JAPAN 日本中部地方: 高山と飛騨古川 Takayama and Hida-Furukawa — Day 2
Hida Takayama Series
- Day 1
- Day 2 ← You’re here!
- Day 3 & Sample Itinerary
Day 2
It’s common knowledge that to start the day strong you need to have the Breakfast of Champions. If you are in Takayama, that means going to the morning markets to see what is offered!
Miyagawa Morning Market (宮川朝市)
Takayama has two main morning markets (朝市): the smaller Jinya-mae Market (陣屋前朝市) in front of the Takayama Jinya and the larger Miyagawa Market (宮川朝市) next to the Miyagawa River. These run from about 7 in the morning to about 12 noon, and usually have a good selection of not just fresh fruits and vegetables but often small food and trinket stalls, similar to farmers markets in the United States. We first went to the Jinya-mae market, but this is more geared for locals with mainly a (wide) selection of vegetables.
Jinya-mae Market (photo by Yan Kuang)
However, the Miyagawa Market is just a short walk back, and is much larger with more activity. This is where we started getting food and snacks and…just didn’t stop. (See the food section below for a list of places we stopped by!) There was an amazing selection of beef-related snacks from gyu-nigiri to gyu-maru (takoyaki, but with beef), as well as desserts such as pudding, taiyaki, and more. The fresh fruit was also delicious (though, like all fruit in Japan, pricier). There was even a stall that sold shiitake mushroom tea! (spoiler alert: the tea was actually pretty good, and closer to a broth powder than tea. Lucy bought a bag to bring home.) It’s such a pleasant experience!
Miyagawa Market is more tourist oriented than Jinya-mae Market, but still also has a lot of locals shopping for vegetables, fruits, and whatnot.
| 宮川朝市 @ Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture, Japan 〒506-0841 岐阜県高山市下三之町 |
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| Review | Fun, laid back shopping for snacks, souvenirs, and more. (and obviously vegetables and fruits, but I guess as a tourist you’d prioritize this a little less.) |
| Verdict: 5/5 — It’s easy to just eat breakfast and lunch here without intending to. | |
| 陣屋前朝市 @ Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture, Japan 〒506-0012 岐阜県高山市八軒町１丁目５ |
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| Review | Smaller market, but with a greater focus on fresh produce and traditional goods such as pickled vegetables and whatnot. |
| Verdict: 3/5 — If you’re going to tour the Takayama Jinya you may as well swing by to take a look, but as an outsider it’s not really worth going out of the way to go see. | |
Takayama Old Town
The walk south from Miyagawa Morning Market is very picturesque, and we quickly enter Takayama Old Town.
Before that! Takayama did a promotional collaboration with Kyoto Animation and made a flyer pointing out spots that appeared in the Hyouka anime. One of them is by the entrance of Miyagawa Morning Market.
moshi always falls for anime pilgrimages. okay, the angle isn’t quiiiite right but it’s fine.
Weeb photos aside, Takayama Old Town is a neighborhood with a lot of houses with Edo-period architecture, with a good selection of shops, eateries, and more! Some of them have been in operation for centuries! It’s a neat area to explore, and if you’re feeling posh and fancy, you can hire a rickshaw to take you around and let them handle the walking for you.
some people just hate walking, what can I say. Sources online say rides are 700 JPY
On the way back from the Takayama Castle Ruins, we stopped by Hida Kotte Ushi for more beef nigiri. It was, as expected, delicious.
| 飛騨高山古い町並 三町伝統的建造物群保存地区 @ Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture, Japan 〒506-0000 岐阜県高山市上一之町 |
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| Review | If you’re expecting Edo-period Japanese towns, you’ll get that here. It gets crowded in the afternoon after the morning markets close and people come here to shop instead. A good places to shop for local crafts or getting things to eat! |
| Verdict: 5/5 — wow! aesthetic historical district! | |
Takayama Castle Ruins
Continuing past old town, veer left up into the hills to get to Shiroyama Park (城山) containing the ruins of Takayama Castle. Note “ruins” as there is no castle left - part of the ramparts and groundwork is left, but not very much else. However, it’s a lovely and quiet walk, and if you’re able to catch autumn foliage, it’s really quite beautiful.
no castle, but a beautiful walk for fall foliage though
Depending on how much time you want to walk, there are a number of shrines that you can hit in a loop back into the old town, but we just cut to the peak itself. There are, surprisingly, not that many scenic views from here, but as we walked back to the beginning, there is a small gazebo that give pretty stunning views of Takayama along the Miyagawa River.
conveniently near the city yet still very quiet
That being done, we walked back toward the Airbnb to drop off goods we bought before heading to Takayama Station to go to Hida-Furukawa. (Okay, we also stopped to get more gyu-nigiri, but details.)
