After Hiroshima, my plans were a bit fuzzy, but I headed to Takayama in the Gifu prefecture, to use it as the base for a few places I wanted to visit. Takayama is the largest city by area in Japan, but less populated as it sits in the mountainous Gifu region (Takayama means Tall Mountain). I arrived on the day there was the Spring Takayama Festival (Sanno Matsuri). It is the annual festival of the Hie Shrine to celebrate the arrival of spring, where 11 festival floats (Yatai) are taken through the city. Volunteers gather dressed up in traditional Japanese attire including Kamishimo (traditional Edo period Samurai outfits). Accompanying the procession are Shishimai (lion dance) performers, and the lively, reverberating gongs of Tokeiraku performers, who wear traditional robes decorated with the vibrant image of spirited fighting
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