Takayama (Japan 2023)

This is the second recount-style post of our trip to Japan in late 2023. I’m doing them out of order, when I feel like posting about a particular leg of the trip, but I’ll eventually put together a master post that you can read through chronologically 😁

Getting to Takayama was stressful! We caught a bus from Matsumoto to Takayama, that also makes a stop near Kamikochi on one of the last days before it closes for the season, that fills up on a “first come, first served” basis, and there are only four of them a day. When we got to the bus station, the line was already quite long and growing 🥴😭 Peak stress conditions for me 😅 🙃 We eventually got onto the bus all okay and settled in for the several-hour-long trip.

Takayama itself is a kinda quaint town, fairly deep into the mountains of the Japanese Alps. Its roots are in the artisan and merchant classes of Japan, and there are a lot of examples of that craftsmanship in the various stores in the town. It was interesting to spend time reading about Takayama’s history - it is an unusual historical example of a town primarily being successful due to its commercial operations, rather than military strength and importance.

The town has a similar feeling to a lot of older European towns, thanks to the old wooden merchant buildings and fairly low-rise city core. Some of the streets have been designated as special historic areas and so maintain that vibe coherently all the way down the street. Makes for some gorgeous, bustling pictures.

A photo of a very busy and narrow street, with many old Japanese buildings on either side, and trees in the distance

The morning markets are a primary attraction for tourists, and we got to sample them briefly on both days. They were very busy and they’re set along the main river in the town, which makes for a unique vibe. Lots of fresh, local produce and food that are only found in the Hida region.

A photo of a market, with stalls on either side and lots of people

Mountain walking

After having ramen for lunch, we headed to Shiroyama Park, which is a huge and hilly parkland that I thought might be nice to get some views from (I’m a sucker for a view). It has a walking route to the top with castle ruins. It was the last sunny afternoon we’d have for awhile, and I wanted to take advantage of the good weather by being outside and exploring.

We were a bit wary of bears, especially so given how large the park was, and there had been recent reports of people spotting them on the trails 😳 We did get kinda lost trying to find the castle ruins - or maybe something else? I can’t fully remember what we were looking for anymore 😆

We wandered around the park, enjoying the nice (though COLD) weather. There were so many good trees and autumn foliage, it was a lovely time. Eventually we looped back around to the start of the track, dropped into a cafe in the park and tried shohei mochi.

A photo of shohei mochi on a plate

A photo of a man smiling with a stick of shohei mochi, about to eat it

We ended the afternoon with a stop at a trendy cafe that I had seen on TikTok, Tori Coffee. They had equipment for sale from the Australian brand, Normcore, which was a surprise! The coffee was good too.

A man looking at his phone in a cafe. There is a bar with the barista at it, behind.

Ryokan stay

We treated ourselves to a ryokan experience while we were in Takayama, and stayed at a ryokan that included an onsen on-site. I had been using the public baths at each of the hotels that had them so far, but it was a nice experience for Joey to also try.

By far the best part about the ryokan we stayed at was the food. Lots of very local, fresh ingredients that we got to try. The food was more to Joey’s taste than mine (a strong focus on vegetables, sometimes uncooked or served cool), but it was still nice to experience.

A photo of many different dishes of food on a table. There are all sorts of local food.

It was particularly enjoyable to try local specialties to the Hida region: Hida beef and hoba miso (miso cooked on a hoba leaf). I really liked those 😁

The intensity of hospitality at a ryokan was something that I had read online about quite a bit. The general suggestion is that if you are trying a ryokan for the first time, to try it only for one or two nights. I definitely felt that was the right call. I found that it wasn’t something I truly enjoyed - I felt very awkward as staff cleaned and rearranged the furniture in our space. I know that’s part of the experience, but was not for me 😅 I am grateful that we got to try it, but I probably won’t be doing it again 😅

I wanted to go for a little wander after dinner and a bath, so we put warm clothes on and headed out into the night. While we were out, I realised I was craving something sweet as a post-dinner treat 😆 we looked around for a bakery, and found a ✨ mysterious ✨ 24-hour bakery on Google Maps. When we poked our head in, we realised it was unattended, with some other tourists also trying to work out what was going on. We worked out eventually that you pay through a vending machine, and get a key in a gachapon which you could use to open one of the pigeonholes. Very quirky.

