Today I had been invited out for the day with Momoe San and Sekijima Sensei from Nourinn Koko, my visit school. Momoe San is the school nurse and is trying to learn English and Sekijima Sensei is a Welfare teacher who also speaks very limited English. Both are super keen to speak more so we had fun most of the day with our respective dictionaries (mine is in my mobile phone - cool hey?!) trying to translate the conversations.
The plan for the day was to start with lunch in a famous Italian Restaurant in Kijimadaira (a village just over the bridge from Iiyama). When we arrived at 11.15am, there was a que of about ten people waiting outside because it didn't open until 11.30am! It is VERY popular - especially on a Saturday (its name is "Doyoobi wa Italian" - "Italian on a Saturday"!). So when we eventually got in and seated, we ordered a mix of dishes to share - tomato and mozzerella salad, salami pizza, mushroom pizza (!!!) and spaghetti in tomato, bacon and aubergine sauce. It was absolutley delicious and if the snow is not too bad in winter, Dave will definitley get dragged there when he comes back out to visit.
Next stop was Takayama, a 40 minute drive up into the mountains. Takayama is a well known beauty spot in Autumn to view the mountain scenery when the leaves turn from green to red. We were perhaps a week or two too early as most of the trees were still green but I thought it only made the red ones stand out more. It was absolutley beautiful! Pictures maybe don't do it any justice...
After a 30 minute hike (I was NOT prepared for off-roading in my flip flops and city shorts!) we ended up at a little village that had a foot onsen and some shops. There was a drunk guy at the foot onsen so we decided to do a little shopping first and then come back to the onsen later. When we were in one of the shops, the owner was desperate for me to try some of her 'delicacies' which included some weird looking vegetables, miso soup, chilli tea and inago (also known as the common grasshopper...GRASSHOPPER!!). So, I got my chilli tea in one hand ready to wash down the inago but I was pleasantly surprised...quite sweet tasting and once you got over the fact its legs are stuck in your teeth, it was really quite yummy!
So after some light snacks, we drove on further up the mountain to Kaminaridaki to see a waterfall. Still unsuitably dressed we had to walk along the rock face being sprayed with mist from the waterfall and holding on to a rope so as not to slip on the mud and fall into the ravine below! Apart from that, it was a spectacular sight! Again, pics don't do it any justice...
We then headed back down to the foot onsen to revive our tired (and muddy) feet.
After the onsen, we got back in the car to make our way to the next town - Obuse. Here we sampled the local delicacy in the form of ice cream... chestnut ice cream!
We then wandered around the shops until it got dark and then headed back to Iiyama.
I'm starting to get used to hanging out with people that don't speak very much English and its amazing that you can spend the entire day with them and still have a great day and a giggle.
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