Otaki and Metaki Falls [男滝女滝]

[Part 3 of 2008 Winter Road Trip]

It was raining heavily when we left the Minshuku [民宿] the next morning, so we thought we would avoid doing part of the hike recommended by the minshuku [民宿] owner and drive along the road (which runs beside it) instead and pop out from the car if we saw anything interesting. Luckily the rain cleared up after we drove a kilometer or so. So we parked the car and then joined the hike (which intersects the highway from time to time.

As explained to us by the minshuku owner, the hike on the Tsumago [妻籠] side of the 'Tsumago-Magome Hiking Trail was quite nice and peaceful, mainly walking through forest and not too close to the road. We had actually stopped the car not too far from the Otaki-Metaki Falls, so we walked along the highway (as suggested by the minshuku owner) in order to approach the falls from downstream. This approach would apparently give us much nicer photos of the falls, than if we followed the hiking trail (as the path takes you past the upstream end of the falls).

After going down some a stairs we crossed some wooden bridges to get across the rivers to have a look at the falls.

The Female and Male Waterfalls [男滝女滝]

The area was nice and secluded (you couldn't hear any traffic on the road above (although there weren't that many cars around anyway. The only other people we really saw were other couples doing the same kind of sightseeing that we were. I guess the weather wasn't so good for hiking...

Anyway, we continued hiking on the trail this time, and stopped just as we got to the Nagano [長野] Gifu [岐阜] Prefectural border...Then we walked back along the road to the car and drove on to Takayama [高山].

Tsumago [妻籠]

[Part 2 of 2008 Winter Road Trip]

We managed to make it to Tsumago for the afternoon, and after popping into the minshuku [民宿] to check in and drop our bags off, we headed to the town to have a look around.

Tsumago-juku [妻籠宿] an some mini sharon fruit [かき] hanging in a shop window (aren't their little faces cute?)

The place was near deserted and really felt like a large outdoor museum. It was definitely not a very busy time of year for the town, and we only saw one or two other tourists wandering around. We managed to make it to two of the museams before closing time (5pm) - they offered a ticket which lets you into three of the main museums in the town for 700yen (however, if you are staying at a minshuku in Tsumago they can give you a discount coupon so that this price drops to 450yen *I think - can't quite remember now*)

Then it got dark very quickly, so we headed home for our 6pm dinner at the minshuku. The dinner was absolutely amazing. The little fish was the tastiest fish I can remember - the flesh was soft and juicy - and he was apparently caught from down stream (a little river runs behind the house). Infact all the veges we ate that night had been grown by the minshuku owners and carefully prepared by the lady of the house. And there was lots of food: pounded rice rolled into balls and skewered on to sticks and covered in a sweet and nutty sauce (soy sauce, honey, ground seasame, sugar, salt), pumpkin, carrot and daikon* pickled with some yuzu#, a steamed cup of mushrooms covered with a layer of pounded sticky rice, tempura, rice, miso soup.

It was a lot of food.

*big long white radish thing 白萝卜
#citrus fruit, tangy taste - in between a lemon and an orange

The traditional open fire place in the minshuku and the owner of the house (who also sang us a old folk song and gave us tips on sightseeing - a very nice man)

Fishy on the balcony of the room we stayed in, over looking their back garden.

This minshuku was great; fantastic food (we had a huge breakfast too), very welcoming, helpful and friendly owners, nice traditional futon room with a very nice view out the back - in which we were kept toasty warm in despite the cold weather, and very new toilets and bathroom - which were in a very recently refurbished part of the house.

Just in case you want to know, we stayed at Koshinduka [こしんづか] and I thoroughly recommend it (homepage here).

Road Trip 2008 - Intro

Right. so. We didn't make it back to Europe for holidays this Christmas because;
1. When we were planning the winter holidays back in Sept, the plane ticket prices were a little too high for my liking,
2. We thought that we had better make the best use of our time in Japan by seeing a bit of the country while we were here,
3. We also thought we could do our bit in boosting the Japanese economy.

So, we've ended up spending what we would have spent on just an air ticket to Paris or London on a 10day road trip around Nagano [長野県] and Gifu [岐阜県] Prefectures (which are North and North-Westy of Tokyo).

As Greg has a French driving licence - he could do a direct transfer to a Japanese drivers licence (unlike my British one which involves another test...hmmm...no thanks) so we rented a car from Nissan via ToCoo!.

The plan was too drive along the Chuo Highway [中央道] out of Tokyo towards Tsumago [妻籠] and Magome [馬籠], stop there in a minshuku [民宿] for a night and do a bit of sightseeing before heading off to Shirakawago [白川郷].

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Tsumago [妻籠] and Magome [馬籠] - Designated a site of National Architectural Preservation where you can still find an Edo-style post town in its entirety.


Minshuku [民宿] - A guest house run by the family which live inside the house itself, usually offering dinner and breakfast.

Shirakawago [白川郷] - A village in Gifu Prefecture famous for it's traditional farm houses with steep-sided thatched roofs.

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After Shirakawago [白川郷] we would head up to Kanazawa [金沢] and try to see a bit of the Noto-Peninsula [能登半島]. Then we head East wards and then South towards Hakuba [白馬] in Nagano [長野] for a bit of snowboarding.