11th – 12th of March –Takayama

In the morning we checked out of the hotel and took the shinkansen to Toyama where we changed to a local train that brought us to Takayama in a couple of hours. The drive took us through a changing landscape into an alpine environment with snow still covering the ground.

We had a bit of panic on arrival in Takayama as a group member had forgotten or lost their phone on the train. Luckily the train was stopped on the station for a bit as it was being combined with another, so the guide and a few others rushed in and looked (apparently when they went on the floor looking the rest of the passengers in the cabin dived down to help them look without hesitation) and fortunately they managed to return with success before the train left the station. We were picked up by a bus which took us to the Sato Folk Village, a small museum village where they had gathered 40 buildings from the region and moved them here for protection to let people see them up close and learn of the history behind them. They all had some kind of purpose; rice farmers, silk farmers, normal residential houses, storage with various sleds etc. It was nice walking around seeing the different buildings and their differences depending on where they were from and how they were built to handle the local weather conditions. And the snow-covered roofs made it all seem just a bit nicer. And there were probably the largest mallards I have ever seen, at least twice the size than the ones at home. Fascinating!

 

Sato Folk village

 

The warmth of spring hadn't quite gotten hold here yet.

From here we were picked up by our bus and went to our hotel. This was a tradition inn with rooms with mattresses on the floor (and no chairs), a small common area, shared toilets in the hallway and shared baths ad an onsen. Scrub yourself down with your small towel – there were 4 showers lined up – and when you were nice and clean you could dip into the pool, filled with water that was surprisingly hot and steaming in an already warm and humid room. 

 

My room.

Relocating and getting settled in (we were the only ones there) we left for dinner; a restaurant specializing in hida beef, a delicious local beef. Not near the level of Kobe beef, but still very good!

According to the original plan we were supposed to visit the Sato Folk Village on our second day but due to the weather forecasts we ended up going right after arrival. And good thing we did that as when we left in the morning it was raining endlessly, so having waterproofs was vital. We had a walk through the morning market where I grabbed a hida beef skewer and rice ball filled with hida beef. What a nice breakfast. Still raining we walked through the older part of the city before ending at the local government building (the only original old building for government use in the district). 

The rain started getting a bit sleet-y so we returned to the old/shop district and did a sake tasting. I’m not a big fan but there was one I truly enjoyed; a lemon-y one, tasted like limoncello so it covered up the usual sake taste, and it was only 7% as opposed to sake’s usual 20%. I guess the lack of the taste of sake made it taste as good as it did. Lunch was had at a soba noodle restaurant with delicious noodles. There were 7 of us and we were seated at a floor-table after getting out of all our wet clothes and shoes. It felt really good, but less so when leaving and having to get back into the wet shoes – apparently there is a limit to my shoes’ waterproofness. 

A small walk around in the sleet and snow before returning to the hotel where I got to get warm again and dry my outer layers and everything that had been in my pockets.

The weather turned into real snow in the afternoon before we left for a local place to have dinner. It was more of a café with a full variety of food as in it was a place to go if you preferred western food instead of the usual classic Japanese dishes. It was probably the closest we’d get to visiting a fast food place on the tour yet they had the longest wait after ordering food. 

Some people in the group had done some grocery shopping so they could have dinner at the hotel, and considering the weather and the layer of snow we waded through getting to the café and back that seemed like a very good idea at the time. Despite the weather – or maybe because of it – we did have a good time there after all.