JAPAN: Ride Day 6

 

When we check into the hotel this afternoon, Takayama – a town on 60,000 in the mountains, I look for the shoe locker and am informed this is a Western style hotel. I can wear my shoes in the lobby!  We  have 2 beds that are not on the floor and a private bathroom complete with tub, shower, toilet and lavatory, a small table and two chairs.  A far cry from yesterday when there was nothing in the room other than a coffee table and straw mats – no way to live if  you ask me.

I forgot to tell you what happened yesterday.  The previous evening I spent more time than usual in the onsen, even shaving.  Then yesterday morning I went back.  But things didn’t look right. Is this where I was yesterday? Maybe I’ve been in too many of these.  And then Brenda informed me that during the night the hotel management switched the female and male onsens  I’m confused enough over here people. Don’t play with my mind.

‘Don’t  think I’ve reported that most public bathrooms have both eastern/Asian (squat) toilets and European/American tank types.  And almost all of the euro/American toilets have heated bidet toilet seats. Wow. Disclaimer: We have these bidet seats in the master baths in both Texas and Colorado.

As of 4:00 pm I have only 2 photos:

 

The photo on the left is on the Miboro dam.

The second photo requires explanation.  We could not take the originally planned route because the road through the mountains was closed due to snow. The alternate route was 20 km longer than the original and had all sorts of problems.  There was a lot of construction.  There were a lot of dark and dangerous tunnels. There were steep detours. In some sections there was a lot of traffic.  And there was rain.  In the photo on the right, we’ve bypassed a long tunnel and Brenda is riding beside it.

From the onsen on the 9th floor I see a 7-11.  Did I tell you that there are three places in Japan that you can get cash from an international debit card: banks, post offices and 7-11’s.  I suspect there are a lot more 7-11’s than the others combined.  I’m hoping I can get something nutritious there: like peanut M&M’s and a Starbucks latte.  Well I found a Bens & Roasters Café Latte.  I also found they sell wine and whiskey.  Our happy hour wine to date has been out of a box that looks like a juice box and has been worse to poor.

For dinner we went to an Italian restaurant. OMG.  Food that was recognizable to us. Mushroom and bacon pizza.  Risotto with shrimp and clams. Sangiovese wine.

Tomorrow’s breakfast is supposed to ne “western style”.  Does that mean scrambled eggs? Coffee? Bacon? Toast? Hash browns? Tune into tomorrow’s blog to find out.