Japan Alps: Takayama, on the way to Shirakawa-go

Hida-Takayama, 
our stop-over between Yarimikan/ Shin-Hodaka and Shirakawa-go


Takayama is a beautiful Edo period town at the foothills of the stunning Northern Japan Alps in Gifu Prefecture; to differentiate it from all the other many places with the same name, the city is also commonly referred to as Hida-Takayama.
Takayama means “high mountains” and with Japan being utterly mountainous, you figured that there must be lots of places named Takayama.

Apparently the high altitude together with the long winters with one of the most consistent snowfall in the world kept this area fairly isolated in the past, allowing Takayama to develop and preserve well its own culture and traditional charm: old town, festivals, traditional ryokan inns, famous sake breweries and lots of craft shops. Appropriate for our Japan tour!

The city seems to be quite compact, an place easy to explore and enjoy. Most of the main tourist attractions can be found in the centre of town, within walking distance of the train station. We had a one night stay at this local charming ryokan called Hakuun where we soaked - late evening and again early next morning, in an lovely located onsen (hot spring) and enjoy local delicacies like Hida beef
(the expensive meat from black-haired Japanese cattle from this very Gifu prefecture).

Apart from that, there are many skiing resorts in the Takayama area, which are open during the winter months and the nearby mountains are also popular for sightseeing and trekking.
And the village of  Shirakawa-go is just a 50 minute bus ride away, which brings up our next stop on this lovely Japan Alps tour - details here.

Miyagawa river and Nakabashi Red Bridge

The Old Town or Sanno macho is consisting of three rows of buildings and is also referred to as "small Kyoto in Hida" due to its quaint atmosphere. It is awarded three stars in the Michelin Travel Guide.

Old Town, Takayama

Old Town, Takayama

The Miya River, or Miyagawa: cutting the old Takayama, the river is spanned by several small bridges including Kajibashi, Yanagibashi, Ikadabashi and the famous red Nakabashi. 

“Hida-gyu” (Hida Beef) is the specific name given to beef from a black-haired Japanese cattle breed, that has been raised in Gifu Prefecture for at least 14 months (quote)

 local art and craft production

Sanno-machi: Takayama old town

Hakuun dinner - Hida beef

delicious diner, Hakuun ryokan

 local art and craft production

  local art and craft production: street graffiti

 local art and craft production

Takayama shopping street

Sanno-machi: the old town of Takayama 

walking the streets of the Old town of Takayama

Old town Takayama: old private houses

Hida Takayama and the mountains of Hida

Japan travel: Shirakawa-go, one old village in the Japanese Alps

Shirakawa-go, Japan Alps

Before going into the pictures let me tell you that we are still into the most popular range of the Japan Alps, 

(everything about scenic views and the most beautiful forest I ever seen) known as a must-visit site among 

international tourists - especially the area including Kamikochi and Shinhotaka Ropeway/ Yarmikan.

In this remote, mountainous areas between Takayama and Kanazawa in the central Japan is where you find the 

small Shirakawa-go Village. And we arrived here after a 50 min trip by bus, from Takayama.

Shirakawa-go is situated at the foot of Mt. Haku-san on the small river called Sho-kawa. It is a beautiful 

mountain village - with rice fields and a river running right in the middle. It is best known for small, traditional 

houses build in a style known as gasshō-zukuri. It is a Unesco World Heritage in Japan and their  preservation 

over hundreds of years has been recognized worldwide.

Gassho-zukuri is a house built of wooden beams combined to form a steep thatched roof that 

resembles, as you can see in the pictures below - two hands together. And somehow resambles the houses in 

the European mountain villages.

Our host for one night here was a small minshiku named Yokichi; the food was a delight of freshness and

simplicity (fish from the river near by and vegetables from the small garden around the house)

and the public onsen bath we visited late evening just to finish our day with style - was as good 

as always during our Japan Alps tour! 

It was also the last onsen-bath for us, next morning we were to leave the village and the mountains and on the 

road again to Kyoto via Kanazawa.

We had an extremely pleasant sunny afternoon here; it was green and clean and fresh and we'll be happy to 

visit again!

all this pictures are taken from the Shirakawa Tenbodai viewing point 

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the small defender of our host

our one night minshuku host 

Bliss, pure bliss!

the Deai-bashi suspension bridge on the Sho-kawa River

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Japan travel: Kamikochi, great nature and glorious views

Kamikochi

On the map of our three weeks tour in Japan, Kamikochi is a long plateau in the Azusa River Valley, about 1500 meters above sea level.
It is surrounded by tall mountains, names ending all with “kadake”, all here so you can intellectually handle the situation (kidding!): Nishihotakadake 2909m, Okuhotakadake 3190m, Maehotakadake 3090m and the active volcano Yakedake, 2455m!
It is actually a mount resort with few hotels and souvenir shops, huts and it is base for hiking the trails in the area.  The nature is great, the views - simply glorious and the access is only possible by bus or taxi and only from April to November, depends on the weather condition.

We traveled from Matsumoto to Shin-shimashima by train and from there to Kamikochi - by bus. We enjoyed one sunny day and one quiet night! in Kamikochi: we  walked the trails along Azusa River from Taisho Pond to Myojin Bridge and again, we took lots a pictures. The terrain is flat and requires no hiking experience and only a few hours of time; we met monkeys, birds and of course lots of tourists like us.

At the end of the day we had a delicious diner at our inn located by Taisho pond, right at  the entrance of Kamikochi. And of course we indulged ourself in the inn’s onsen bath.
Next morning, after another short walk and a good breakfast we were on the way to our next stop, the Yarimikan at Shin Hotaka, on the other side of the mountains.

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