables in batter) with a side salad, miso soup and pickled daikon. They also served us green tea. It was a gorgeous meal and the restaurant staff were lovely and helpful.
We also had a quick peek next door at the laundrette. Opening times are so much better here. Kombini’s (convenience stores) are open 24:7 and this laundrette was open until 11pm. They even have a shoe washing machine which I’m tempted to try. We need to wash some clothes but after 6 hours of walking I’m ready to chill out and relax.