Happy Birthday to me!

My birthday isn't until the 23rd but I received a package from my family early. It is officially the start of autumn here but today was still in the thirties (Celsius). So the beanie (winter hat) and neck warmer (which mum thought it was necessary to explain what it was to me) might not get used for a little while, but man that chocolate ain't gonna last long!

Shirakawago August Holiday

I am finally getting around to writing about our trip to Shirakawago during our August holiday. This place was really amazing. It is an UNESCO world heritage sight due to its many Gassho Zukuri houses. These are huge multi-storey thatched roofed houses specifically built for raising silk worms. We were able to go into many that were set up for tourist. One even had live silk worms munching away. It was only a small display but we could hear them. I expect that when the roof was full of them it would have been surprisingly loud, just my guess.

Above is the Gassho Zukuri we stayed in. It was basically the last one in town with room. Weeks before Ana had been ringing around frantically looking for somewhere in Shirakawago and this one was the only one left. It was run by an old couple and they were a little reluctant to have people stay as they are old and it's a lot of hard work.

We were lucky as the weather was mainly clear while we were there. It rained briefly one afternoon but it was over quickly and helped to drop the temperature which was quite warm. Also there were flowers everywhere, above is just an example of the flowers around the town. I imagine this little village is always beautiful. You have flowers in spring and summer, red leaves in the autumn and snow in the winter. I highly recommend this place to anyone. It is a bit touristy in that there is a shitload of them but it's worth it.