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!