Belated December 16th

Today we explored Takayama on foot. After a reasonably boring breakfast at the hotel we walked to a little market that happens every morning next to the river. We saw a few nice things which we bought as presents and had a nice time watching the ducks and fish coexisting in parallel dimensions. It was really cold.
We started to walk around town and found that Takayama has a few streets of very old buildings preserved in the Edo period style. It was nice to walk around this area but only a few of the shops were interesting. We started walking uphill and headed towards some trees. It turned out that we’d hit the edge of town and that we were walking up a small mountain to some castle ruins. The walk was a little bit tricky but we had some nice views. We started to see out of the valley which Takayama sits in and out to the high snowy mountains beyond. The "castle" turned out to be a flat area and a sign, but the walk was really nice. We headed down the hill by a different route and followed a walking trail on our map. This took us past a mysterious temple, a little spring and shrine with a mossy and icy fountain shaped like a frog, some strange playground equipment in a frosty park and other interesting views.
Eventually we arrived back in a remote corner of town and found a convenience store where we had lunch. The rest of the walk followed a different edge of town but was mostly on normal roads. We walked through a couple more temples and shrines before we got sick of the walk and headed back in the direction of the hotel to rest.
On this last leg of the walk we saw 3 Buddhist temples, each with a huge bell out the front. Why so many bells so close? Do they ring them all at once or alternatively? Are they competitive about their bells? We didn’t even see most of the temples in town, the map had many more marked.
After a rest at the hotel, we walked out to find a post office and some internet. The post office was easy to find but the internet was a bit lame and strange. We asked at the information desk at the station and the man invited us in to use a laptop which is apparently set up for this purpose. It was really slow and crap but we got to check emails and the trains for tomorrow.
We felt like dinner even though it was early so we tried another LP recommendation called Origin, yakitori restaurant. They weren’t really ready for customers but they accommodated us and the food was really, really nice.