Takayama

Well, I am not ready for winter. Takayama was beautiful on Sunday, but it was FREEZING!! I don't think my hands thawed all day- at least until I finally bought a hot coffee from the vending machine. But it was worth it. This was the perfect time to go. I thought that I'd already seen the amazing fall colors in Japan, but now I know I was wrong. We spent the morning hiking around a park that used to be the castle grounds. I think between 3 people, we got about 100 pictures of red, yellow and orange leaves.
After the park, we walked around, tried fresh miso soup and dango (ground rice balls grilled in a soy sauce marinade), and looked for temples. Then we went to the Hida Folk Village, which has representatives of the common historic houses of the area. The most amazing ones are these huge houses with thatched roofs. I would think you would make a smaller house to keep things warmer, but these were not small houses. All of them had fire pits inside for warmth, but it was a cold day and we weren't staying warm.