Our tour guide made reservations for a resturaunt that specialises in Hida Beef.
It was a beautiful and atmospheric place were we sat on cushions and had a small array of dishes presented to us.
When the food arrived we cooked the sliced beef on small personal fire pits on our tables.
It was a lovely experience - one that was enjoyed by all. Back in England I'm not a fan of beef, but I took a chance and this turned out to be my favourite meal of the trip so far!
This morning we spent some time browsing the local market - we both picked up some interesting souvenirs!
After shopping we headed to the Hida Folk Villiage which is a really beautiful display of old houses and information on how people used to live. We had to take off our shoes to go inside some places but were rewarded with intresting snipits of information.
Later we headed to the old town for sake tasting and more shopping. We're going to need an extra suitcase at this rate!
The bus ride seemed to last forever, but we eventually arrived at our traditional Minshuku around 5pm.
It's a beautiful little building and they threw us a lovely welcome dinner.
I've never seen so many mini dishes laid out in front of us and I'm pleased to say I tried almost everything!
The beef was presented on a plate ontop of an individual burner and once the meal began the owner came around and lit them all. Our beef cooked at the table as we feasted on rice, salmon, tofu, mixed vegetables, duck, mini potatoes, soba noodle ramen and sashimi, washed down with green tea.
Although most of the group decided to head to a sake bar for the night, we decided instead to be brave and enjoy a relaxing hot onsen bath instead.
We were given some free time to explore this morning, so we decided to take a closer look at the 'Black Crow' castle.
We brought a ticket to the grounds and even had a walk up the extremely steep steps inside! (I only made it half way before turning back, but Hayley was a trooper and went right to the top!)
We then wandered through the old market district before the group set off on a two and a half hour bus ride to Takayama.
The evening was spent travelling to our next destination, Matsumoto.
Once we had checked in to our hotel and showered ( after being that hot and sticky it was the best shower i've ever had!) we spent some time doing clothes washing before heading out for a Japanese take on pub fish and chips!
We topped it off with a few randomly selected cocktails from the happy hour menu and sat chatting to other members of the tour. A lovely evening.
Once we had recovered our eyesight we borded a bus heading into the Japanese Alps.
After 40 minutes on the bus we then had to begin a long trek to see the monkeys.
We had been advised to wrap up warm as there could be snow, however it was actually very warm and we were all a little overdressed! I even manged to get sunburnt!
It was worth it though because you could get right up close to the monkeys and they were adorable.
