^{UPDATE: 24 December 2024 – Below is a story I wrote ahead of my November 2023 visit to Takayama. I’ve been back again in November 2024, and continue to love this charming place. It remains a favourite of ours. A recent discovery for us was the Retro Museum, close to the old town. I didn’t grow up in Japan, but this museum still reminded me of a lot of the toys and lifestyle of the 1950’s and ‘60’s in Australia. It’s a very interactive museum where you can play with old gaming machines and old fashioned toys. Both MJ (the hubby)and I absolutely loved it!}

^{On our latest visit, we decided to cross the mountains by bus to reach our next destination, Matsumoto. The bus fare was around $40 Australian, and well worth it! A very picturesque trip, with a 20 minute stop at an alpine village en route. I highly recommend it.}

————————————————————————————————————————————————^{The one place in Japan that I repeatedly recommend to other travellers is Hida Takayama in the Gifu region of the main island of Honshu. In fact, my heart breaks a little when I hear visitors to Japan didn’t go there or only allowed a day for it in their itinerary! My fifth visit to Takayama is coming up later this year and I am still discovering and savouring its delights. The city also is a wonderful base to explore Gifu and its spectacular attractions. Takayama is, without doubt, my most favourite place in Japan. An historical city, with a friendly country feel.}

^{About a five hour train ride (going via Nagano) from Tokyo, you will find Takayama is the complete package, offering visitors many of the attractions desired in a trip to Japan – from Edo era streets with well preserved merchant houses to excellent locally produced crafts, morning markets by the river, first class food experiences, locally produced quality sake, festivals and museums, trekking, mountain climbing, trout filled rivers that my fly fisher husband dreams about, waterfalls, winter skiing/snowboarding, and onsens. Work is also well underway by local breweries to also produce whiskey. One brewery bought an old school building to convert into a distillery, and I understand tours of it may be run later this year.}

^{There is even a 1200 year old ginkgo tree in Takayama! Well – if a tree gets to that age, it deserves a spot in my rave about Takayama, don’t you think!}

^{This delightful little city is nestled in a valley, with a majestic Japan Alps backdrop. It is a very walkable and safe place – quite handy getting back to your accommodation if you have overdosed on the delicious local sake, enjoyed with a meal of the famous local Hida local beef.}

^{There’s also a lovely casual walk above the town called the Higashiyama Walking Course. It is an easy 3.5 k route through Takayama’s main temple area,  the quieter suburbs, and Shiroyama Park, a wooded hill and former site of Takayama Castle.}

^{Takayama is one of the most famous places in Japan for beautifully hand carved and decorated festival floats – and if you don’t happen to be in Takayama for its festivals, you can still see some of its magnificent floats at its Festival Float museum https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=takayama+festival+float+museum&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8.}

^{One place you must not miss in Takayama is the Hida village. Don’t make the mistake that this is a copy of Shirakawa-go, which you can access from Takayama on a half day trip. It’s not. Both are worth visiting. The Hida village gives you a very good understanding of the area’s history, traditions and crafts. If you are there at the right time, you might even be treated to demonstrations of weaving and work crafting items such as rope sandals. Try to go at weekends – it might have a bigger crowd, but it’s more likely to have activities and demonstrations. Weekdays will be a lot quieter – an attraction in itself.}

https://www.hidanosato-tpo.jp/english12.htm

^{I first went to the Hida village on a December day when it was snowing. What a xmas photo that provided! I returned in 2019 in May, and lucked in on a festival that was underway there. You can walk to the village from the station if you don’t mind a long uphill amble. But you can also take a local bus! Walking back down is pleasant with shops and galleries en route.}

