The last few days have been cold ( -2degrees C at 10am) raining, sleeting, hailing, and snowing). The mountains have a dusting of snow, and anywhere above about 1000m has snow on the ground.
We tried to cross a range going westwards from Takayama, and as we get higher it was snowing. It was magical and we wanted to camp near the pass (1700m) but we were aware of our inexperience with snow and ice so we pushed on to lower elevations. In the morning it was evident that there had been significant snow fall on the mountain. We decided to go back up to see what we had missed.
As we rose we could see ice on the road. We had changed our front tyres with the spares the day before, so we had good grip. And we were in 4 WD. However we were a little nervous. We passed someone coming down and he said it was O.k, so on we went.
Icicles on a waterfall.
Around the next corner there was a vehicle which had slid into the guard rail! The man was out of the vehicle waving us down, and the wife was looking out her window at the drop below her. As we pulled up, he pointed hopefully at our winch, and we decided to stop and winch them onto the road again. With our recent experience with the winch we might have appeared very professional as we located the bits we needed, attached the winch to his strong point, and slowly but surely winched him back onto the road.
As is the Japanese way he gave us a gift, of a USB with what he described as some "photos of this area".
Maybe he is a photographer so I won't share his photos here, but suffice to say that I am inspired to get a better camera!
But from our perspective we realised that he was lucky that the guard rail could hold the weight of his car.....
So we continued even more carefully and slowly.
In the end all went well.
Today it was raining again. We were in Takayama where there is an "old section", of buildings in the old timber style. In fact there are streets of such buildings, with tourist outlets these days, but with a distinct historic feel about them. We wandered along the streets eating street food such as mochi with miso paste or with soy sauce. We looked at laquered goods, carved masks, woven sandals, and the river with Ducks, salmon, and Koi.
I needed a haircut so we went into a salon, which was not clearly a man's or women's hair cutting place. I explained what I wanted. There was definitely a communication problem. Maybe I should have been more wary when he began to cut without washing my hair first, and without the usual head massage.....but I ended up with part crew cut and part hair cut. The crown if my head has been cut short. It must grow straight up in a few weeks! I can't imagine how it can work out. So I bought a hat today to cover it. What a mess!
In the end we decided to camp in the parking area in the old area of Takayama. Nobody bothered us and in the morning we were the only vehicle in the parking area ( it was a 24 hour paid parking lot). It was not the quietest camping spot but in the morning we were well placed for the morning markets in the nearby streets.
16/11/14
However our next camping spot was worse.
This is what we awoke to...
This turned out be a work group of power lines-men. We were able to watch their pre-work meeting. My guess is that it was the safety talk, allocation of jobs etc. this is the second time we have seen this. It also includes a reading which seems to be devotional, with everyone bowing their heads. Then there is a short chant and a shout and they are off.
Well I hope it was a safety talk because shortly afterwards these guys were 100 m up on a high power line lying along the wires like rope walkers, working with electricity. It was amazing to watch.
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