the only actual significant remains of the castle left
| 高山城 @ Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture, Japan 〒506-0822 岐阜県高山市城山 |
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| Review | There is no castle here (or rather, not much of one left at all.) It’s quiet and there are a few points that boast great views of the Miyagawa River winding through Takayama. Bumped up a point since the fall folliage is very pretty. |
| Verdict: 4/5 — laughs in (lack of) castle. If you’re looking for a castle…this is not the place. | |
Hida-Furukawa (飛騨古川)
Link to Google Maps of roughly the same area
Me, a nerd: “Oh this is the station where Taki got off in Your Name”
Station poster: “If you’re looking for that one shot of the station, it’s not in the station you will need to go out.”
Me: “THEY KNOW”
they printed it in japanese, chinese, and english. wow.
Okay, nerds aside, Hida-Furukawa (飛騨古川) is a 14 minute train ride from Takayama Station. Trains leave every 30 minutes or so, so while it wasn’t frequent-frequent, it still made it easier to be more flexible with time.
hida cow welcomes you to hida
Furukawa was founded as a castle town in 1589. Like Takayama, Furukawa also rose to prominence due to high quality timber being found nearby and the skill of the carpenters (named “Hida no Takumi”) who work with it. It is a much smaller town, and much quieter as a result. While Takayama Old Town got surprisingly crowded, we maybe saw at most a few dozen people strolling along the historic “white-walled storehouses” district (I don’t really have a better English name for that, but 瀬戸川と白壁土蔵街). It’s definitely just as pretty though! In a way, I almost like it more than Takayama’s old town because it just has a sleepier feel to it.
Funnily enough, the pretty part is the backs of the stores. You’d need to go one more block to get to the main street with the actual storefronts.
After getting off the train, we did quickly stop by the overpass to get the photo. They had a small stool for people to stand on to get the photo, as well as times when the train passes through. Thanks Hida. Thanks Your Name.
If you’re trying to match the exact position of the train, unfortunately the Hida View Express only stops on that platform once a day in the morning at around 9AM, according to the little note on the window.
The Setogawa Canal that flows behind the shops was built during the Edo period as a way to irrigate fields, but in the mid 20th century, it was heavily polluted from industry and economic growth. The solution of the time was to release carp in the canal, and now, if you look into the canal during non-winter months, you’ll most likely see them swimming. At the end of the Setogawa Canal is a huge gingko tree, supposedly 700 years old. Hilariously, this is where we found the most people, all with cameras and tripods taking photos of the same tree. (I mean, the tree is large! But, come on, it’s a tree.)
it was pretty amusing (photo by Yan Kuang)
Looping back to the main street, we made a quick stop to get croquettes (with Hida beef, of course), and continued along the storefront. Being almost 5pm at this point and a weekday, a lot of stores were already closed for the day, but the we peeked inside the Mishima Candle Shop, which has been making traditional candles for over 240 years before stopping by the Goto Sake shop (後藤酒店), which also has been operating for over a hundred years. The shopowner here recommended a yuzu sake brewed locally in the Hida region (delicious!!) and also a yuzu beer (also delicious!! wow!), and gifted us a postcard of (you guessed it) the shot of the Furukawa train station.
there’s so much going on inside the shop
We also stopped by the Hida Visitor’s Center where the staff enthusiastically greeted us, asked us to put a small dot on where we came from on their map, and then let us use a stamp to commmemorate our visit.
“kimi no soba” thanks I hate it
Further down the street, we reached Imamiya Bridge (今宮橋), where our map said it was a great photo spot. Spanning the Araki River, the bridge itself was pretty okay (and quite red), but the view is quite good! It’s not quite sunset yet, so we walked to the next bridge to see how the scene would look including Imamiya Bridge.
wabi sabi
not wabi sabi
At that point, the timing was just right and the sky was an impressive display of reds, pinks and yellows.
sunset in furukawa
We maybe spent a bit too much time just taking in the view. Then, we tried to find a place to rest a bit and get a snack before heading back to Takayama to find all the places we want to try closed (oops). For future reference, Hineno Museum and Cafe supposedly makes a mean cheesecake that can’t be beat (日根野美術館&カフェ). We will put it on our list for next time.
Given that there’s some time before the train arrives (as mentioned above, they come every half hour or so), we decided to recreate the other shot from Your Name that’s shot in the station.
why am I such a nerd (photo by Lucy Shen)
Returning to Takayama, we decided to try a ridiculously highly-rated Chinese restaurant that’s around the corner from our Airbnb. It was….okay.
yuzu beer was A+. it was fantastic.
