In and around Takaoka with Sharnelle

Sunday 19th July 2009
Yesterday we left Hiroshima on the Shinkansen.
We had an hour and a half trip to Osaka where we changed trains.
It was then a 3 hour trip to Takaoka.
I thought that I would sleep but I was too excited about seeing Sharnelle.

We arrived at Takaoka just before 3 o'clock. Sharnelle was waiting for us at the station with a sign that said "Welcome to Takaoka."
She took us to our ryokan - Japanese Guest House. Then we went for a walk through the park. There is a zoo in the park. You can just walk through the zoo. It even has an emu. We then caught a bus and went to the shopping centre. We looked around and had some dinner there too.

When we got back, Mr K and I talked with a Japanese couple who were staying at the ryokan. Mr K even tried Japanese beer!!
We slept on mattresses on the floor. They were quite comfortable and I didn't mind the pillows!

Today we caught us bus to Toyama. Toyama is the capital of this area. It took us about half an hour on the train. We haven't had to buy train tickets for every trip that we have done because we got a rail pass for the 3 weeks. That has worked very well.

We visited a castle. We had lunch at an Italian restaurant and then walked to a garden. It started to rain so we found a sheltered spot and watched the water fountain. When it stopped raining we walked back to the train station.

When we got back to Takaoka we went to the hundred yen shop. That's a cheap shop but they have so much in the shop. I could have spent ages looking at it all.

We then did some washing. Even on holidays there's washing!!!

Sharnelle then took us to a Yaki Niku restaurant for dinner. It was lovely. We even had some Aussie Beef! We had to cook it ourselves. Another lady who is staying at the Ryokan and who teaches in Thailand came to dinner with us.

After the walk back I'm ready for a sleep.
The weather is very humid and I seem to get very tired.

Tomorrow we are meeting up with some of Sharnelle's school friends for lunch and then we are going to her host family's house for dinner. That will be exciting to visit their house.

It is very interesting being here as not many tourist come to this area so the children all stare at us because we look different. Sharnelle is known by lots of people here as the exchange student. I like to listen to her speaking to the people in Japanese. It means that she can do things like ordering our food etc for us.
Mrs K. x