After leaving Kyoto we travelled up into the mountains to a lovely old town called Takayama. We were quite high and the temperature was noticeably cooler than previously. The flowers are about a month behind those we saw in Osaka and Kyoto.
We stayed at an old Japanese inn, known as a ryokan. It was next to the river and we had a room overlooking the river and the early morning market, which we visited this morning before we left.
Takayama is close to an area known as the Japanese Alps, and we could see snow covered mountains from the town. Today we travelled by bus to Matsumoto. The bus climbed high into the mountains as it left Takayama and we were soon above the snow line. The road was quite clear but the snow at the side of the road was several inches deep. The scenery was very beautiful, as the road wound its way up and then down the other side. We crossed a dam and went through many tunnels. Along the way we saw two snow monkeys. One crossed the road in front of the bus and the other was sitting by the side of the road. Nobody else on the bus got excited about them so we assume they are not uncommon, but it was a very special sighting for us.
