Elle's Adventures

After the huge meal at the ryokan, we went to bed fairly early. The futons were laid out for us at about 9:00pm, and I'm pretty sure I went straight to sleep. It was much more comfortable than my bed back at home. I woke up the next day quite early. The sun coming through the blinds looked so nice I decided to take some early morning photos while Dede was still dead to the world. Soon after getting up it was time for breakfast. While it was much smaller than dinner, I was still full from the night before. Miso cooking. We had pieces of nori, which we filled with rice and miso, which made a kind of sushi (explained to us by another nice lady). It was really nice. I love miso soup, but generally don't like miso on it's own. It's far too strong. But this way was really delicious. We stayed in our room until checkout, but I really didn't want to go. It was so relaxing, and another night there would have been ideal. But alas, it was Sunday and...

September 8th marked four years for Dede and I, so I decided on taking a trip to Takayama for the weekend. I had been wanting to go there ever since moving to Gifu. It's quite famous for it's old preserved town area. The day before leaving, Dede's present to me arrived. It was a brand new Nikon D5100! I was quite excited to get it, because I have been relying on Dede's beautiful photos for my blog for most of the time I have been in Japan. Now I can make my own! These are the first two photos I took outside of my window at home: I know I have a lot to learn but it certainly looks better than my digital camera! Of course I will still use it, because lugging a DSLR around all the time is not always practical. Anyway, back to our weekend! The train ride took quite a while, perhaps three hours? We took the longest, but cheapest train there. I wasn't willing to pay extra for a quicker trip. I'm quite happy with the river photo :) When we ...