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The city of Takayama with the northern Alps towering overhead. Last week was Missy’s last week in Japan. It was also Golden Week, which is a week of several national holidays strung together. So, we headed up to Gifu and Nagano prefecture in the middle of Honshu mainland where the Northern Japan Alps are located. We took the shinkansen as far as Nagoya city, and then changed to an express train that headed north into the mountains, to Takayama city. The train ride was beautiful as we rode deeper and deeper into the huge mountain range. The train mostly followed along this huge gorge with the clearest water rushing through it. Most of the towns we passed by consisted of not much more than flooded rice fields. When our train pulled into Takayama station, I was surprised by how big the city was (I guess any city is big for an island girl). The city was in the middle of a valley surrounded by white-peaked mountains.
When Missy and I got of the train, we were standing near a tourist information center trying to figure out what to do next, and I noticed another foreigner yelling to me. He said, "Wait a minute! Just wait a minute!" I had
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The picturesque bridges and canals of Takayama, very similar to those of Kyoto. no idea what this guy wanted. Then he said, "West Virginia University!" I was surprised and confused. I said, "Um....yeah." He said, "You were the tutor in my Japanese class at WVU!" I couldn't believe this guy I had tutored in Japanese at WVU was in the same town as me in the middle of the Japan Alps! I admitted to him that I didn't remember him at all (oops!). But, what a completely random meeting! He told me he is in the middle of a study abroad semester at a university on Honshu. So, it's a small world after all.
As we walked through the city in search of our accommodation, it reminded me a lot of the old atmosphere of Kyoto when I lived there three years ago. There were many narrow streets of old houses, shops, and restaurants. The canals and bridges were very similar to the ones in Kyoto too. And lucky for us, even though the two weeks of cherry blossom season had ended back in Yuge, we were able to catch the end of the cherry blossoms in Takayama. We found our accommodation in the temple district. It was a beautiful old temple
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The narrow streets and traditional houses in Takayama. that was also half youth hostel.
The people there were very helpful and friendly, and we were served a delicious breakfast the next morning after we were awaken at 7am by a recording of Japanese flute being played over the intercom. We then rented bikes to ride around and see the town. We stopped at the morning market on the side of the river that runs through the town. There was lots of delicious food, hand made crafts, and souvenirs there. There were especially a lot of wood crafts because Takayama is famous for its wood crafters. When all of the temples were built in Kyoto and Nara, wood crafters from Takayama were drafted to build them, and to this day it is still the specialty of the area. Missy and I both bought wooden necklaces. Missy also couldn’t help but by some spices at a spice stand just so she could watch the woman grind them together. We also bought little paper balloon decorations that looked like blowfish.
Later that day we visited a museum of mechanical puppets and lions masks used in traditional dances at festivals. We got to see a demonstration of the mechanical puppets,
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Takayama at night called Karakuri ningyo that were popular in Japan about 300 years ago. The puppets were used to perform reenactments of traditional myths and legends. Some of the puppets displayed were moved by a system of ropes that, when pulled, could make the puppet walk, open and shut its eyes and mouth, and even do flips. Some puppets had no ropes, but moved by weights in its body. One puppet did flips down a series of steps, and one puppet served tea. Missy got picked out of the audience to drink the tea served by the puppet, and everyone oohed and awed when she knew the correct way to drink Japanese tea (turning the bowl clockwise and drinking it in three gulps)!
That night we were sitting on the stone steps leading up to a small temple in a wooded area behind the temple we were staying at. It was pitch black, and Missy and I were talking when out of nowhere a huge furry animal flew from the sky onto a pine tree right next to us. It was about the size of a fox or raccoon and furry, but with wings! What was it?! I thought it might
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Rickshaws waiting to cart passengers around Takayama be a flying squirrel, but all of the flying squirrels I've seen in pictures have been really small, mouse-size animals. It had its arms and legs stretched out just like a flying squirrel though, and it definitely flew from the sky...not jumped. It was surreal, and since it was so dark I couldn't figure out what it was. Then it was gone just as fast as it had come. I guess I will never know.
