2017 Japan Trip – Day 9

On day 9, we are checking out of our AirBnb in Osaka today and going to Takayama. We left around 8 am and dragged our luggage through Dotonbori to JR Namba, it was so weird passing by the quiet Dotonbori with no food stalls nor crowd. As if it is a completely different place to what it is at night time. We would take a shinkansen ride to Nagoya for about 55 minutes via Kyoto, then another 140 minutes on JR Hida to Takayama station.

 

Day 9

The first half of the day would be mainly spent on trains until we arrived at Takayama. I must highlight the train ride from Nagoya to Takayama; the view was out of this world! Truly, when the train passed through mountains and all you can see were trees, rivers and  creeks with crystal clear flow and mountains – I was totally spoiled with the view. It was so mesmerizing and at that state I totally forgot to record it on video. For anyone going to Takayama, please do not fall asleep in the train from Nagoya to Takayama or vice versa.

 

Takayama sarubobo doll. These faceless dolls are mascot of Hida area, they were traditionally made by mothers for their daughters for happy marriage and smooth delivery of babies

 

First thing we did on arriving at Takayama Station was to book bus tickets to Shirakawa-go tomorrow. Also to visit the JR office to reserve seats for train ride to Tokyo in two days time. Once these all sorted, we walked to our first ryokan, Ryokan Tanabe. It is located not far from station, about 8 minutes walk through the main street leading to Takayama Old Town.

We left our luggage at the ryokan and went out again to explore the Old Town. Takayama Old Town is beautiful, with many older styles Japanese buildings as the name suggests. The market attracts many tourists with shops offering local souvenirs, Hida beef, local brewed rice wine, and many others. We even spotted one shop that sells local brewed soy sauce which was attractive to me, but I regretfully did not end up get a bottle back to Sydney.

 

 

Also we really appreciate the free WiFi provided throughout the main city centre, what a nice and considerate gesture to tourists 🙂 Another thing that is Takayama famous for is their festivals, which said to be one of the best in the country. There is a morning market at Takayama that opens daily, but we did not make time for this since we went to Shirakawa-go the next morning.

 

What we ate on Day 9

 

japan potato chips
Potato chips for snack in the train – ¥299

 

Milk from vending machine at 7-11 ¥100 (if not mistaken), the milk is tasty! 🙂

 

Then we bought these bento boxes at Kyoto station, there were much less options at Kyoto than at Shin Osaka. But hubby was really happy with his eel ekiben. The chicken one tasted alright, it packed heaps of food.

Chicken and Eel Bento – ¥1,670

 

Arriving at Takayama station, we needed a little of pick me up and decided to get coffee from the nearby vending machine:

Black coffee from vending machine near Takayama station ¥130 – super strong coffee with big punch!

 

As we exploring the streets at Takayama Old Town, we tried several food/drink:

sesame soy dango
Sesame soy dango ¥120 – finally get to try this and can’t say this is our favorite but it’s really not bad either 🙂

 

hida beef nigiri
Hida beef nigiri that seemed to attract really long queues ¥600. The beef were a bit tough and chewy, not a fan of this considering the waiting time to get it. They use senbei cracker as plate – no trash, environmental friendly and yummy too.

 

takayama amazake
Cup of hot amazake aka non alcoholic sake ¥300. It’s sweet and warm, such a perfect drink for the weather!

 

hida beef skewer
Hida beef skewer ¥400 – again the beef were tough and chewy.

 

We had booked the ryokan package with dinner and breakfast. The dinner was a Kaiseki dinner and will go on details about this on the next post of Ryokan Tanabe, so stay tuned \ (•◡•) /

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