^{Takayama is the ideal base for a variety of half day and full day trips in the Gifu region that offer a wide range of activities from riding electric bikes on an old railway high in the mountains (Gatton-Go) https://rail-mtb.com/en/, riding regular bicycles in the nearby town of Hida Furakawa – https://satoyama-experience.com/cycling/ visiting the world heritage listed Shirakawa-go village https://www.vill.shirakawa.lg.jp/en/, enjoying sensational views from the Shinhotaka ropeway-Japan’s most unique double decker ropeways in the northern alps https://shinhotaka-ropeway.jp/en/, and even – for the science minded – visiting the remarkable Hida Space Science Museum KamiokaLab that focuses on the work of the Super-Kamiokande. It’s in the same town as Gatton-go railway cycling. The Super-Kamiokande is the largest underground neutrino detector in the world, studying the nature of neutrinos to reveal the history of the universe using neutrinos. https://www.city.hida.gifu.jp/site/kamiokalab/}

^{In winter, the Satoyama Experience in Furakawa offers snow shoe treks! Haven’t tried that one, but sounds fun! It is apparently suitable for beginners, and features local nature and local life.}

^{You can get through to the other side of the Alps from Takayama for a day bus trip to Kamikochi in the splendid Chubu Sangaku National Park in neighbouring Nagano prefecture in about 90 minutes (note Kamikochi closes late November through to April).}

^{You don’t need a car here. There is a very good bus company, based next door to the railway station, that will take you most places you want to go, including some wonderful tours https://www.nouhibus.co.jp/english/}

^{And you can do taxi tours from Takayama.}

^HISTORY: ^{Takayama traces its roots to the Jōmon period ( c.14,000 and 300 BC). So this is a place steeped in history and tradition. It is also a famous area for skilled carpenters, many of whom went to help construct Kyoto when it was the ancient capital.}

^{I first visited Takayama just over 20 years ago, when it wasn’t as well known to foreign tourists as it is now. I read about it in the Lonely Planet Guide, and it sounded like my sort of place. Lonely Planet even recommended a good place to stay that met the restraints of my sparse budget – the Rickshaw Inn. I emailed them several times, but didn’t get an answer. That made me even more determined to stay there, so I left four nights blank on our itinerary and decided I would try to sort it once I reached Japan. And so I did, reaching out for assistance from a tourist visitor centre in Japan that rang the Rickshaw Inn and sorted my booking.}

^{Takayama then was served by a small, very old fashioned railway station. Quite different from the sleek modern little station that serves the city now. The Hida Express will bring links Nagoya to Toyama – with Takayama a stop en route. It is a very scenic and enjoyable train trip.}

^{The now famous UNESCO world heritage listed Shirakawa-go village was a good few hours drive away – and often cut off in winter. In fact, on that visit I didn’t even hear about Shirakawa-go. Today, thanks to a new highway system, it’s less than a hour away – an easy and very popular trip from Takayama. However, note that its popularity has soared to the point that in busy holiday times, you may well find yourself in a big traffic jam trying to get there if you drive yourself. My advice for these periods – take the bus! I also recommend the morning bus. Head straight to the centre of the village before tourist numbers build up for the day, then fan out to the outer areas. Totally worth it. I’ve now been twice!}

^{No story on Takayama would be complete without mentioning its little neighbour, Furukawa – about a 15 minute JR train ride away. Less busy than Takayama, but with a big range of attractions. I’ve enjoyed a wonderful cycle tour here, that took me out to surrounding farmlands. The company that organises the bike tours -Satoyama Experience – was excellent to deal with, answering my emails promptly in english. We also did a guided walk with them. We paid directly via their booking service, and had no problems doing that. Furukawa also has a well regarded sake brewery. I have tried their sake, and it’s very good. I bought one of their elegant small sake bottles home, and it is now a lovely little vase in my kitchen. Furukawa has an excellent Festival Hall with a small theatre that shows a free movie about its annual festival. The town features a beautiful canal area and, for anyone interested in woodwork, the Takumikan Craft Museum (飛騨の匠文化館, Hida No Takumi Bunkakan) is dedicated to traditional Hida carpentry craftsmanship. I could barely drag my husband away from it! The wood puzzles, based on ancient Japanese carpentry techniques, are a great present – we bought one for our engineer son.}

