Takayama was a wonderful city to visit. We arrived at the bus station and walked down a few streets checking prices at hotels. We got a night at the Country Hotel for 7000 yen. We went and walked through the old Edo merchant streets - beautiful wood buildings where the merchants lived, now litle shops and many are still homes. This city was famous for carpenters, who buildt many of the palaces and large houses of the elite. We had dinner in a little restaurant where we sat on tatami mats - they were nice enough to bring Scott a backrest as he was finding sitting crosslegged hard. He tried 3 types of Saki made in the area - 5 year old (at room temp), young (chilled) and unfiltered (a milky white). Unfortunately with the rain we had to move on. Kanazawa was a city filled with museums and culture - there is a beautiful new Modern Art museum, a large glass building - but it was just setting up the next exhibit, so we couldn:t go in, but we were able to walk around and see some of the works being installed. There was also a great library of art and design books and magazines that we spent some time looking at. We stumbled on a street festival going on outside the museum, with dancing groups performing traditional and modern numbers. We also wandered through the streets where the samurai used to live - many are still large private homes. We had tea in a traditional tea house - very strong matcha tea with a cherry blossom cake. The following morining we had hoped to go to the gardens, which are among the top 3 in Japan - being stuborn we tried but it was so cold, windy and wet we couldnt stay long. We took the train to Kyoto - quiet the confusing system for buying tickets - if you come, buy a pass, otherwise there is a 2 layer system of ticketing that makes it very expensive to travel on the train. We booked an inexpensive hotel through the information centre at the huge, modern station - Court Hotel Shinto for 5200 yen. We walked around the area, and went into the Geisha neighbourhood at night, with all the red laterns and ryokan (traditional guesthouses) and restaurants. Interesting being in these streets, like being back in time - then you walk out into the modern, bright streets of the rest of Kyoto. Like this city, smaller, simpler then Tokyo. Off to explore!