Take a Stroll around Takayama

We left Osaka with minutes to spare before checkout time. We headed to our local train station, and then took the local train to the shin Osaka station, which is a huge station on the outskirts of Osaka.

While we were there, we headed into the local 7-Eleven, stocked up on snacks and bento boxes, and then prepared for a long travel day to Takayama.

We took the bullet train to Nagoya from Shin Osaka, and at one point we clocked the train at going 160 mph. It's crazy how smooth and fast the train is, while being so very quiet.

Not only that, but we found out that you can turn the seats around to make them family style if you like.

I'm used to the BART train where I can barely hear myself think and we only go about 60 mph.

After the bullet train, we boarded a regular old slow train to head up the mountain and into the Alps of Japan.

It took about 2 and 1/2 bumpy hours to get all the way from Nagoya to takayama, but we arrived right around 4:00 p.m., just in time for check-in.

After we checked in and dropped off our stuff, we headed out to the local Old Town area, which was just down the street from our hotel.

We took a look at the old buildings, we walked into little shops selling various knick-knacks, sundries, dishes, antiques, and many many more things.

We scoped out a bridge that we had heard would be beautiful when it lit up in the evening, and so we found a place to eat dinner nearby.

It was a Korean style barbecue restaurant, with a stove in the middle of the table, and a replaceable grate. And because we were in Hida, Japan, we had the option of Kobe beef and Hida beef, both of which are considered some of the best in the world.

It was a little pricey to feed the family on wagyu beef, vegetables, and rice, but it was definitely worth it for the experience of having such incredible meat.

We walked around the neighborhoods, played tag in a local community center parking lot, and then posted up near one of the bridges waiting for the lights to turn on at 7:30 p.m..

Despite Google's constant and unwavering assurances that the bridge is beautiful and worth every moment waiting for the lights to turn on, when they turned on, we barely noticed and what had already been a pretty scene with a beautiful bridge over a nice River just became a slightly brighter beautiful scene with a beautiful bridge over a nice River. 2 out of 10 Stars, would not wait for lights in mosquito town again.

We headed back to the hotel, which was our favorite of the entire trip. They had bunk beds over queen beds, and everybody had their own separate place to sleep.

We watched some brain rot YouTube videos before bed, and then fell asleep after a long day of walking and travel.