Takayama

October 29th

The Hidatakayama Onsen Hoshokaku hotel was traditional Japanese, leave your shoes at the door and there were indoor and outdoor big baths i.e. communal baths but we gave them a miss.

We had a Japanese dinner in the hotel all wearing kimonos but eating at lowish tables rather than seated on the floor. It is fascinating the variety of ceramic bowls for each place setting. We had local beef which was very high quality and which we cooked in water in a piece of folded paper heated  over a naked flame. 

On Sunday morning we had an excursion to Shirakawa village. It is about 40 km from Takayama and is covered by about 3 metres of snow in winter. The houses have steep pitched thatched roofs. The largest house is now partly a museum showing how it was used to farm silkworms,

On returning to Takayama we toured the former government headquarters of the Tokugawa shogunate who ruled the region for 200 or more years. Takayama also has an old town of a narrow street lined with old wooden merchant houses now mostly selling souvenirs. We finished the day with a lovely meal at a French style restaurant.

Our room in Takayama

Dinner in the Hoshokaku hotel

Fascinating array of food. Note the burner on the top left with a paper container on top of a naked flame.

Beautiful autumn foliage.

Thatched houses in Shirakawa.

 Many hands make light work of rethatching.

Raked gravel in the crest of the Tokagawa shogunate at the seventeenth century government house

 Kitchen in the government house.

More kitchen utensils and storage items.

Old style raincoats.

A beautiful garden at the government house.

Well groomed dogs strolling through Takayama old town.

 
This stall did a roaring trade in barbequed sticky rice balls.