Out of a Samurai movie - beautiful old town

Old town
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Seeing as we had covered Ninja City in half a day, we decided to return the car early in Nagoya so we can have a head start in travelling to our next destination of Takayama. Geographically, Takayama is much closer to access from Ninja City (Iga Ueno) but we had heard that Takayama should be enjoyed on foot so we figured that we’d save some Yen and not keep the car for longer than we needed.

Takayama is a scenic 2 hour train ride from Nagoya on the Hida Express.  The view of the country side and mountains was so breathtaking that the time passed very quickly. Takayama is a mountainous region so be aware that it gets very cold in the evenings and early morning. Unlike the city, there is a crisp breeze that chills you to the bone so it’s best that you bring some extra warm clothes. We had intentionally planned our itinerary so we could enjoy relaxing countryside strolls in between the fast paced city visits. We will be staying in a “foreigner friendly” Ryokan called Rickshaw Inn for the next two nights. (You can access my review of the Rickshaw Inn from the column on the left side).

Old private homes converted to shops
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The main draw of Takayama is the old part of town and can be covered in 20 minutes. However, if you wish to enjoy all the worthwhile sights and visit the many old private homes converted to unique stores, it’s best you stay for at least two days. I was amazed at how well they have maintained these old homes. Some are currently private residences and others have been converted to shops selling traditional crafts, restaurants, sake breweries and old style Japanese inns. I guess from a North American sorta take, you can say that Takayama looks like a town out of a samurai movie.

Tour the city by rickshaw
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We woke up early the following day so we could enjoy breakfast at the morning market. There are two morning markets which are open daily from 7am to noon. If you want to avoid the bus loads of day trippers, I’d suggest you visit earlier in the morning. The smaller Jinya-Mae Market is in front of the Takayama-jinya while the larger Miya-gawa Market runs along the east bank of the Miya-gawa, between Kaji-bashi and Yayoi-bashi. Virtually everyone knows about the markets so ask for directions if it gets confusing. Here you can find an array of home grown vegetables from surrounding farms, homemade pickles, teas and handmade crafts.  We had intended to stop into a restaurant to catch breakfast but the spread of food at the market looked so inviting that we decided to nibble along the way. At the entrance of the Miya-gawa Market was a stand selling freshly grilled midarashi-dango (sweet rice balls dipped in soy sauce). The sweet aroma of soy sauce and woodsy smell of the hibachi was enough to make our stomachs grumble. With dango in hand came across this one stall where a very cute grandma and grandpa were selling fresh grown apples. They were kind enough to cut and peel the apple for us so we could enjoy it right away. The apple was perfectly chilled from the crisp morning air and was so sweet that you’d think that it was sprinkled with sugar. If you like the crisp variety, I would highly suggest you pick one up while you’re there. We also picked up packages of homemade pickles for home. As these pickles are made fresh with little to no preservatives, you should always ask the store clerk how long they will last and whether they need to be refrigerated. There were some tasty varieties that had to be kept cold so we couldn’t bring them back home to our family. Closer to lunch we stopped in to a noodle shop for lunch. I wish I remember the name of the quaint place as the soba was phenomenal. It is near the center of the morning market and serves up a variety of noodles (soba) and family style dishes. The broth of the soba was very rich in flavor yet light and not at all heavy on your stomach. The noodles were al dente and went very well with the piping hot broth. We didn’t know this at the time but Takayama is famous for their soba so I guess we made a good choice. To our surprise and delight, it only cost us 500 yen per bowl. Who says dining in Japan is expensive eh?

Traditional home
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If you’re thinking of visiting the markets, I suggest that you dress warm as it’s breezy by the river and also carry cash in small denominations as many shops are limited for change and most of the stores do not accept any other form of payment.

Takayama is quiet in the evening with very little night life (that we could find) so we decided to catch up on some laundry. We managed to find the one and only public coin laundry by the waterfront across from the two level sports store. Having never washed clothes in Japan and not capable of reading Japanese fluently, it made for a very interesting experience. The Laundromat is not manned by anyone but seeming as there were signs that invited you to “cheap curry” upstairs, I take it the owners operated the eatery above the Laundromat. You would think that instructions weren’t required for such a simple device but once again, we were in the land of the tech savvy. There are different models of machines which we later found out had different features. They all washed and dried but the more expensive machines had cool features such as washing and drying in the same machine, saving you from having to wait until the wash was done, transfer the clothes to the drier and wait again. It also allowed you to punch in your cell phone number so that it would call you when the wash and dry cycle was complete. How cool is that!! It cost us a small fortune to clean our clothes as we didn’t know that the machines dispensed soap during the cycle. As with conventional machines we thought that you had to pour in the soap manually but noooooo in Japan, it’s all automated. So guess what, we had double the amount of soap in our wash so we had to spin the clothes twice. Closer to the end of the cycle, Rod found English instructions buried under magazines which mentioned in bold of this fact and that adding our own soap can break the machine….oops! Needless to say we high tailed it out of there as other customers were coming in and we shudder to think how much it would cost to compensate for such a techie machine.

Miya-gawa morning market
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On our last morning, we took the local train to Gero. What a weird name for a town. Gero means vomit in Japanese. Gero is famous amongst the Japanese for their onsen (hot springs). In our opinion, the town is very small and not very impressive in comparison to Takayama so after a brisk 15 minute walk, we boarded back on the train. However, the highlight of our trip to Gero was discovering the “deep fry” vending machine. It takes about 5 minutes for your order to come up but this machine freshly fries tako yaki, chicken strips and French fries while you wait. I can’t say that they were the best fries every but they weren’t bad coming from a vending machine. They come packaged up in a box with a package of salt and costs about 400 yen. Pretty cool! On our approach back to Takayama, we noticed some supermarkets and what appeared to be a local community on the opposite side of the train tracks from the tourist drag that we had been visiting.

Grandma and grandpa from the apple stand. Cutting them for you to take away.
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We rented bikes at the central train station for 1000 yen a day and ventured out to the “local side”. We later found out that the town was laid out in such a way that the touristy areas were divided from the local community by the central Takayama train station. We asked the friendly community police officer for directions to the local supermarket and started out on our adventure. I hadn’t ridden a bicycle since I was a kid so I was very nervous at the beginning as cars were veering past us but soon got the hang of it. We found a Jusco department store after peddling for 10 minutes. It was huge and carried everything from groceries, local souvenirs (for cheaper than the shops on the touristy side), cheap yet fashionable clothes and shoes and a great selection of cosmetics. As I had mentioned in my bio, we love to visit local supermarkets as it’s a great indication of the local community and you find some interesting yet reasonably priced goods that you wouldn’t normally find in the souvenir shops. In short, Rod walked away with a $40 pair of cool Pumas, $10 t-shirt and jacket set, $1 t-shirts and ties. I came out with 2 pairs of shoes which I get complimented on often for 2000 yen or $20 a pair and a bunch of beauty products. We pretty much cleared our gift list at this one store. The wisest suggestions I have for you when it comes to shopping are #1 check out the souvenir shops but don’t buy until you visit the local supermarket first. #2 always rent a bicycle with a basket as it comes in handy with all those shopping bags.

Mitarashi dango is a must in Takayama. Where am I looking? Can't quite master the camera.
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All in all, Takayama is a beautiful town which I would definitely visit again and I highly recommend you to take the journey if you’re in the Kansai area.

Our next stop is the city of Nagoya for some shopping and well pretty much shopping.