Central Japan Day 3 - Takayama By Night

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02 June 2008

A short exploration of Takayama in the evening is what it took to make us hungry. Back at the hotel 15 minutes from the stipulated dinner time, we were treated to a huge dinner with lots of fish and fresh pork from the black pig to be steamed. My guide says we are having a variant of Shabu-shabu (しゃぶしゃぶ). In the original, meat is boiled in plain hot water, ours is steamed.

Ta-da! The biggest dinner we had on this trip -- steamed pork, two types of fish in soup, grilled salmon with salt, sashimi, etc


Large chucks of fish in the soup


Black pig pork still raw, we cover it with a wooden lid


Steamed pork ready to eat with some soy sauce


Glistening Chawanmushi (Steamed egg in a tea cup, 茶碗蒸)

As much as we tried, we couldn't finish the food quickly. When we finally did, it was dark and time for a night walk around Takayama. The streets were almost devoid of pedestrians but cars were still present. Here is a map of our evening and night walk.

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Blue route for the evening, Red route for night.


A temple bell at a cross junction


Now what are those? It's eerie but safe around here


The brightly lit shopping area is deserted with most stores closed


Only cars are on the streets


Miyamae-bashi, a bridge across Miyagawa River, the road below this huge Shinto archway leads to a temple at the end


Some old styled houses as we near Sakura-yama


This should be the gateway to Sakura-yama Hachimangu Shrine/Temple that leads from the huge archway at Miyamae-Bashi. The two lanterns makes it rather eerie


A small car


A small shrine by the road


There are many bridges here, this is one over Enako River, a small river that joins the large Miyagawa River.


Local beer it seems


This bicycle looks like it is part of the decoration


We arrived at Sanmachi (さんまち), the old town area of Takayama where preserved old private houses (Furui-Machi-nami) are


We'll be here in the morning tomorrow when all the shops open


Now this is a ``Damn Scary Phone Booth". The most eerie phone booth I have ever seen that looks like it comes right out of a horror flick. Why do they use green lighting for a phone booth anyway?


At the end of this stretch of old private houses is a 24 hour convenience store stocked with a large variety of beer and sake.


Here's Kirin, The Gold.


The gold with some Suntory mild beer that is almost alcoholess...


Parking for taxis


Walking back towards the train station


The Kanji Characters (Han characters, i.e. Chinese characters) on that sign if interpreted by my limited knowledge would mean hospital. But this looks more like a local clinic.


Finally back

We walked back to our hotel by following the rail line. A relaxing roof-top hot bath awaited us. After a good bath, we had some beer and decided to wake up at 5am the next day to visit the Higashiyama Temple trail before breakfast, a path lined with many 16th and 17th century Buddhist Temples and Shinto Shrines. Thanks to summer, the sun will be up by then. However, that means about 5 hours of sleep.

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