Backpacking

After completing the route, I headed off into town to the station to catch a bus for Takayama's main attraction: the Hida Folk Village. It was a 17th/18th century village that has been constructed by uprooting various historic buildings in the area and transplanting them to the site. The visual impact was lessened somewhat with several feet of snow over everything (and the "stream of longevity" was frozen over), but nevertheless the building were impressive. Fires had been lit inside the buildings are were smouldering away, giving them a smoky smell, adding to the authenticity. I spent a couple of hours wandering around. Luckily there was no sign of Tom Cruise.

After another confusing Japanese pub experience, in which the insisted on speaking Japanese to me throughout despite my pigeon-Japanese protestations that I didn't understand (nod and smile, nod and smile), I went to Tonerian, an English-style pub, in an effort to find someone I could converse in English with. The music was, pleasantly, 20s/30s bebop jazz, the walls were adorned with James Dean, Audrey Hepburn and curiously, a sign for the Sunningdale Golf Club. Utlimately I guess I was the most authentic exhibit in the place (they should have paid me for being in there!). An attempt to compliment the teddy boy bequiffed Japanese owner unfortunately yielded very little

English - strange that his interest in Anglo-American culture did not stretch to the language.

Day 6: 5th February Lonely Planet works in mysterious ways

Kanazawa, Japan

Last night when I got back to the hostel I found my room locked. Confused, I wandered back to the front and rang the bell to summon Mr Miyagi. He told me he'd moved me to the next room, which was bigger and could accommodate another person. When I got to the room I found an Aussie geezer bemusedly watching Japanese TV. He was from Melbourne, and had been travelling 9 weeks around Malaysia and Japan in a break in uni, at which he was studying Physics and Philosophy. I didn't have the time (or inclination) to discuss all the Physics I could no longer remember, as the hostel policy was lights out at 10pm sharp. Hai!

I left Takayama early the next morning, heading North to Yamagata. I was not disappointed to be leaving - even though I had enjoyed the folk village and park, the majority of the town was not especially attractive save for the old town centre, which had some old town-