Takayama! Snow, mountains, old houses, pancakes and brews!

Old stuff in Takayama. 

The Japanese love their plastic restaurant displays. They come in handy when ordering. This one if by far the best I have ever seen.

Thatched roof houses.

This roof (made of straw) can hold up to 2m of snow... intense. They make big bonfires though.

 Takayama Old district, no bombing here!

More Takayama old district.

Gorgeous. Photos don't do it.

Badgers save the day!! Theres a legend about a wild forest fire that suddenly stopped, and no one knew why. But when they went to investigate they found the body of a badger, so claimed it was something holy. So now they shoot them and stuff them. How quaint. Note the sake bottle.

A museum in Takayama.

We opted for the bus to Takayama, saving several thousand Yen and thinking of how much fun it would be. Fun as in that sort of white knuckle-I-dont-want-to-die sort of way. Its fun when its intentional like a roller coaster, not so much on icy bridges in a bus.

Either way, we got there and it was fantastic. The first night I went for a long run, following a path parallel to the highway through several small towns ad over a mountain and back. It was gorgeous combined with the snow storm, though not exactly prime running weather.

Our place of residence was the quaint temple turned hostel that proves once and for all that paper has no insulating properties. Turns out we were onto something when we invented insulation (1 point North America, 50 points Japan).

We tackled some temples and museums as well as the untouched old district, one of the only remaining after the war, earthquakes, tsunamis and on. Though we missed the Sake brewery tours opening in a week, we did score some gorgeous wood work we're telling ourselves is hand crafted in a village known for its lacquer rather than made in China.

What sort of attractions do you put into a town that has an old district? Thats right, an older district. But this one you have to pay for. This is the above photos of houses that bring new meaning to the word thatched. The roofs were over a meter thick with straw and utterly gorgeous as the insides were decked out in traditional Japanese dark wood (nontechnical name). 

We also had our first shot at Japanese street meat, also known as those ball things and okonomiyaki, basically lunch pancakes. Comined with some asahi, both were delish. I highly recommend. 

Finally, we were off to Kyoto, but how? The bus was sold out, so we were left but with one option (drumroll please) Bullet train!!!

Oh and we found an imported Smokey the bear photo-op. One of those things where you stick your face in place of smokies. It was featured at the Teddy bear eco village. 

Sometimes its best no to ask.