The posts and summary for the whole trip, can be found here
♥November 30th Sunday♥
Leaving Gokayama, we started driving to Gero 下呂, a city about 2 hours away from Gokayama, which is famous for their onsen.
Why a stop at Gero? It's all because of the beautiful listing of Shinko's House in Airbnb.
The House is 100 years old and when I read about the place and the feedback, I immediately thought we had to make a stop there, even if it was just for one night.
Arriving at Gero after dark, we got lost trying to find her place, but with the help of a worker at a convenient store, who called Shinko (the house owner) and charted our route on a map, we managed to locate it easily). It's located right at the top of a hill. We got a section of the house ourselves, which includes a living room and the bed room.
Shinko cooked us a simple local Gero chicken dish for dinner, and after dinner we went to an onsen for our bath. As this is a town famous for onsen, there are many onsens, and I couldn't believe that they only charge as low as ￥300 for adults and ￥150 for kids to use the facilities. The girls' feedback on the onsen here? “The ladies were younger and more beautiful at Takayama, the ones here are bigger size and older." They enjoyed the dip none-the-less.
♥December 1st Sunday♥
Shinko brought us a breakfast tray in the morning, and then sent in fried eggs and pancakes later. It was a big breakfast! Zaria enjoyed the pancakes so much she said that was her best breakfast in Japan.
After breakfast, the girls went to Shinko's section of the house and met up with Shinko's 2 children, Francois, 3; and Claire 9; the four of them clicked immediately. The rest of the morning, the 4 of them played in Shinko's compound.
A holiday is not just about the places you see, but the people you meet and the friends you make.
Zaria was so taken by their hen Peacock, she kept asking us to get her a pet hen when we got home.
Francois was so taken by Zaria, he wanted to stay close to her all the time, and asking her to play with him. He wasn't happy Zaria spent so much time with Peacock the hen.
Shinko's house is situation on a hill, most houses have big plots of land to plant rice and vege. It was the same for Shinko's house. There is a clear stream as well (she said during summer, it's nice for swimming), and there are chestnut trees, persimmon trees, flower bushes around.
We were rather sad to leave her house, especially the girls, who asked if they could stay for another night. We left at noon time after all the hugs and good byes, and then headed to Gero town for lunch.
Then it was the long drive to Osaka, where 1/3 of the journey is on trunk road.
We arrived at Osaka after dark, checked into our hotel Crowne Plaza ANA. This was the hotel with the biggest room we got in Japan, however, we there's only one king bed. So Zaria had to sleep on the sofa, while the 3 of us shared the king bed.
We then returned our rented car at the nearby Nisan centre, and had dinner at Takonotetsu, a Takoyaki (or Octopus ball) restaurant where you can cook your own Takoyaki.
My first try in Takoyaki making, and it they came out quite good actually, and properly rounded. I saw some other diners' Takoyaki came out pretty 'disfigured'. I'm not sure if they were self cooked or the Takoyaki here is in deed nicer, we love our Takoyaki; we tried other Takoyaki in Osaka later in our trip, and they were never as nice.
♥November 30th Sunday♥
Leaving Gokayama, we started driving to Gero 下呂, a city about 2 hours away from Gokayama, which is famous for their onsen.
Why a stop at Gero? It's all because of the beautiful listing of Shinko's House in Airbnb.
The House is 100 years old and when I read about the place and the feedback, I immediately thought we had to make a stop there, even if it was just for one night.
Arriving at Gero after dark, we got lost trying to find her place, but with the help of a worker at a convenient store, who called Shinko (the house owner) and charted our route on a map, we managed to locate it easily). It's located right at the top of a hill. We got a section of the house ourselves, which includes a living room and the bed room.
Shinko cooked us a simple local Gero chicken dish for dinner, and after dinner we went to an onsen for our bath. As this is a town famous for onsen, there are many onsens, and I couldn't believe that they only charge as low as ￥300 for adults and ￥150 for kids to use the facilities. The girls' feedback on the onsen here? “The ladies were younger and more beautiful at Takayama, the ones here are bigger size and older." They enjoyed the dip none-the-less.
♥December 1st Sunday♥
Shinko brought us a breakfast tray in the morning, and then sent in fried eggs and pancakes later. It was a big breakfast! Zaria enjoyed the pancakes so much she said that was her best breakfast in Japan.
After breakfast, the girls went to Shinko's section of the house and met up with Shinko's 2 children, Francois, 3; and Claire 9; the four of them clicked immediately. The rest of the morning, the 4 of them played in Shinko's compound.
A holiday is not just about the places you see, but the people you meet and the friends you make.
Zaria was so taken by their hen Peacock, she kept asking us to get her a pet hen when we got home.
Francois was so taken by Zaria, he wanted to stay close to her all the time, and asking her to play with him. He wasn't happy Zaria spent so much time with Peacock the hen.
Shinko's house is situation on a hill, most houses have big plots of land to plant rice and vege. It was the same for Shinko's house. There is a clear stream as well (she said during summer, it's nice for swimming), and there are chestnut trees, persimmon trees, flower bushes around.
We were rather sad to leave her house, especially the girls, who asked if they could stay for another night. We left at noon time after all the hugs and good byes, and then headed to Gero town for lunch.
Then it was the long drive to Osaka, where 1/3 of the journey is on trunk road.
We arrived at Osaka after dark, checked into our hotel Crowne Plaza ANA. This was the hotel with the biggest room we got in Japan, however, we there's only one king bed. So Zaria had to sleep on the sofa, while the 3 of us shared the king bed.
We then returned our rented car at the nearby Nisan centre, and had dinner at Takonotetsu, a Takoyaki (or Octopus ball) restaurant where you can cook your own Takoyaki.
My first try in Takoyaki making, and it they came out quite good actually, and properly rounded. I saw some other diners' Takoyaki came out pretty 'disfigured'. I'm not sure if they were self cooked or the Takoyaki here is in deed nicer, we love our Takoyaki; we tried other Takoyaki in Osaka later in our trip, and they were never as nice.
