traveling to TAKAYAMA

In early March we made a long weekend trip to Takayama, a small town about two hours due east of Tokyo. I picked it because I thought it was closer than it actually ended up being, it had some old, preserved houses and districts, it was a little off the beaten path and we could find lodging at the last minute, and, since it was just due east, I thought the temp would be about the same as Tokyo (meaning, not too cold). My decision making proved true on two out of the four.

The train ride was longer and more involved than I had hoped for but the route was quite scenic. For a good bit of the ride we rode along a deep, rocky gorge with a gorgeous blue river running through it. Graham spent the whole ride wishing he could get out and go fishing.

 

 

Our first two days in the town were very cold and snowy (The town is in the mountains, past Nagano, which is why it was so much colder than Tokyo). All Blue cared about was finding the next heater. There were interesting things to do in the town but more geared towards adults. I think the kids were pretty bored. Things like tour really old houses (I should say unheated houses) and look at little Japanese trinkets. Just thrilling for a three and one year old. It warmed up a bit on the third day and we took a bus out to a village where they had reconstructed various old houses and community buildings from around Japan. We all enjoyed having a little more space to walk around and explore. Each building required you to remove your shoes if you wanted to enter. And, of course, Blue and I were both wearing big lace-up boots so we would just peek in the windows and keep walking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The area is famous for its Hida beef and soba noodles so we literally ate one or the other for every meal. Mostly beef though. Blue is a meat lover. We stayed in a ryokan (like a small inn) that had a nice cypress tub in the room and a full onsen downstairs. It was fine - my only complaint was that it was at the top of a hill and getting back and forth each day was not fun. Also, they only served Japanese breakfast which is just not my favorite. So we had to go out and find food each morning which is not easy to do in Japan. The country doesn't really wake up until after 10am.

 

 

All in all, a reasonably successful trip. Graham and I really enjoyed the old houses and history but it was difficult to fully appreciate it all with restless toddlers.