The Road to Takayama

We had a rough start last morning. We got to the highway bus stop right on time, but on the wrong side. Alison noticed a bus on the other side of the street and ran for it, but you had to go downstairs, under the highway and upstairs again, and by the time we got there the bus was gone. A very nice lady and the driver of a different bus helped us call the bus company but said there was no way for us to exchange our tickets after the time printed on them and it would be another ￥４６００　to get the five oclock bus. A far cry from the good any time any day for year tickets we were used to. Alison started crying. We made our way back to the train station and decided to call the Tourist Information Center. An hour later and Alison had convinced the lady there to convince the lady at the bus company to let us use our tickets on the latter bus, thank god. We spent the day explore Takeda. Not much to it really, but we found a playground with internet access and emailed the people necessary to let them know we would be late. It does not look like we will get to give our presentation, but at least we will get to see the school. The bus was four hours, but it was not packed and made frequent pit stops. We found our hostel ok but it is so cold here, there is snow on the ground, old snow, and the buildings are not heated.