^{I have read that some travellers are disappointed in the night life of Takayama – even going as far as saying there is none! Personally, I’m usually stuffed with my day’s touring activities in Gifu to go looking for a night life beyond my evening meal. You won’t have any difficulty finding restaurants – and there are a handful of bars (izakaya) that open through to around 11.30pm. But it is true that nights are quiet side in Takayama.}

^{I suspect though that the locals know more about the nightlife than tourists. I’ve seen a few cafes there advertise live music. And Takayama holds a famous jazz festival every spring. I haven’t been, though I did watch some sessions live by video link during the pandemic. The performances, including a good offering by locals, were super cool! The festival suggests to me that there are some very keen and experienced jazz musicians and singers based in Takayama, and they must jam somewhere – I just haven’t heard where! So – I think there is some pretty good underground nightlife in Takayama – for now, the locals are just keeping it to themselves!}

^{I could go on and on about Takayama – the retro museum, the Takayama Jinya, the remarkable Hikaru Museum that includes exhibition rooms for fine arts, archaeological research, and history. So much to discover! No wonder this blog story is overcrowded! I have been, and been, and been to Gifu and I’m still finding plenty of interest in this region. It simply refuses to let go of my itineraries in JAPAN.}

^{Accommodation: Takayama has a wealth of accommodation to suit every budget and taste. You will find them on the main booking sites. We generally use booking.com, Qantas hotels, and Japan’s major agency Japanican. I always check on hotel direct booking sites in case they have the best deal. There are also old renovated Japanese houses to rent – something that would be financially worthwhile for a group or family.}

^{There’s a lot of hotels/ryokans within walking distance of the station and centre of town. We have stayed at the WAT hotel – perhaps 10 minutes walk from the station. Excellent view from the rooftop bar! We have also stayed at the old Best Western, a few minutes from the railway station. It is now the Chisun hotel, and again we have stayed here since the changeover. Nothing essentially has changed since it was the Best Western. And, of course, there was that first stay – The Rickshaw Inn – still in business and popular! For our upcoming visit, we have chosen ‘Hotel Around Takayama’, which has attracted some good reviews. Again, a short walk from the railway station and the centre of town.}

^{Food: Both Takayama and Furukawa have plenty of good eateries and cafes to choose from – one thing, you must try some local Hida beef! Oishī – delicious! One of our favourite cafes in Furukawa is the Ichinomachi cafe. Quiet, unassuming and found in a side street near the bridge .. not expensive, nice lunch menu. I’m certain the other diner there when we visited again last November was a K Drama star! He seemed to be enjoying his meal in solitude, so I pretended not to recognise him.}

^{For the cheesecake experience in Hida Furukawa – see the link to my Furukawa story at the end of the blog.}

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063496125490

^{Like most of Japan, it can be hard to find an early opening place for breakfast, unless you are eating at your accommodation. We are light breakfast eaters, so we like to find a suitable cafe. In Takayama, we like the small Nanten cafe near the railway. Very homely, very friendly – they are open by 8.15 and you will be able to get egg on toast there.}

https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Restaurant_Review-g298113-d10282909-Reviews-Nanten-Takayama_Gifu_Prefecture_Tokai_Chubu.html?fbclid=IwAR2DDv5NAnzyC1q1k0dYmOL-EphIlKq1329iN4jr267llEMbida38Oi17ws

^{We also like Coffee Don’s cafe in one of the main streets. They open around 7am, so you can get a light breakfast here. We like to go later in the day to try their parfait or one of ‘Mama’s’ Japanese puddings.} https://www.hidatakayama.or.jp/eat/coffee-don/

^{See some more details stories about places I have visited in the Gifu region:}

https://travellingtherese.com/2023/08/20/shirakawa-go-etsujis-passion-2/

https://travellingtherese.com/2022/10/17/cycling-in-japan-furukawa-gifu-2/

https://travellingtherese.com/2022/08/28/furukawa-gifu-little-town-with-heart/

https://travellingtherese.com/2022/07/31/japan-the-first-time-2002-2/

https://travellingtherese.com/2022/07/22/kamioka-railway-cycling-and-super-space-town-in-the-japanese-alps/