What would Kermit say if he were Japanese? 'Gero, Gero'

Location: Gero and Takayama
Date: January 21 & 22
Who? Supertraveller Laura and her translator sidekick Elspeth (ha! Just kidding Elz)
Info: Gero is an onsen town and wonderful Elspeth was brave enough to join me! We found a hotel on the internet that looked pretty nice and had delicious looking food. We spent the first day wandering around Gero (and found that one day in Gero is quite enough). The next day we headed to the famous mountain town of Takayama (one of my favourite places in Japan) where we saw festival floats, a private puppet show and shopped.



Gero: Not the most beautiful place. Why are so many Japanese rivers ugly? It's a strange phenomenon that I haven't yet figured out. They were doing construction along the banks of the river...lets hope it was to spruce it up a bit.



Did Charlie Chaplin ever visit Japan? And if yes, did he visit Gero? Because there is a statue in the middle of town of him...just chillin...

Gero is full of frog related things because in Japanese frogs say 'kero, kero'. From advertisements to cellphone charms to Hello Kitty dressed as a frog (which Elspeth enjoyed), you can find ANYTHING frog meets onsen-related here.

The Venus foot onsen (below) - It was nice and relaxing but at the same time I had the feeling that the fountain police from Rome were going to come, yell at me and then force me to put my wet feet into my shoes!



Lunch (above) - Elspeth discovered this tiny restaurant and I was kind of skeptical at first (There were 20 year old newspapers on the walls and it was run by a very old woman who could hardly walk!) but it was amazing! We ate Hida beef (the region's specialty) cooked with miso on a leaf/fire-thing. Yes, there were some not so delicious mountain vegetables but the pickles were damn tasty!

Elspeth and I returned to the 'frog' foot onsen (it had been busy on our first walk around town) and just as we stuck our feet in, a huge group of young people came and sat down with us. We joked around, took pictures and they tried to get eachother wet. It was hilarious how Elspeth was sitting by the 'source' and all of the Japanese guys who sat near it were jumping up and down complaining about how hot it was. But Elspeth just sat there relaxing in the boiling water! Go Elspeth, you show those wimpy boys!


Our hotel was nice (even though it was kind of stuck in the late 70's) but the highlight was dinner. Everyone ate at the same time and Elspeth and I got our own hearth. We sat on the floor and we grilled our own vegetables and Hida beef (yes, we ate a lot of beef that day - but I can't afford beef regularly so it was a special day). The courses were endless and we were obviously not eating fast enough for our waitress' liking. Oh mom, the scary 'pond scum' seaweed showed up and I kept pushing it away and the waitress kept putting it back in front of me!

No everyone, you are not seeing things...that is beef sushi! It goes against everything I was taught about beef but I told myself something about the high quality of the meat and then popped it in my mouth. It was surprisingly good, but not something I'd start ordering at the sushi bar.


Elspeth: Hey, Laura check out the view of beautiful Gero!
Laura: Oh sorry Elspeth, I was just bending my neck in an awkward fashion, while holding my tea cup like a freak. Don't you love how skinny I look in this yukata!? Ahhh..the miracles of the onsen!

Breakfast at the hearth - SO DELICIOUS. Smoky fish, pickles, miso/enoki mushrooms cooked in a cool leaf shaped pot. And the famous onsen tamago (below)


On our way out of the hotel we noticed that they had a foot onsen on the balcony (above). Not to pass up a foot onsen, we stripped off our boots and socks much to the amusement of a group of old Japanese men. The water was SUPER hot and my legs instantly turned lobster red. Elsepth has the power and could keep hers in for longer.


When we asked the woman at our hotel about outdoor onsens, she gave us a map and circled one location right on the edge of the river. We had passed this one earlier in the day...If you look closely at the above picture you can see that it's an onsen just off the bank of the river (nearby there was a park where children were playing). It is in open view of the town and the bridge and probably the train tracks. We had seen a group of older people using it...and lets just say we quickly averted our eyes!

At the foot onsen above (just outside a store) you can watch tv while relaxing. Mind you, the tv was constantly playing segments of various comedians ordering the lovely concotion seen below. It is a combo of cornflakes (which show up in every Japanese sundae), soft serve ice cream and an onsen tamago! Yum?!?! On the show, everyone raved about it but come on, a soft egg with ice cream? If it hadn't been 10am I might have tried it!


Goodbye Gero! We will miss your foot onsens, Hida beef and frog related omiyage!

Hello Takayama!


Throughout the town you can find these tall buildings that are actually storehouses for the festival floats. Takayama is famous for its spring and autumn festivals, which feature huge and elaborate floats (some even have mechanical puppets, but more on that later). In the picture below you can see what the float in this storehouse looks like.


The traditional section of town is full of small shops selling wooden handicrafts, laquer ware, sembei, sake and omiyage.

You can identify the sake breweries by the stick/branch ball hanging by the doors (below). Elspeth wasn't in the sake mood and I wasn't going to drink by myself so we didn't go into any.


Hey Mom, Dad and Christopher - do you remember this thing? It's this puppet thing that is powered by water running in the street. It advertises a restaurant and each time the puppet lifts the box there is something different below (the menu, a small model of the food)


Mom, I know you remember this sembei place. I remember we shared one of these freshly grilled sembei and it was so delicious. When we walked by it, I had to buy one!




The shrine where one of the festival takes place. Next door is the museum that houses the festival floats. It has these huge doors at one end so that the floats can be removed for the festival. We had the place pretty much to ourselves.




When we left the museum it was freezing rain and we were so cold! We had just decided to go back to the train station when this girl ran out of a building and asked us if we wanted to see a puppet show. A puppet show? I convinced Elsepth that it would be cool and for 650yen we experienced a private mechanical puppet show.

The girl actually did the show in English and when she asked for volunteers, I was happy to go up, take a tea cup from a scary little puppet, eat a tea sweet and then give the puppet back the cup. Elspeth had the freaky puppet write her a note. After the show we tried working a puppet that rings a bell if you pull the strings in the right order. I love the look on Elspeth's face in this picture!



After the puppet show we headed back to the station, where we caught a train back to Nagoya. What a great weekend - onsen, beef, frogs, foot onsens, puppets, sembei, floats, origami dolls...It doesn't get much better than that.

Oh and I almost forgot - The words of the weekend were...zenmai (royal fern) and batta (grasshopper)