Takayama

About a week ago I took another day trip to Takayama which is located in the mountains of Gifu prefecture. This time I went with my friend, Etsuko, whom I met through a friend from work. Gifu is next to my prefecture (like a province or state) Aichi. It should have taken us 2.5 - 3 hours on the bus, however we encountered traffic and it took about 4 hours. Once we arrived we had ramen for lunch, which apparently Takayama is known for. After that we wondered the streets on what was a beautiful fall day. We walked through some shrines and were able to see all the beautiful colours of the fall leaves. We actually didn't do much there expect explore the shrines and local shops, but it was a really nice trip. At one shrine we went to I was able to get my fourtune because this time I had someone to translate for me. I was quite pleased with what's apprently in store for me. After reading your fourtune you are supposed to tie it to a string which is usually tied between two posts or in our case, two trees.

Unfortunately there isn't much else to tell, but it was a really beautiful little place to see. Really neat shops and we went at the right time because the leaves were so beautiful. Hopefully you can see in the picture with the big tree, there are about 3 different colours on that tree alone.

The ride back was nice and it went by fairly quickly because there was no traffic which was surprising being that it was a Sunday evening.