Our next destination was a place of natural beauty – the Takachiho Gorge. It took two buses and four hours in travel time to get us to the town. Buses were usually comfortable, punctual and manned by polite bus drivers. They had a fare display on a LED board in front of the bus. It took me some time to figure out how it worked. And as was our custom, when we reached a town we looked for the information counter from where we got directions to the gorge.

It was a long walk to a blogged about soba stall and we got lost but two children walked us about 500 metres in the opposite direction to bring us to the stall. However, the queue at lunch time was too long. Pressed for time, we went to the supermarket and bought some packed lunch.

We decided to walk to Takachiho Gorge, and with the help of locals we managed to find a route down the gorge through a lovely forest with autumn leaves. At its foot we saw a beautiful gorge for romantic boat rides.  We wanted to take the boat rides but by the time we reached there they had closed the booth, so that was that. How were we to know that this was a Japanese holiday and many locals came to visit? Well anyway we saved some money here to splurge on food later.

It was the Lord’s Day so we gathered for a time of worship. We sang a song and everyone gave thanks and shared how the Lord had been with them and how they were blessed.

We patiently waited for the bus to bring us back to town where we had an evening meal at that soba restaurant which is run by a Japanese marathoner who once represented his country in the Olympics. The Japanese food was delicious. The soba, the sauce, the everything. Great quality, great value, great service.

By the time we returned to Extol Inn, it was dark and we settled for a Mos Burger before we retired for the night.