Takayama[links]

November 1, 2000

Now this is a place we wish we'd have had more time for...what we'd give to be able to trade one of the Nagoya nights for a night here.  Unfortunately, by the time we got here, it had to be a day trip.  But it was worth it.

 

The thing to see in Takayama is the Hida Minzoku Mura Folk Village.  If you've ever seen the 1880s town in South Dakota, you'll be familiar with the concept.  The buildings in the village are all authentic, and were transplanted here for preservation.  Some of the buildings date from the 1500s, while others are 18th century in origin.

 

Before we hit the village we stopped for lunch at a little place that specialized in homemade pizza and hot sandwiches, naturally with green tea on the side.  It was a wonderful warm-up meal.

 

The village itself was spectacular.  The setting, with a small pond and mountain backdrop, is stunning, particularly with the leaves turning.  It was a foggy, rainy, quite cold day, but it kind of added to the atmosphere.  The photos we took here were some of the best from the entire trip.

 

Elaine recorded the scenery this way:

 

"There was a lovely pond, gorgeous maples, and a number of buildings and homes dating from the 1600's and on.  Once again, to enter the buildings we had to remove our shoes.

"Takayama can get quite a bit of snow, so it was interesting to see the different architecture of the regions from which the buildings came - they had to deal with varying weather.  Most of the buildings had real smoldering fires going in them.  Signs explained this was to help preserve the wood from rot and bugs, as well as provide some authentic atmosphere.  There were household artifacts such as kitchen utensils and looms and clothing on displace, in addition to farming equipment and saws."

Each home was given a name, such as "Toguchi-san's House", and arranged on an easy tour route through the village.  One of the homes was very tall, with the attic taken up for silk worms.  Cool!  Another home was just large all around and was owned by a wealthy man.  He even had a beautiful garden on one side of his house.  Check the picture on the right.

 

In the middle of the village was a large bell, and tourists were permitted to ring it.  I couldn't resist.  Japanese bells sound very different from the typical Western ones we think of.

 

The village also showcases traditional arts and crafts of the area.  In one home, a man was handcrafting straw sandals, and in another, an old woman was quilting.

 

After thoroughly enjoying the village, we checked out some shops and headed back to the train station.  We hopped a JR train back to Nagoya, planning on then taking the Shinkansen to Tokyo.  We grabbed some O-Bentos for dinner and got on our train.  Since it was fairly crowded, we decided to keep our bulky back-pack carrying selves in the entry until the train was moving.  This proved an interesting mistake.

 

"When we went to find our seats, they were already occupied.  We pulled out our tickets and showed the guy.  He looked puzzled and pulled out his.  He studied them for a moment before pointing to ours and saying 'Hikari.'  Pointing down to the train were were on, he said 'Nozomi.'  We couldn't believe it!  The Nozomi Shinkansen was the only one our JR pass wouldn't cover.  Of course, the train was well on its way to Tokyo, so there was no getting off."

The train didn't stop until Yokohama, so it wasn't like they could kick us off.  I flagged down a fare inspector and showed him my ticket.  He read it, winced, and kind of staggered backwards before saying "Nozomi!".  Oops!  He signaled to us to wait, and said "Chotto matte" (wait a minute), then left us for a few minutes.  When he came back, he took us to some empty seats in a non-smoking car (thank God!) and let us ride it out.  Whew!

 

So, we got to ride the famous Nozomi SuperExpress train, and it was a great ride.  We ended up getting to Tokyo a good half-hour ahead of schedule!  It's somewhat fitting that of all the trains we took, the only really wrong one we took was the one we hadn't paid for.  

 

Fortunately, the nice fare inspector figured that stupid Westerners didn't need to get fined for hitching a ride to Tokyo.

 

Since we just spent the night in Tokyo before taking another side trip, let's go straight there

 

Just passing through Tokyo...to Nikko....

Takayama Links:

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This is my favorite picture from the whole trip.  The leaves are just so beautiful, and the wet, foggy day was perfect for pictures.

Looking at the people in this picture, you can see the size of this house.  The attic (three levels of attic) was used for silkworms.

This pretty garden was off to the side of a wealthy man's home.  Beautiful!

Seth, of course, couldn't resist ringing the village bell.

The curators of the village have added a rice paddy to give the village the appropriate agricultural feel.