The four of us girls woke-up at 9am this morning when Don knocked on our shoji screen door. He said it was time for breakfast, so we hastily got up and went downstairs. Luckily breakfast was much smaller than the meal we were served for dinner last night, but I still had to force myself to eat most of it since I’m not usually a big breakfast eater. It was once again very tasty and was composed of many small dishes. After breakfast, I met up with Norio, and we walked to the washi paper making factory located about 15 minutes away down the mountain. Gokayama is known for its washi paper, so I was really interested to see the process which goes into making it. The factory turned out to be more of a workshop, and there were only two people working in it. It was so cool being able to watch them manually make every single sheet of paper. I had blindly assumed that a machine did most of the work, but I was completely wrong. Even some of the tools that they were using were quite historic looking, so it was a great experience overall. We ended up running into over half of the class while there as well since it was something very different than anything we would ever see in the U.S.
After visiting the washi paper making factory, Norio, Matt, and I walked back to our village. It was overcast outside but still extremely humid. By the time we made it back to our village, it started to rain, and the rain continually got heavier as it moved closer to our departure time. It was really calming to sit under the covered veranda of the Gassho Style Houses and listen to the rain hit the roofs and rice paddies. I sat outside enjoying the weather for the two hours before we had to catch the bus at 1:58pm. By the time we have to make the 10 minute walk to the bus stop with all of our stuff, it was completely pouring. It was such a miserable and surprisingly cold walk, and the short wait didn’t help matters.
After catching the local bus, we took it all the way back to the local train station. We waited an hour for the train to arrive, then we took it for 57 minutes to Takaoka Station. Once arriving in Takaoka, we had another 45 minute layover. I took this time as an opportunity to get some food, and everyone ended up having the same idea. We all ended up going to McDonald’s since it was quickest and most convenient. Since I was getting low on money again, I only got two Shaka Shaka Chickens for 200 yen total. It was enough to hold me over since I still had a pack of two peanut butter sandwiches in my backpack. From Takaoka Station, we caught the Hakutaka to Echigoyuzawa for 2 hours and 8 minutes. With the help of my iPod, I was able to sleep for more than half of that long train ride. When we got into Echigoyuzawa, we had to run to the Shinkansen platform since we only had 8 minutes to make it from one train to the next. We barely caught the Shinkansen in time, and we rode that back to Tokyo for an hour and 12 minutes. From Tokyo Station, we hoped onto the Yamanote subway line and rode that for about half an hour to get to Shinjuku Station. From Shinjuku Station, we switched to the Odakyu Line and finally got off at Sanjubashi Station, which is the closet station to the NOMYC. That completed a day with over seven hours of travelling! We stopped by 7-11 so all of us could get more cash out, then we bought stuff at the convenience store and got dinner at Matsuya.
We checked-in at the NOMYC a little after 9:30pm, picked-up our sheets, and got our room assignments. We surprisingly got the same rooms that we had last time, so that was convenient. I took a shower, Skyped, then went to bed since I was so tired. Tomorrow we have plans to meet with an architect named Fujimori, and he was actually Don’s old professor. It should be interesting, but we have to meet at 8:50am. Hopefully one of these days I’ll be able to sleep in. Haha…
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