Takayama Highs and Lows- 10 March

Today was an interesting day. I'm not sure how well it will come across, as there were quite a few things that happened which didn't warrant a photograph. Oh well, if you are just reading this blog for the pictures then you will miss some of the experience!

--- Minshuku in the snow ---

--- Yet another photo of the river ---

--- My borrowed, rusty bicycle ---

--- Ancient tree, forgotten the name, will add it if I remember ---

After making up my daily temple and shrine quota I decided to see where this bike could take me, and headed off for the Takayama historical village.

--- Notice that all the rocks are exactly the same shape? Snow reveals all ---

--- My footprints ---

The historical village is centered around a man-made lake. All the buildings are original farm-houses and country-style dwellings that were bought and moved to this location, in order to preserve the local cultural heritage. You were allowed to go inside all of the buildings (after taking off your shoes) but it was difficult to take picture as it was very dark inside. I spent nearly 2 hours here, exploring the houses and the grounds.

--- 'Hina-Ningyo' Doll's Day statues ---

--- A white swan! ---

After leaving the village and eating a delicious bowl of ramen for lunch (only 700yen!!) I remembered that there were more castle ruins at the top of the mountain. This marked the beginning of the low point of my day. Though the hike was beautiful, the photos below are evidence of that, I frightened myself stupid because I was so alone. Also I didn't realise just how much snow there would be, in some places it was higher than my knees! But for some reason I kept going and did reach the ruins at the top.

--- No this isn't a weird angle, that path is just really really steep ---

--- View from the ruins. While taking this photo I realised that if I slipped, a very real possibility, no one would ever find me. Sobering thought. ---

To try and calm myself down I went to an art gallery/museum. At 1300yen entry it was probably the biggest waste of money ever. There were 3 things in the entire collection I actually liked:

If you ever go to Takayama, don't bother going to the Museum of Art.

--- My purchases for the day ---

After the disappointing museum I rode back home and came across a giant warehouse store which sold all manner of wonderful things that might cheer up a girl. So after spending a while wandering around I bought the over-the-knee socks you can see in this picture. The other things are some silk fabric pieces I bought on my way up the mountain.

To finish off the day on a high note I had some really delicious vegetables at a tiny little Izakaya. The owner was a lovely lady and we had a really lovely conversation before I headed home for bed.

Takayama- 9th March

Another day another place to explore.
While my afternoon walk yesterday had taken me to some interesting places I still hadn't reached the area of the town that Takayama is most famous for; the original wooden buildings of the shopping district.
While it is now fairly tourist-friendly (read: commercialized) it wasn't nearly as tacky as I expected. I assume there must be some strict rules for the businesses which operate out of these wonderful old buildings, as there are no signs in English and the items for sale are mostly very traditional, small scale items, rather than the mass-produced plastic souveniers you can buy closer to the river.

I didn't really take many pictures, I was too busy being fascinated by the different stores, but this gives you a good idea of the 'feeling' of the district:

--- Looking a bit gloomy, as it was about to snow ---

Takayama is situated in a valley and the town is spread either side of the river, the old town on one side (where I was staying) and the 'new' town on the other (where the train station is). The result of this is that the river has become a central point for me, helping me orient myself, it is also very pretty. After eating lunch I decided to walk up one side of the valley to find the ruins of a castle that were marked on my map. The view from the top of the ridge was wonderful. It was at this time it began to snow quite heavily!

--- The walls of the castle ruins ---

--- The graveyard which now occupies the castle grounds ---

This picture give you a good view of Takayama, the straight line across the centre is the river and the grassy area on either side of it. The huge clump of tress you can see on the opposite side of the river is at the Shrine I visited yesterday (I did say you could see them for miles) and it gives you some indication of just how HUGE those tress were. To the left of the trees you can see more modern multi-storey buildings, these are in the area surrounding the train station.

My next port of call was a museum which houses the ceremonial 'floats' which Takayama is very famous for, there were a few on display (I was informed that different ones are displayed at different times) and they were very impressive.