The next day we took a day trip by bus to a village about two hours northwest from Takayama, located in the Shogawa river valley, called Shirakawago. This is a village that has preserved traditional thatched-roofed farm houses and has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site. The village was very pretty and had a backdrop of snow covered mountains. The houses’ roofs are very steep and strong. They are designed to withstand the heavy snows that the area receives in the winter. The houses are very large (compared to most Japanese houses), with three or four stories. The top floor was usually used for sericulture, the rearing of silkworms. The bottom floor always had a fire in the middle for preparing food and
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an old pagoda in Takayama also for keeping the straw roof dry and the wood tight.
After leaving Takayama the next day, we traveled two hours northeast into Nagano prefecture, to a small place at the foot of the tallest mountains in the region, called Kamikouchi. The weather took a turn for the worse and got cold and rainy. So we spent that day and the next in search of onsen (Japanese natural hot spring baths) to sit in. The whole stretch of the northern Alps is dotted with onsen due to many of the mountains in the range being dormant volcanoes. The natural minerals in onsen can be very beneficial to your health, although sometimes reek of sulfur. We went to one small onsen in the onsen village of Hirayu that was located right next to the village’s Shinto shrine. We had the onsen all to ourselves, probably due to the bad weather. We went to another onsen in the village of Shirahone (meaning “white bone” because of the milky white color produced by the minerals in the baths). It was in a very beautiful location, right next to a rushing creek. As soon as we arrived there, before we had even taken
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A pool of water for purifying yourself at temples. This one was filled with sakura peddles.
a bath, we were approached by a camera crew who was doing a story about the onsen there. I guess they wanted to get the foreigner's opinion or something. I told them I hadn't been in the onsen yet, so I couldn't give my opinion, but they insisted on asking me questions about how I liked shirahone. I said, "We just got here, it's cold and rainy, we haven't been to the onsen yet, but shirahone seems like a nice place." Ha! What else was I supposed to say? So, maybe I'll be on TV in Nagano prefecture! Finally we made it to the onsen. The water was indeed milky and scorching hot!
Kamikouchi is a small park with a couple extremely high priced hotels and a campground. It was way too cold to be sleeping in a tent (although there were several hardcore hikers there with tents), but thankfully the campground also had some bare-necessity bungalows available. By bare necessity, I mean a futon and a roof. No heating! I met the first Japanese vegetarian (including fish) I’ve ever met, that worked at the dining hall there. And, of course she helped me order some meals that were
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Missy and me in front of the sukura meat-free.
My original hope before coming to Kamikouchi was to do some serious hiking and maybe climb one of the mountains. However, after arriving there and seeing all the people with there snowsuits, ice picks, mountain boots, and crampons, we realized that we were obviously not properly equipped. Still we were able to enjoy the beautiful scenery from the bottom. Right outside our bungalow was a spectacular view of the tallest mountain in the North Japan Alps, and the third tallest in the country, Yarihotaka-dake (3,190 meters). And, just so that we could at least experience a little of the high altitude, we took a ropeway (supposedly the longest in all of Asia) up a slightly shorter mountain, Nishihotaka-dake (2,909 meters). At the top of the ropeway we played around in thigh-deep snow for a bit before taking the ropeway back down to avoid a sudden windy snow blizzard.
The next day we caught the train back out of the mountains, all the way down to Hiroshima airport, where I bid farewell to Missy, and she flew back across the Pacific Ocean to West Virginia. I’m sad I don’t have anyone to make my breakfast, lunch, and dinner
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The spice woman mixing her spices at the morning market anymore. It was really nice having someone to keep me company in my lonely apartment. But, since she left, it has suddenly turned into summer here (actually according to the traditional Japanese calendar, the first day of summer was this week), and everything seems a bit more cheerful here on little Yuge. It’s funny how much people change depending on the seasons.
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nomi
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chuu
jennie!!! I love Takayama ^_^ sounds like you had an awesome trip. (cooler than when I went!) ganbare!