When we were deciding where to stay it was a toss up between Takayama and Hida. I’m so pleased we had one night in Hida. It’s a small town but so beautiful and so well preserved. But a real town.

Takayama is bigger and more crowded. I like it but it doesn’t have the charm of Hida, or the atmosphere of Miyajima or even the variety of sightseeing Kyoto has to offer.

We got here yesterday and walked a little till it was getting dark and quite cold. The weather so far has been great. Really warm up until Hida when being high in the mountains produces cooler weather. It was welcome. I was getting a bit over wearing the same few dresses! I pack light and it was getting a bit boring.

Today we set off at 8.30 for the morning markets. They are located on the river. White tents mostly with food items. Similar scenes are found all over the world. Only in Japan it felt very calm.

The only decent coffee was found by smelling coffee beans and spying a line of people!

No wonder there was a line. There were two people in the tent. The man was taking orders – slowly one at a time and then assembling little coffee cups made out of an edible cone with room for an espresso and the young woman was doing everything else!

She was making the coffee then carrying it to the serving table and decorating each coffee individually!

The coffee was nice and we had a seat in the warm sun and a croissant ! And a banana so a balanced breakfast! Not very Japanese. No fish or pickles.

We walking further into the old town to where their festival floats are stored and explored the streets which have no power lines!

Late morning we headed back to the bus station. We were going to Shirakawa. We had bought an unreserved seat and the lady reassured us that we’d get a seat on a bus at that time. She told us they just kept adding buses. She was right. We got on bus 4 of the ones leaving at 11.50.

Declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1995, Shirakawa is famous for their traditional gassho-zukuri farmhouses, some of which are more than 250 years old.

We walked through the small town and tried to imagine it in winter! The snow would keep people in their houses and make life difficult. One house we were able to visit was Kanda. It was spread over 5 levels and would have held not just one family but relatives as well. It’s so well preserved.

The views over the village showed how it was laid out. People still live there but it must be hard with tourists crawling all over it.

We bought some lunch and like the lady at the coffee stall this morning one man was running a little shop selling Hida beef croquettes and chicken bites. For each order he left the window where he took the order and went and cooked the items. It’s slow and very unhurried and you develop patience.

It started to sprinkle so we headed back to the bus station and caught a bus back to Takayama.

Stopping off at the hotel bar we were going to have coffee or tea but Elizabeth led us astray and we had an espresso martini.

After a change and a bit of packing we headed out for our last dinner together. We all leave on a train tomorrow but the Wilson’s and ourselves get off in Kanazawa and the McGregors go on to Tokyo. They have one night there then fly home.

For today’s dinner we celebrated our great holiday together and an early birthday celebration for Steve’s birthday next Thursday.

Thank you to our friends for making this a great holiday.