Food
| 飛騨牛にぎり寿司 @ Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture, Japan 〒506-0841 岐阜県高山市下三之町 1-6 |
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| Review | Take delicious beef. Put it on good rice. Boom, gyu-nigiri. Magic? Magic. It’s like bite-sized gyudon. What a world we live in. |
| Verdict: 4/5 — So much beef so much rice. | |
| KOMA Coffee @ Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture, Japan 〒506-0841 岐阜県高山市下三之町 |
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| Review | There’s a line for…tiny coffee. At the Miyagawa Morning Market. They make either an espresso or a macchiato, then put it in small cookie cups (that a staff shaves down so it’s perfectly smooth and flat!), then put some whipped cream on top. It also costs 600 JPY for this. But, hey, the latte art is cute. This is also probably Shusta’s dream of running a van-based coffee shop. |
| Verdict: 4/5 — A bonus point for creativity and instagram potential, but gosh it’s expensive. I should just try their regular coffee because it seems like it’s pretty good. | |
| NOIX DE COCO @ Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture, Japan 〒506-0841 岐阜県高山市下三之町 |
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| Review | This dessert shop won a gold medal for their pudding, and they’ll sell it to you either hot or cold at the Miyagawa Morning Market! Wow! (I will be completely honest though and while I enjoyed the pudding, I can’t tell the difference between Hida-Takayama pudding and other pudding shops in Japan…) |
| Verdict: 4/5 — Good, but pricey pudding. | |
photo by Lucy Shen
| 飛騨こって牛 @ Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture, Japan 〒506-0846 岐阜県高山市上三之町34 |
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| Review | It’s another beef sushi shop, but this one is unique in offering a combo of two nigiris and a sushi, all plated on a rice cracker. The sushi also has a raw egg yolk on top! Fancy as heck. Also delicious as heck. There was a sizeable line, but that moved pretty quickly. |
| Verdict: 5/5 — Mind blown with how delicious beef nigiri could be. | |
| ひだコロッケ本舗 @ Hida City, Gifu Prefecture, Japan 〒509-4234 岐阜県飛騨市古川町壱之町１０−1 |
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| Review | Crunchy on the outside? Check. Juicy on the inside? Check. Beef that melts in your mouth? Wow, check. |
| Verdict: 4/5 — Mmmmm croquettes. | |
| Hids' Cafe & Bar @ Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture, Japan 〒506-0026 岐阜県高山市花里町５丁目13−17 |
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| Review | I was going to try their advertised pearl milk tea here, but they ran out by the time we got there (fair enough, it was like, 7PM). The coffee was good though! |
| Verdict: 4/5 — Good coffee, but the pmt is a mystery. | |
photo by Yan Kuang
| 炒飯 花 @ Hida City, Gifu Prefecture, Japan 〒506-0026 岐阜県高山市花里町５丁目１３ |
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| Review | They have a poster outside boasting that in 2009, they were rated number 5 out of all the restaurants in Japan. We figured it couldn’t hurt to try. Service was fast and friendly, and they have a wall of printed photos of tourists who have visited! The food itself was very…okay. (that is to say, it’s not bad! It’s just, pretty standard.) Still, compared to the other places we’ve eaten at in the region, it was a little disappointing for something that’s rated 4.8 or 4.9 on Google with hundreds of reviews. You’ll maybe find a photo of our group in the wall if you visit though! |
| Verdict: 3/5 — It’s cute! It’s pretty okay. | |
Other Shops of Note
| 後藤酒店 @ Hida City, Gifu Prefecture, Japan 〒509-4234 岐阜県飛騨市古川町壱之町８−10 |
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| Review | An old sake shop that screams chaos. It’s the kind of style of displaying as much as possible and is a bit overwhelming, but the shopkeeper is friendly and gave recommendations after asking a few questions about our preferences! They also have a cute Twitter account that just posts photos of what is happening in Furukawa. Sometimes there are dogs! |
| Verdict: 5/5 — Friendly shop that carries so many things as well as local specialties! | |
Drinks
The yuzu beer!
| 飛騨フルーツ発泡酒 柚子lala @ 地ビール飛騨 4.5% ABV, 600 JPY w/o tax |
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| Review | Fruity and light, I guess it’s closer to an alcoholic yuzu juice with inspirations of beer. But that’s delicious! Since it uses citrons, it is photosensitive, so keep cold and out of sunlight. |
| Verdict: 5/5 — We drank maybe too many of these. | |
Aaaaand the sake
| ゆず酒 ゆず兵衛 @ 舩坂酒造店 ~7-8% ABV, 1430 JPY w/o tax |
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| Review | Yet another fruity liquor. This one is sweeter than the beer (it is a sake, after all), but that makes it all the more dangerous… |
| Verdict: 5/5 — We also drank maybe too many of these as well. | |