nihon turipu apr 16: the oldies went to the old town

on a miraculous monday morning, emman woke up at around 7 am! i was very excited for this day. i was headed to a high mountain where an old town is nestled. i was headed to takayama all by myself.

the trip took more than 4 hours. i had to make a brief stop at nagoya. i asked from a tourist information staff what i could do for about 30 minutes in nagoya. she laughed and just pointed me towards a new building. since i didn't have enough time to tour the city, she suggested i just look at the newest building in town! fine!

i just photographed this structure in the middle of the road instead. at least i could say i was in nagoya! :p

i made it to takayama at past 2. i think. hehehe. i forgot already! :p that's what i get for postponing this entry too long. that's what you get for not pestering me enough to continue my japan trip account! :p

after a quick meal of bland ramen, i set off to hida folk village which is an open museum of old houses of japan of yore. dazzling!


actually, the houses, including the smell indoors, reminded me of the houses we had in my province, bantayan island. it reminded me of the warm scent of burnt wood. there were just plenty of woods everywhere! hehehe.

it was during that time that i unleashed my full potential as a supermodel. you know how supermodels are. they should be capable and willing to do any poses, to take on any character, whether they like it or not. in this picture, i was forced by some unexplainable outer entity to pose like a man. i found out about this when i saw the picture. it's quite a shot really! i'm so supermodel like! go me! never mind the manly profile. it's just make up and camera trick. behind that is the face of an angelic girlalou! :p supermodel talaga! :p

i had plenty shots of myself. good thing the oldies i toured with were nonchalant to my running around whenever i setup my camera on a tripod, set the timer, and posed like nobody's watching. or were they? they could be passing by eyeing me with peripheral vision! hehehe.

yeah, the old town was, i guess, more frequented by the oldies. that's what i saw. not a single kiddo was there. i was the only youngster there. that's why i felt so seventeen! :p

after spending 2 hours or so at the hida folk village, i went back to the town proper. i had only 1 hour left to tour the old town. gosh! you could run in the streets of takayama without getting run by a car! what car??? there were only a few cars!

the streets were people-less except for tourists and some shop vendors! at 6 pm, the shops started to close! waaahhh! there was no night life there! hehehe. but it was a very serene town. i just wondered how the businesses there thrive.

actually, that saturday, apr 14, they had their annual spring festival where they had floats of some kinds. the hotels were full according to my source: the internet. i was supposed to go there on saturday but my boyfriend, ahem (inangkin na hehehe), left me confused with my schedule. read my previous posts for it! :p

the following picture shows the old houses of the edo period (samurai samurai ek ek yata to) that still stand up to this day. they didn't look really old to me but they certainly were.

the sakuras were beautiful there too.

the trip back to osaka took another 4 hours plus. i was onboard the trains for 8 hours. i only toured takayama for about 4 hours. ah, i should have stayed overnight but i was having moolah concerns already at that time! :(

hay, i want to go there again! :( the place was very serene. so me: serene diva! :p if you should go to japan, this is a must-go-to place. the old town and hida folk village are not for the oldies alone. it's for youngsters as well. take it from the seventeen year old (feeling) supermodel who had most of the best shots of her trip taken there! :p

takayama can surely provide you with a drama setting! :p