Takayama

We spent a couple of days in the traditional Japanese style town/village of Takayama which seems to have been untouched by the rest of the country's modernization effort. Though there are lots of upscale 'ryokan' style Japanese inns we opted not to stay in one for fear that Ingrid, who is feeling and acting every bit of her 2-years, would be a bit of a disruption to those seeking their Zen ambiance. All they need is Ingrid crashing through their rice paper screen door like Godzilla. So we stayed aat the Best Western which turned out to be a total gem at 100 bucks a night.

The town was very cute with street after street of quiet low lying wooden houses and perfectly manicured pine trees. The town is famous for its sake so most of the sake breweries have their doors open for free tours. The central part of town is quite touristy, but Lizzie, Ing and I spent most of our time diverting down the many sidestreets and alleys and playing lookyloo at the local houses, temples, and restaurants.