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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Return to the trip index here.

Central Japan Day 3 - Takayama - Kokunbunji Temple



View the first post in this series here.
View the previous post in this series here.

02 June 2008

Leaving Shirakawa-gō, our coach took us back on the mountain roads towards Takayama, a city dotted with numerous temples. Somehow roads tell how rich a country is. I was impressed by the well maintained roads and tunnels through the hills supplied with electricity. A far cry from some places I have been to where tunnels depend on the light of vehicles using them.

A dam


We passed calm lakes. Most roads are open air but some stretches are shelthered with concrete


Crossing one of the many bridges


Nice tall trees


Entering one of the many tunnels


It is mostly different shades of green


Arriving on the outskirts of Takayama


A government agricultural building. Apparently all rice grown is bought by the government at controlled prices.


Checking in to our hotel. It was about 6:30pm.


Our Ryokan styled room is really spacious. Hotel staff automatically lay the beds after dinner.

Having arrived at our hotel, we decided to break away from where most of the others in our tour group were going -- a 100 YEN shop. Before embarking on this trip I read that Takayama was a city best covered on foot. True enough, coloured tourist maps with their English photocopied translations marking attractions were readily available at the hotel reception. The cool and fresh air was perfect for a walk. We quickly orientated ourselves and headed for the nearest attraction, Hida-Kokubunji Buddhist Temple, also the oldest structure in Takayama. Originally built in 746 CE, it was burnt down. The main temple hall was rebuilt in 1615 CE and the three storey pagoda in 1806 CE. While there, we saw a huge tree in the temple compound that some of us felt looked eerie. It turns out that it was a 1200 year Ginko tree -- probably the oldest organism in the area.

What looks like a pub on our way to the temple


The three storey pagoda


The main temple hall, unfortunately it was not open. Probably because it was about 7pm.


The bell tower. The huge tree in the background is likely to be the 1200 year old Ginko tree.


Sarubobo (literally, monkey baby) outside the temple


A big stone sarubobo

It is said that long ago an epidemic was in the area and children were especially susceptible to it. Thus, sarubobo was created as a charm to ward of disease for children. Today it is used mainly for good luck with different colours meant for luck in different things.

After leaving the temple, we took a quick walk around some of the streets before returning to our hotel for dinner. Then, we realised that the shops along the streets were full of various local souvenirs and produce, although the entire place was rather deserted.

Modern sheltered walkways are placed in front of old houses


A sake shop, there are many along the way


This shop looks like it's overflowing with goodies


One of the main rivers that lie across Takayama. The family of mandarin ducks and Koi in total would cost about $10000 upwards back home, but here, they are part of the natural river fauna.


A large Shinto styled archway, smaller archways line that road all the way to another temple


Pachinko!


Bicycle parking


A residence

Thus we ended our short evening walk and arrived back at our hotel in an hour since we departed where a huge dinner awaited us. Afterwards, we ventured out once again -- this time to view the night scenes of this castle town.

View the next related post here.

Return to the trip index here.