As
you would expect, the names of the places that we are visiting just
become a confusing blur. This morning, we left Takayama, spent the
day at Gokayama and are now at Kanazawa. While in Gokayama, we
visited Washi no Sato, Iwase-ke, Ainokura Gassho-zukuri Village and a
very Japanese restaurant somewhere in the region for lunch, all with
the melting snow of the Japanese Alps in the distance.
Our
first experience of the day at Washi no Sato was the ancient art of
paper making which was once a prominent industry in the area. We all
had the opportunity of making several sheets of paper described as
postcards but they would be unlikely to survive the rigours of the
postal system.
The road system between Takayama and Gokayama is incredible. The country is all high peaks and deep valleys but the road network is a system of tunnels and bridges which go straight through or over the lot. The longest tunnel we went through today is 11 klms long.
After
lunch, we went to a 300 year old very grand house where we were
treated to a description of the history of the house (translated of
course) and a musical recital by the very elderly owners of the
house. At one time in its history, 36 family members lived in the
house. The owners still live there.
Apparently
there are bears in the area but the only one we saw was a mat on the
floor of the house.
From
there we went to a village not unlike the display village of
relocated houses visited at Hida Folk Village but this time, the
houses are occupied and the residents go about their daily lives
while bus loads of tourists wander through and watch them tilling
their rice paddies. The houses are up to 400 years old.
As
we approached Kanazawa, having left the mountains behind, we passed
numerous rice paddies on the flat country Rice appears to be a
subsistence industry in the rural areas but what we passed this
afternoon was very much a commercial operation.
We are now comfortably settled at the high rise Hotel Nikko Kanazawa for the night. Trish and I found a very nice Chinese restaurant where we had beef and fried rice. The secret of successful eating where little English is spoken is to inspect the dishes on display outside the restaurants and find one which looks appealing. Some, but not all restaurants have English menus.
After
spending the morning sightseeing Kanawaza tomorrow we get on the
Thunderbird #30 train for Osaka.
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