Today is all about getting to our next stop which is Takayama also know as little Kyoto. We got up and had breakfast, this time we sat on the bench seats overlooking the city, this has actually been a good hotel as our room was on the 24th floor and breakfast on the 25th meaning we have fantastic views of Hiroshima and the surrounding mountains. With our birds eye view of the city we have both decided that if we could design a city in this wonderful setting we wouldn’t have made it like this! Reception was empty when we went down to check out and there was a line of taxis outside the hotel so we actually got to the train station quite early so we found a seat and waited for the first of our three trains to be posted. We have reserved seats again which is really nice and it is the up market version of almost arm chair type of seats! I am not sure if this train went faster than the others or if it is because we went through a lot of tunnels but my ears really popped on this one. The next train actually left from the same platform so all we had to do was walk down to the right carriage, unfortunately this is one of the older trains so the seats were not quite as comfortable and again a lot of the journey was in tunnels but when we did come out it looked like it was a nice day. We are actually heading back up to Tokyo so we went through Kyoto then changed trains again at Nagoya. This time we got on a normal express train not the Shinkansen that we had been using, all the same it was comfortable although it didn’t have the padded sofa chairs I like or a coffee service but it did have tourist information, as we passed things of interest they told us about it over the loud speaker in multiple languages! As this is the longest journey we took we had the opportunity to write the post cards and have a good look at the scenery as we were not traveling so fast! The scenery has really changed, we are back in the mountains and lots of cherry blossom still on the trees, the railway line followed the river for a lot of the way so we had lots to look at. Finally after what seemed like a really long day of traveling we arrived at Takayama and walked down the road to our hotel. This is another traditional hotel but unlike the last one we stayed in, not only do we have to remove our shoes in the room and restaurant they don’t actually trust you to remember so on arrival your bags are cleaned and you are given a locker for your shoes which is by reception and therefore you can’t wear them by accident in the hotel! We eventually made it to our room which has stunning views over a mountain range that still has snow on top, this is definitely going to be ok for the next few days.
