Another busy day, this time assisted by a 500 yen jump-on-jump-off bus pass. Pretty good value compared to the open top buses of Europe.

First stop was the Higashi Chaya district, an old Geisha House area. We toured Shima Geisha House and checked out a gold leaf factory. Kanazawa produces 99% of Japan’s gold leaf. Carol and I got to eat some gold leaf (the kids declined) and had gold leaf tea.

Next stop was Kanazawa Castle, rebuilt in the 20^th century from 18^th century plans. These wooden Japanese buildings don’t cope well with fire or lightning strikes.

Across the road from the castle was Kenroku-en Garden, one of the top 3 gardens in Japan. Wow. The wander through the garden was so peaceful, and so many photo opportunities. I had an apprentice photographer today. Lach had my phone camera and took some great shots. Actually, he took the majority of today’s photos.

Continuing on, we visited the Naga-machi Buke Yashiki district, an old Samurai district. We toured Nomura-ke, a samurai house. The house was similar to others we have seen, but the garden was unbelievable. So many features packed into a tiny area.

Last stop for the day was the Omi-cho market area, where we bought some fresh fruit (we haven’t seen much fresh fruit) and looked around at the fish, seafood and seaweed markets stalls.

Today was day one of the Takayama Spring Festival. This festival involves huge float that get pulled through the streets, puppet shows and thousands of people. Yesterday Takayama was a quiet country town, today people everywhere. We started our day at the same ‘cappuccinery’ (a great word we thought. The man at the tourist info centre told us there was a cappuccinery beside the station when we asked where we could get a coffee yesterday)

After breakfast we headed away from the crowds toward the Autumn side of town (there’s an Autumn Festival as well, on the other side of town) to some huge temples and a rice cracker factory where the kids got to make their own hand made rice crackers.

We found a French patisserie for a doughnut morning tea and had a coffee in a coffee shop full of Aussies.

We then headed for the festival area to see the floats. Wow. They were huge – maybe 8 – 10m high. The parade was occurring after we left town, so we didn’t get to see it, but seeing the floats was pretty amazing.

Catching the train out of Takayama was the closest thing we’ve seen to chaos in Japan. The station probably handles a few hundred people a day, except festivals days when there are thousands of extra people in town. The station just couldn’t cope. Our train was actually 2 or 3 minutes late leaving the station. Disgusting service!

 The train trip to Kanazawa was another picturesque journey, this time down the mountains to the west coast. The snow covered alps are quite close to the cosat here, so the view from the train was great. Our hotel is right beside the station, making it very easy to get around. Indian for dinner!

After wandering up to the morning markets in an attempt to find something for breakfast, we managed to find a great little coffee just a few minutes’ walk from the hotel. Coffee or hot chocolate and 2 Danishes for about 500 yen ($5). Yum.

We were then off to Shirakawa-go, a small 16^th century village, high in the Japanese Alps, which has been retained as original. It’s a real village, not a recreation, so some of the potential photos are interrupted with modern cars driving past. Some original houses are open as museums, so you can see how they were set up 500 years ago. The houses are steep roofed A-frame buildings, 4 floors and housed up to 30 people.

Back in Takayama we further explored the San-machi area and Takayama jinya – the 17th century government building – and found a geocache on the site of the old castle.

Dinner was another great find. We went searching for the Holy Grail. Turns out it’s an Italian restaurant just around the corner from the hotel. Great food – although you wouldn’t find it without the help of the trusty ‘Lonely Planet’.

A short night walk through the san-machi for some photos completed a great day.

Up early to pack and head off to the Shinkansen. We learnt an important lesson yesterday getting to Disneyland. We learnt that attempting the Metro during peak hour with suitcases would not be wise. We decided to catch a cab to Shinagawa station.

Shortly after the train left Tokyo my GPS recorded a speed of 264km/h. It felt like we were hardly moving it was so smooth. We had a great view of Mt. Fuji from the train – a much better view than from our expensive Mt Fuji day trip.

After changing trains at Nagoya we headed into the mountains. Spectacular scenery (but difficult to photograph through the window of the train.)