Hida Folk Village

The next day, I wasn’t feeling too well and I was starting to get fatigued; sleeping on tatami and futon for the first time in awhile was a bit tough, and the cold weather that we experienced in Takayama so far made it worse 😢 We decided to press on and look at the Hida Folk Village in the morning, after checking out, and left the afternoon open for plans.

Though we were tired and the weather was temperamental, this ended up being an awesome time. The village has many historical examples of rural architecture in the Hida region, many of which you can go inside and explore. Some of them also had displays of craft and tools inside, such as how silk was extracted from silkworms, and displays on what life was like in the Hida region hundreds of years ago.

Some of these houses were similar to those found in Shirakawa-go, which we also visited, but there was a broader range of examples of different house styles here. We really enjoyed it!

Anxiety and indecision for afternoon tea

We had only booked the ryokan for one night, with the other night at a hotel down the road. We still had to wait for check-in at the new hotel 😅

Joey wanted to try the onsens at Gero Onsen, a half-hour train ride from Takayama city, but I was not feeling up to it. We umm’ed and ahh’d about what to do for some time and had trouble finding something to eat for lunch.

I decided to stick around, and camped out at a local cafe and read a book for a few hours. I was very indecisive about what else to do as it was cold and rainy all afternoon.

I wanted to see some of the interesting museums in town and wander the streets; as mentioned above, there were some very wealthy merchants of Takayama were. I checked out the Kusakabe Traditional House and learned more about the history of the Kusakabe family, who were one of the merchant families in town.

In the meantime, Joey realised that he couldn’t get a convenient train to Gero, and so decided to do his own wandering. Eventually we met up and spent time hopping along the river, watching the koi swimming in the river.

A quirky dinner at Sakurajaya

We really did eat well in Takayama 😆 The other dinner we had in Takayama was at Sakurajaya, a small restaurant I had booked at well in advance through our hotel. It had been well-recommended by the internet for its quirky, personable chef, and inventive food with local ingredients.

He sure was quirky! You sit at the bar and watch him cook in front of you, which I really love, though sometimes (once again) the intimacy of being up close with the owner can be a bit intense and high-pressure.

I was quite anxious as I had read some mixed reviews online; some of them complained that you needed to order a drink in order to have water, and found the owner too much. The obligation to drink was 100% there, but I was okay with it in the end - the drinks were tasty.

This was a really memorable night 😊 the cooking techniques at Sakurajaya were really unique and different, and it was very affordable for how ~ bespoke ~ it was. I know that sounds wanky but IT REALLY WAS BESPOKE OKAY?

Gacha gacha!

To end our stay, we got up early the next morning and went back to the 24-hour bakery. Basically, it was a gatcha powered bakery, where you pay ~1000¥ and get a gatcha with a key inside that corresponds to a pigeonhole. You have a 1-in-26 chance of getting a ‘special bread’. What I didn’t realise was that the other 25 chances were just plain bread 😳 so we ended up with a loaf and a half of plain bread 🤣

A photo of a series of cupboard doors, each of them has a number on them.

This will become important in Kanazawa, where we try and work out what to do with half a loaf of plain bread (we gave the other whole loaf to the hotel staff before checking out 🙃)

Stuff we missed

I feel like we scratched the surface here, and there were quite a few other attractions on my to-visit list that I’d like to get back to. Notably:

a green tea house, Sugi, that I had found on Tiktok
Matsuri Yatai Kaikan (festival float exhibition hall)
Yoshijima Traditional House (they had just closed for the day when I got there 😭)
Le Pain Mujo for good pastries
Higashiyama Walking Course; we did part of this but didn’t go past all the different historical temples due to the bad weather