Takayama pastime - Japan at Cherry Blossom 2023 - 7
22.03.2023 - Takayama pastime
Weather: foggy in the morning, but clear skies after 10am with temperatures reaching 22°C in Takayama and Kyoto
Walking distance: 14 km
As a surprise, even for our guide, breakfast is included in this hotel. It's buffet style and they even tried to offer something for western tastes, but the taste is no better than what I grabbed so far at the Family Mart. At least it was something different.
There are several shuttle buses to the train station in town and I take the first one at 8:10.
I start my walk with the Miyagawa morning market. Unfortunately, this has nothing to do with a traditional Asian morning market where locals buy vegetables and other things for the day. It's a mix of tents on one side of the street and stores on the other. Everything is geared exclusively toward tourists.
I walk through the market and then turn right towards the Higashiyama temple area. At the beginning, there are a few other tourists, but as I walk further up the hill, I am quickly alone. It is nothing spectacular, but it has a nice quiet atmosphere.
I go back down and stroll through the streets of the old town. Takayama has decided to declare a large part of its old town a conservation area where the old style houses are protected. But they haven't made it a pedestrian zone, and even without hordes of tourists, it doesn't feel special. Maybe it's different in the evening.
I find an old townhouse that has been renovated by the government and can be visited as long as it is not booked for another activity. In front are the living rooms, then follows a courtyard, and in the back the stone storage building - interesting.
The town reminds me of a larger village in the Northern Alps. Not so much because of the style of the houses, but because of the focus on winter tourism. I even saw large snow shovels in a garage. Aside from winter tourism, Takayama is known for its colorful festival. People from all over Japan come to see the procession. But there is nothing to see of either at the moment.
On the opposite side of the old town, but also near the river, is the second morning market, the Jinyamae morning market. It consists of a couple of tents on a square. It's the same as the Miyagawa morning market: it's for tourists only, although the focus here is on fruit and other local foods. There are many unoccupied spaces at both markets. Whether that's because it's low season or another side effect of Corona, I don't know.
I still have more than 3 hours before we meet to take the train towards Kyoto, so I decide to walk up the hill to Shiroyama Park and the ruins of the old castle.
But before that, I go to the next Family Mart to grab a coffee. Luckily, there's a bench right in front of it where I sit down, drink my coffee, and eat the pastries I bought for this morning before I knew breakfast was included.
The idea of climbing up to the castle was a good one. As soon as the street is going up, the number of tourists drops significantly. At Shorenji Temple, at the foot of the castle hill, there was only one French family with me. On the left side of the temple, I even find a nice path with 13 torii gates. As soon as the path leads into the forest, I am all alone and hear only the birds chirping.
At the top of the hill, there is not much left of the castle. A small wall and a few markers, that's all. But you can sit down and relax from the quite steep way up. Even though I sit there for a while, only 3 people come. After 20 minutes or so I decide to go back down.
At 2:44pm we leave Takayama with a local train to Nagoya (2.5 h) and from there with a Shinkansen to Kyoto. Even the local train is more pleasant than anything we have in Germany. It's even better than the Shinkansen later.