In Takayama it was freezing. And sort of snowing. After a short walk to the old part of town, San-machi, we went to a Japanese restaurant for dinner, our first Japanese meal. The reason is simple. Japan has as much diversity in food as we do in Australia. Seems they like eating a variety of food (at least in the tourist areas).

Sitting writing this we are making comparisons between the size of hotel rooms. We think our entire Takayama room would fit into the bathroom of the Shanghai hotel room.

This day had been much anticipated by Lauren. From breakfast she broadcast to her friends back home that today was the day. The trip to Disneyland required 3 trains during peak hour, but again Lachlan had the navigation under control, making sure we were at the right place at the right time and arriving before the gates opened. Once inside we quickly hit some of the rides that we knew would become busy later. Throughout the day we worked our way through all the lands and did every ride we wanted to do, and saw the daytime and night-time parades, and the fireworks. We left as the park was closing at 10pm. Big day.

Highlights: Lauren says ‘all of it’. For Lachlan wearing shorts was not a highlight. The weather was cold, probably about 13 degrees.

Back at the hotel we should have been packing to leave the next morning, but sleep was more important.

After a busy day yesterday, today was our opportunity to relax a little and be shown around. We headed south to Mt Fuji. The drive down was really pretty. I was expecting the blossoms to be in parks and gardens, but it seems they grow wild the countryside. As we neared Mt Fuji it was touch and go whether we would see much of it. We could see the lower slopes, but most of the upper slopes were in cloud. We ascended Mt Fuji to Station 4. Station 5, where we were meant to be going was closed due to snow. It’s still winter on the mountain. We got glimpses of the upper slopes, but you can’t see much from here.

After descending we headed for Hakone, a town surrounded by small volcanoes with a large lake in the caldera. From here we caught a Pirate Ship across the lake, with Mt Fuji becoming less obstructed. The final stage of the tour was a Gondola ride to a hot springs and sulphur processing area, where Mt Fuji in the distance was finally making an appearance.

I managed to book our Shinkasen (Bullet train) tickets on the way back to Tokyo, saving a trip later in the evening.

Arriving back at the hotel around 9pm, we took to opportunity to get some sleep.

Today was our day to explore Tokyo. The Tokyo metro (subway) was our transport of choice with Lachlan, armed with the metro map, our chief navigator. The subway is so easy to use. Even though there are dozens of lines, each line and station is clearly marked in English, colour coded and each station is numbered. Buying tickets is all by vending machine and all so easy and cheap – Y160 or Y190 ($1.70 -$2) depending on how far you are travelling.

First stop was the Tsukiji fish market – the largest fish market in the world. We weren’t energetic enough to get up for the 5am fish auctions where they sell the big tuna, but the wholesale and retail fish market was amazing. We arrived before 9am, and had to wait till 9 when the market opens to the public. It was a hive of activity with electric carts zooming everywhere. The place was huge. We only managed to go up and down a few rows, covering 5 percent of the area at the most.

We then headed for Asakusa, the old town of Tokyo. Here there are traditional buildings, temples and shrines, as well is lovely little parks and gardens. The big temple here is Senso-ji, a Buddhist temple. Although very touristy I didn’t hear a single “Hello, Hello, Rolex, Hello”.

Our next step turned out to be a bit of a mistake. We decided to walk to Akihabara – the electronics and manga centre of Tokyo. It was a great area when we eventually got there, full of colour and life,  but was so much further to walk than the map made it look. Lesson learned: take the subway!

We then headed to the Imperial Palace gardens, which was a fascinating mix of traditional garden and old Imperial Palace fortifications.

Exhaused, he headed back to the room for a break. The kids caught up with friends on the hotels free wifi, while Carol and I relaxed for a while. (Actually, Carol washed some clothes and I typed this!)

After dark we walked down to Tokyo Tower and had a light dinner in the Observation deck resturant. We were going to catch the metro back to the hotel, but forgot to take a mapand therefore couldn’t find the station, so we walked. Big day.