Takayama was not at all what I was expecting. The photos I had seen on the Internet painted it as a quaint town. What I found when I got off the train with hundreds of other tourists was a fair sized city set up for tourism. Right outside the train station was a tourist information center with city maps in several languages complete with points of interest and walking times. Traffic both pedestrian and vehicular was very heavy. The streets with the Edo period building were narrow and pretty congested. There was a lot to see however so map in hand I started out.
My first stop was for food. My early breakfast had worn off and I was hungry. I stopped at a small restaurant about 3 blocks from the station and ordered a beef bowl with the local specialty Hida beef. If was very good and fortified I set off to explore Takayama.
Takayama Lunch
The sidewalks were quite crowded with tourists and local merchants who had set up stalls on the sidewalk outside of their shops. I found the area with the Edo period buildings and streets and went exploring. The streets were even more crowded here and walking through shops was a slow shuffle. I did find a number of places that had sake tasting and tried some of the local brews. There was quite a wide range of tastes and I had to restrain myself from buying one of everything that I liked.
Once I grew tired of the crowds I walked away from the business core uphill towards the local temples and shrine. The atmosphere became more peaceful and rural. There were also far fewer people. I stopped along the way for a soft ice cream which I hardly ever eat but I could not resist trying the green tea flavour. I took a lot of pictures around the temple and walked in the forest for a while. It was very enjoyable.
Afterwards I walked back downhill and looked for K’s Guest House the hostel that I had booked a room in. They have locations in various cities in Japan with reasonably priced rooms. For whatever reason signage in Japan is quite subtle and I managed to walk by the hostel twice before I found it. K’s is a Japanese style inn where you leave your shoes in the front foyer and wear slippers inside. There are common rooms on the first floor for eating and hanging out, also a kitchen and a few computer stations. Most such places that I have stayed at have common toilets on each floor with showers or baths situated on one or more floors. K’s was unusual in that my room had a toilet and bath in the room. It was the kind of molded modular style prefab that you see in apartments and dorms here.
Modular Bathroom
Tub on Left. Faucet fills sink or tub.
Check in was easy as I had made a reservation on the Internet back in Okazaki. I was surprised that the receptionist spoke English. Once in my room I relaxed for a bit and then got out my textbooks to study for a while.
I had passed a grocery store on the way to the hotel and went back there to buy a bento for supper. While I was walking around I came across a shop selling what looked like takoyaki except that the sign said something else that I could not read. I bought an order anyway and while it looked liked takoyaki the tako had been replaced with Hida beef. It was good but I like the octopus version better.
Back in my room I ate my bento, studied a bit more and went to bed early as I had to be up early to get to Shirakawa-go in the morning.