Finally, the ng family embarked on our annual nov family trip! after a hectic change in travel plans, we were ready to head out to central japan for a well deserved holidays for 1.5 weeks!
on Tuesday night, we fetched the boys from my mum's place, headed home, did some last minute packing, bathed and we were ready to head out to T3 for our 1AM flight!! not the most ideal timing as I rarely can sleep a wink on board but the thankfully the boys were asleep for almost all of the 6.5hrs flight.
the husband was pleased to see the star wars display and thanks to mummy who stocked up abit on skincare, we were able to get the boys a stormtrooper soft toy (boba fett was actually the elder boy and my first choice - we gave in to the whines of YR as usual...)
and if we were late for the 1st train, it will have flow on downstream impact on the timing of connecting trains. which meant we ran a really high risk to reach takayama at like 7PM or so in the evening! what a waste of time. and my mind was churning trying to decipher the next step which was actually trying to exchange for our JR rail pass at the ticket station located at I-don't-know-where in the airport. it was an OMG moment.
first things first, always. so I took a deep breath, located the ticket station, asked the boys to stay put while I went to exchange the rail pass. with the kind help of the lady who exchanged our rail passes, we sort of work out a sequence which seems to work and will bring us to takayama by 2+PM. the only risk were the connecting time between the 3 trains were 13 and 5 mins each. I think I asked her like thrice "is this doable?". and she was convincing enough for me to buy the train tickets through her on the spot cos there's simply no time to purchase the tickets at the destination stations given the limited connecting time.
all I can say now is thanks to sheer luck, timely help from friendly locals and a lot (really a lot) of running with our luggages, we made all the connecting trains and rolled into Takayama in style. ok maybe not so stylish, it was drizzling when we reached and we braved the cold and wetness to check into our accom. :P
top left: hubbi took this pic when I was madly planning with the JTB staff
centre: excited at taking trains! I wonder if they still feel this way by the time we were on board the 3rd train (and somewhere into our 3rd hour on a moving train.. ha)
For those interested, this was our route:
1) we took airport express train to bring us from Osaka KIX airport to SHIN Osaka station where all the shinkansens (bullet trains) are - ~50mins
2) From Shin-Osaka, we took shinkansen (weeeee.....!) to Nagoya - ~ slightly below an hour despite the distance!
3) From Nagoya, we took Hida train to Takayama - a really scenic train journey given the wide windows set up for this train and the route leading to the hida areas is really gorgeous. this took us another 2 hours+.
So at 2+PM, we finally alighted at Takayama! our hangout for the next 3 days! our last min. accom booked here is K's house takayama. it's alike to hostel/dormitory where there's common area for guests to interact, common kitchen etc. we booked a room with private bathroom to ourselves. the best thing about this place is it's location - barely 5mins walk from the train station. and the staff were really helpful the whole time we were there, helping us to plan logistics, itinerary and recommendations for eating places. remember, the itinerary for this trip was very roughly sketched out by me. :P
our tiny room, literally no space to walk around much when both luggages were opened..
but it's cosy and functional enough for us given we were normally out the whole day and we were really good in the sense that we were all fast asleep by 9+PM like that. :P
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the only thing that I really had a hard time getting used to for this trip was setting up our own beds! I know I sounded really spoilt but spreading out bedsheets and putting pillows in pillow cases are such a dread! as you can see in the photo above, the beds were obviously not made yet. I obviously think it's more important to hit the streets soon after check-in rather than making the beds. HA!
top 2 photos, we had tea break at this café called soeur. the food was really good and the boys ordered 2nd helpings of their sandwiches on top of the desserts that we already had.
bottom left: pretty bakery shop called blue penguin bakers
bottom right: 1/3 of our hearty dinner? I think both the husband and myself gained weight this trip. is anyone surprised? I don't think so.
ending the post for the first day of our trip with a shot of a typical takayama street.
it rained in the afternoon, so the night was damn cold. the boys were equipped (albeit too adequately perhaps) for that so it's all good.
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