Another long day in transit. What we thought would take us around four hours actually took eight. We travelled today from Takayama to Yudanaka, which is an hour out of Nagano.
We stayed in a cute little ryokan / hotel with the sweetest staff. Their English was terrible but they were amazingly friendly and were trying so hard to make sure we had a pleasant stay, including walking us to the door of a restaurant they recommended to us and speaking with the owner inside.