JAPAN 日本中部地方: 高山 Takayama — Day 1
For a long while, I wanted to make the trek out to Takayama (高山). The main issue is mainly the trip out there, while not difficult, was pretty long. Even with the Shinkansen and Limited Express train, we’re looking at a travel time of over three hours from Tokyo. Still, I do like this kind of remoteness in Japan, and made it work out on our friendgroup’s trip in autumn 2019. I broke off from the main group staying in Tokyo to do two nights and three days out in Takayama. We made this trip in late November, and while it’s a bit past peak fall colors in the area, it was still beautiful and brightly colored in most places!
Link to Google Maps of roughly the same area
Hida Takayama Series
- Day 1 ← You’re here!
- Day 2
- Day 3 & Sample Itinerary
Day 1
Getting There
there are two ways to get to Takayama from Tokyo: the faster way via Nagoya in the south, and the less popular way via Toyama in the north. The two options don’t have a large difference in terms of travel time.
the phone test rather than the coin test
Originally, we planned to take the Hokuriku Shinkansen from Tokyo north to Toyama, get lunch in the station (and pick up some Umesky — that’s right, japanese whiskey + plum wine that’s brewed in the area), then ride the Hida Wide-View Limited Express train to Takayama. However, due to Typhoon Hagibis, the Hokuriku Shinkansen had severely reduced service, and we were not able to get a reserved seat. We agreed to opt for the more conventional route of taking the Tokaido Shinkansen to Nagoya, and then transfering to the Hida Wide-View train there to Takayama.
Fun fact, our Tokyo hotel served clam chowder for breakfast. Truly, the breakfast of champions. (It was decent clam chowder, so I’m not complaining hahahaha).
I miss trains in Japan so much
Originally Planned
| Tokyo (東京) → Takayama (高山) (23 Nov 2019) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Tokyo (東京) (09:20) | → | Toyama (富山) (11:34) |
| 2h 14m via Kagayaki 507 | ||
| Toyama (富山) (13:02) | → | Takayama (高山) (14:32) |
| 1h 30m via Hida 14 | ||
| 5h 14m total | ||
Actual Route
| Tokyo (東京) → Takayama (高山) (23 Nov 2019) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Tokyo (東京) (08:03) | → | Nagoya (名古屋) (10:08) |
| 2h 5m via Hikari 633 | ||
| Nagoya (名古屋) (10:20) | → | Takayama (高山) (12:23) |
| 2h 24m via Hida 5 | ||
| 4h 20m total | ||
The views on the Hida line snaking through the mountains are pretty good! It also happened to be that there was sun glare on the nicer sides usually so photos don’t turn out that well, boo.
Always get a bento for the train, no matter what time of day it is, or when the actual meal is supposed to be
Nagoya Station appears in the film Your Name, and just like Taki, we did transfer at platform 11. Unfortunately due to our timing being a bit tighter, I did not get a photo myself.
Film vs. real life images from MikeHattsu’s blog
The Hida Folk Village (飛騨の里)
We dropped off our luggage at our Airbnb, got chuuka soba (中華そば) for lunch around the corner, then headed back to the train and bus station to go to the Hida Folk Village.
Be sure to get the Hido no Sato combination ticket by the Sarubobo bus, which not only gives you a roundtrip bus ride, but also covers your admission into the museum itself for 1000 JPY. The bus comes on average every half hour (the ticket counter will give you a small timetable, but you can also find it online here), and the ride itself is just 10 minutes long.
What is a Sarubobo? It’s this. It’s the Hida region’s mascot, and it’s apparently ridiculously popular among tourists. You’ll find this everywhere in Takayama and the surrounding areas. It’s almost a little unsettling…
The Hida Folk village is an outdoors museum that collected not just tools of the silkworm trade that was common in the Hida region, but also entire gasshou-zukuri (合掌造) style farmhomes from around the region. It’s pretty well done in showing and explaining the history and day-to-day life in this area (with pretty thorough English translations on the side too).
Even if history and museums are not your thing, the area itself is very picturesque as well! Apparently they do have night illuminations for fall colors, but those unfortunately happen after the last bus have departed.
Enjoy some fall
The inside of one of the farmhouses
It’s probably good to budget about 2 to 3 hours here! After that, it’s easy to catch a bus back to the train station (and if there’s a while to wait, the bus stop is conveniently in front of a souvenir store full of goodies).
The outside
| Hida Folk Village (飛騨民俗村 | 飛騨の里) @ Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture, Japan 〒506-0031 岐阜県高山市上岡本町１−590 |
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|---|---|
| Review | A neat open-air museum that is kinda like a condensed version of the Shirakawa-go Village also in the same region. Because it is also smaller (and not a UNESCO World Heritage Site), crwods are much, much more manageable, and you get to see the same things (though not in their original context). |
| What to Expect | You probably would get the most out of a visit here if you have some interest in history or at least appreciating scenary. |
| Notes | Easily reachable by bus, but the last bus quickly follows the museum's closing time. Be sure to keep a note of the time to avoid being stranded (not that it's a particularly long walk back into town.) |
| Verdict: 5/5 — Wow, traditional houses and traditional things in a traditional town. | |
Food
| 郷里 @ Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture, Japan 〒506-0026 岐阜県高山市花里町５丁目１０ |
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| Review | This was where we tried having Chuuka-soba, the ramen specialty in the Hida region. The name itself is kind of silly - chuuka indicating it is Chinese style, and soba being a Japanese kind of buckwheat noodle. Wow, fusion cuisine. In any case, it’s a small shop with a small menu, but it’s quite good! It’s a lighter taste than a standard bowl of shoyu ramen. |
| Verdict: 4/5 — Good chuuka noods | |
| 丸明 高山店 @ Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture, Japan 〒506-0025 岐阜県高山市天満町６丁目8 |
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| Review | Hida is well known for their beef, so almost everywhere in Takayama, you’ll find beef-related food and snacks. Tabelog had good reviews for this shop so we checked it out. We did a walk-in relatively early at a bit after 5pm, so our wait time was about 20 or so minutes. Maruaki had a pretty large space inside, and the non-smoking section was, thankfully, not smoky. Service was fast, the beef selection was (expectedly) delicious, and they had a neat selection of local sakes to try. The price runs on the higher side, but was also not too bad for A5 grade Hida beef. We also got veggies to grill in an attempt to try to balance out having only beef, hahaha. |
| Verdict: 5/5 — Mmmmmm the beef melts in your mouth. Would go again. | |
Lodging
| Hinoki-ya (Airbnb) @ Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture, Japan Permitted | 岐阜県片原町32番地 | 第76号の13 |
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| Review | We opted for an Airbnb because three people traveling is an awkward size for most hotels. Hinoki-ya was literally just a 5 minute walk from the station, and maybe 10 minutes to Old Town and the Morning Markets. Of course, everything was nice, clean, and worked as expected. Beds were comfy, and there were 1.5 baths! Most importantly, they had a huge hori-gotatsu (掘りごたつ) - basically a kotatsu but larger! We probably spent most of our time in the Airbnb there. Definitely worth. |
| Verdict: 5/5 — Kotatsus and their relatives are good civilization. | |
Day 2
Apparently the Sarubobo mascot is the 8th most purchased things by foreigners in 2019. Wild.