The "naive" Shermayne in Tokyo!: Golden Week Day1

(click in and keep reading, it's a long post)

５月１日　土曜日　晴れ

Everywhere is crowded in Japan during the Golden Week (Everyone is having holiday at the same time!)
The bus trip was supposed to be three hours but it took me about four hours to reach Takayama from Nayoga because of the bad traffic jam. I had fun looking at the sceneries though.

It's definitely different from Tokyo and it's so refreshing!

So beautiful right?!

I was so excited when I saw snow mountains! The weather was quite warm though!

I planned to meet up with Kat, Yi-Ching, Qian (they departed from Tokyo) in Takayama station but I still arrived about 45 minutes earlier than them. So I went this cute little cafe and had my lunch while waiting for them ^^

My hot dog + cocoa~

Finally, they arrived! o(>v<)o

We were all in such a high mood and couldn't wait to start our trip.

As we didn't do much planning before arrival, we got some free brochures and programme books for Takayama from the station. It such a touristy place and they have so much information in English. That's really handy =D

Also, we were lucky enough to find this budget hostel where we only need to walk for 3-min from the station! There were quite a few foreigners too! Surprisingly the place was really clean and comfortable. The price was relatively cheap too. Oh, and they have really nice shower, so much better than my dorm. ^^

Our Japanese style room ^^ reminds me of Doraemon ♥

http://www.j-hoppers.com/ (The staff can speak good english, and the guy plays VERY nice music by guitar) They have branches in Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima too!

Anyway, Time to Explore!!!

We had so fun walking in Takayama because it's such an old town. We felt like we were living in history!

The hospital which looks like a traditional Japanese house.

Ooo! Apparently Takayama is well-known of its Hida beef.

Although I don't eat beef, I was excited for my buddies! =D

Found different effects on my camera and I was using them for the first time lol.

Black & White.

Ok... I need to apologise for the enormous number of Sepia-colour pictures below.

I was having fun with the effects XD

I ♥ my Panasonic Lumix camera by the way.

Very big and scary birds...nice river though

They were hawks, I think?

I ♥ the town so much

Well, I was exaggerating. There weren't that many Sepia photos lol..

Enough of the effects, let's get back to normal! ^^

We were on a mission to look for this famous Gyuman (beef bun) place in Takayama.

It was on the TV before!

Saw this super cute Shiba-inu on the way. It was blanking out/dozing off! ~>v<~

Finally, we found our 牛まん店！

I ordered a green tea bun instead. But according to my buddies, the beef bun was like heaven =P the green tea bun was super-delicious too! Even the hot green tea which they served to us was mind-blowing! They deserve to be popular!

And the staff there were SUPER nice and friendly to us >V<

Especially the auntie, she's so cute!!!

Our message for the shop. My writing was bad but my notes were sincere!

We appeared on their blog the next day. Haha~ ♥

We saw Sarubobo (the name for the monkey-doll) everywhere in Takayama!

Lucky charm for you =D

Then, we went into this really cute shop!

Very beh-song (frustrated) little woman. Haha.

Found this glasses which I ♥ a lot! >v<

Bought them after hesitating for like...10 minutes lol. Didn't regret buying though!

Kit Kat - Miso flavour @@ I've never tried it.

A ham-sup (pervert)-looking doll =[]="

Me, Yi-Ching, Qian and Kat in the old town of Takayama!

Cam-whoring =P

A very special place for us, right? ^^

After that, we walked to the red bridge by the river and waited for lights to be turned on at 7pm =D

♥♥♥♥

It was such a romantic place for couples.

Well, too bad for us~ XD

Randomly picked a Japanese restaurant on this street and enjoyed a super-satisfying dinner!

The street reminds me of an old american cowboy town haha.

We were so tired that we decided to go back to our hostel.

Got some free hot tea from the kitchen for us too.

Spent the night watching some of the TV programmes from my mobile phone.

It was a good night~ ^^

______________________________________

５月２日　日曜日　晴れ

We woke up at 6 something in the morning because we didn't wanna waste any time for sightseeing =D

Owl, owl, owl~

First stop of the day - Miyagawa Morning Market!

My breakfast - warm milk from hokkaido. It was so yuumm~~ My hair was so messy from the sleep lol.

One of the best apples we've ever tried.

Fluffy-egg-white-snack! The texture was so soft, like marshmallow! 入口即化~

Our morning walk was perfect with refreshing breeze and warm sunlight~

And of course, pretty sights too =)

We went to a few shrines and a big children's park too!

And we found this old-looking variety shop (It's exactly like those shops I went to when I was a kid)

And we bought some of the toys ^^ I missed them~ ♥

After that, we went to this monthly antiques street-sales. We didn't find anything we like, but it was special though =D Lots of second hand antiques.