G.W. DAY 2 - 平瀬温泉 Hirase onsen

５月２日　日曜日　晴れ

After hanging around in Takayama, we made our way to the station and got the 11am bus to Shirakawago! Due to traffic jam, we arrived nearly an hour later to the designated time but we weren't worry coz' holiday is supposed to be relaxing and fun! We had lots of time anyway ^^ and I really enjoyed the scenery too.

We arrived Shirakawago main station and I was a little disappointed to see so many people walking around. I thought I could get away from the crowd. =_=" Well, it's Golden week..I should've expected that.

We stayed on the bus because we wanted to go to our Minshuku民宿(Japanese private family-house for travellers) and hang around in that area for the day. All other passengers got out and we had the bus to ourselves! We were too excited that we didn't realize what's awaiting us...

The driver told us that we had reached the place. We got down and this was what we saw...

A dead town with absolutely no one on the street...

which reminded me of those streets in 'Resident Evil', where zombies come out at night and kill people.

"Where on earth are we??"

Well, it's a place called 'Hirase onsen' and the bus frequency was like....

THIS! Only four times in a day?! @@

It was later when I learnt that Hirase onsen was at 白山, the uphill of the place (白川郷)where we wanted to go -(somewhere near the white round flash on the map). It's about 15min drive.

We were speechless but I took it easy. "Just take it as an adventure", we thought. =P So we carried our bags and started walking to the direction of our Minshuku. We were still amazed by the exhilarating scenery, breeze and the sun despite getting lost in an alien place.

After crossing the bridge and got lost for about 10 minutes, we were glad to see a camp place which was run by a middle-age man (about 50yrs old I guess). We went in and asked for directions and he was pretty shocked to see four girls carrying big bags, wandering around in this deserted place.

He asked us what were we planning to do with dinner because meals were not provided in the minshuku. We told him we didn't know what to do. (=.=) and we did not expect this because there were supposed to be some restaurants etc according to the map!

The camp uncle made a phone call and after ten minutes or so, a lady with super-permed hair arrived in a four-wheel-drive. He told us that she would drive us there and he said something about dinner but we couldn't fully understand him - we were too surprised about the offer. =D Before the lady drove off, the uncle ran to me and passed me my camera =P I accidentally left it in the shop...
He probably think that we were four young girls with no sense of danger lol.
That's probably why he arranged the following stuff for us..

The lady's name is Hiroyo. She might be the uncle's daughter but we didn't ask. We were also surprised to hear Lady Gaga's songs in the car lol. Hiroyo told us that she likes her songs. ^^
After going up, uP, UP the hill for 10min, she stopped us at this skiing place and brought us into the restaurant. The boss welcomed us with big smile and asked us what did we want to eat for dinner. Unsure of everything, we ordered a chicken dish for four of us. Hiroyo said the restaurant will close in a few hours so dinner will be held at the campsite and she will pick us up at where we stay.

We were so touched and couldn't believe how kind they were.

Finally, we reached our minshuku (only 2min by car from the skiing place). A tiny grandmother came out and I recognized that she was the one on the phone with me because of her high-pitched voice. The grandma has a very strong local accent when most of the time we couldn't get what she was trying to tell us. She laughed it off whenever we didn't understand her. XD

Our room with very nice view.

We were so glad that we actually brought cup-noodles with us. Lunch was solved. ^^

After settling down, we decided to explore around this quiet town and see what we would discover =D

Was delighted to see Sakura in May!

Art on a stone =D

We stopped at this big field and hang out for an hour or so. Although it's a really quiet town, we were loving it because it's so peaceful and the views were awesome!

And there're snow mountains nearby too!

The place we stayed in is popular in Winter for skiing activities. That explains why no one was there during golden week! And that also explains why this place was available after I called 20 over minshuku. Lol..the map was so deceiving though because I thought it's quite near to the Hirase-onsen station. I didn't expect it to be up up up up up on a hill!

We shot a few mock-commercials and while we were having so much fun, some kind of weird animal appeared on the field!

(Picture from Kat)

Qian said she heard some rolling sound and soon after that a big animal ran across the field. The funny thing was when Kat saw it, she screamed and that attracted the animal's attention. It braked and stopped for like 10-15 seconds, staring at us.

The atmosphere was really intensed.. We froze and stood on the ground, praying that it would not come to us >_<" (although at that moment I thought that it was kinda funny too) =P The animal looked like a mix of wild boar+bear+deer. It didn't look friendly at all though..

The 10+ seconds felt like an eternity. Finally, it ran way and we heaved a sigh of relief.

It was quite an experience.

>v<

Two+ hours passed and it's about an hour away from dinner time. So we decided to walk down to the camp place to see how long would it take us to go down because we might need to walk down tomorrow to catch the bus to Shirakawago town.

On our way down the hill.

We heard this beautiful melodic chimes at 6pm.

The music and the scenery blended in so well.

At that moment, I felt really lucky that I was born and being brought up healthily.

Very glad that I get to enjoy music and travel around too  <3

We climbed up the rocks!

Took us so much effort to take this picture as it was self-timered.

- The campsite -

We reached the place after 30min of walk! (not including stopping/playing time)

Pretty sure that going up the hill will take us twice the time though @@

Still had about twenty min before dinner so we walked around at the camp place ^^

Brothers playing with each other

And Yi-ching practising her drum-major skills haha.

Dinner was served!

It's chicken dish with Shirakawago speciality - miso paste. It was incredibly delicious.

We were so thankful because Hiroyo actually cooked/warmed that up for us.

Sitting beside us was a group of uncles, drinking beer. They kept trying to talk to us in english too. I think they were really surprised, seeing four young non-japanese girls by themselves in this campsite (usually kids come with their family).

We were so popular that we were offered lots of free food XD

Squids.

This uncle was a little drunk and he acted a little aggressive too.

The uncle behind him was so cute because he kept saying that 'I will safety you', which means 'I will protect you'. He told us that he has a daughter about the same age as us too. ^^

Oh, and he said I looked totally like a Japanese because I have 'safety hair'. XD -probably my hair colour and hairstyle I guess.

Also, he gave us each a Waraji string made by his mother, which was very sweet of him <3

The uncles were kind of shy but they expressed their warmful-welcome and kindness to us by giving us food and presents. They were really cute.

Hiroyo sent us home after taking a group picture.

We went to bed feeling loved and touched. =)

And of course, feeling super excited about Shirakawago白川郷！