The Best of Takayama - Hida Folk Village (Hida no Sato)

It's been nearly a year since my trip to Japan. The earthquake, tsunami followed by the nuclear plant disaster has changed the landscape of Japan. I considered if I should continue to post about my trip and came to the conclusion that in the midst of the horror and tragedy, I want to remember the beauty of this nation.

One of the highlights of our visit to Takayama is the Hida Folk Village - a large open-air museum with a collection of antique houses from the region. We bought a bus and entrance pass from the Takayama bus station for 900 Yen.

Make sure you have on good walking shoes as the village is quite large, featuring over 30 farmhouses and traditional houses. Slip-on shoes would be preferred because you have to take your shoes off before you enter each traditional house.

Before I talk about the traditional houses, I have to talk about the view. We were blessed with a beautiful weather that day. This is what we saw...

...a breathtaking view of the peaks of the Japan Alps. This more than made up for not being able to see Mount Fuji when we were in Tokyo!

The village itself was no slouch either. The houses surround a lake and has rolling hills as backdrop.


The Japanese have such a keen appreciation for their culture and have taken great steps to preserve it. A lot of these houses were dismantled from their original sites and rebuilt in the village. I had originally wanted to visit Shirakawa-go, a UNESCO world heritage site to see the famed gassho-zukuri, the thatched A-frame style farmhouses. However, due to lack of time, we had to scratch that off our list. I was very happy to have gotten the opportunity to see an original gassho-zukuri at the Hida Folk Village.

The gassho-zukuri has steep thatched roof, designed to withstand the heavy snowfall in the region. Apparently, the name means "constructed like hands in prayer", as the roofs resemble the hands of Buddhist monks pressed together in prayer. The steep roof provides a large attic space to culivate silkworms.


Each house will display a sign to tell visitors a little bit about the history and time period of the house.


In some of the houses, you will get to see traditional crafts taking place, like weaving.


Most of the houses will have a traditional fireplace near the front of the home...


Some larger than others...


The Taguchi's house (village headman) is beautifully furnished with multiple rooms.


Others are much simpler...and used to display artefacts, such as this sledge.

The Hida Folk Village gets a thumbs up for showcasing Japanese culture and history, in a beautiful surrounding.

The Best Of Takayama, Japan - On the Trail of Food and Markets

Takayama is a foodies' paradise. A compact town, the main sights of the old town are located within walking distance, which is a good thing as we really appreciated the walk to set-off our non-stop eating.


We started off the day with a visit to the Miyagawa morning market. This small market which caters to both the locals and visitors is located by the river with a row of shops on 1 side and make-shift stalls on the other side.

At one of the shops, we bought some Hida beef bun for breakfast - hot, steamed fluffy bun with minced beef filling. It was delicious. The bun was incredibly soft, and the beef, succulent. The Hida beef bun rivals the best char siu pau (barbeque pork bun) in Hong Kong.


For dessert, I tried a Sukune Kabocha pudding, a pumpkin pudding topped with a rich brown sugar syrup. It had a smooth velvety texture and was full of flavour. Yum!


Energized after a delicous breakfast, we wandered around the shops, sampling the various local offerings from the Hida district region. We came away with black bean tea, Hida beef granules and wasabi granules (both are wonderful condiments to add to cooking).


We also did some people-watching...


Next, we headed to Sanmachi Suji, the centre of the old Takayama. The three main streets - Ichi-no-Machi, Ni-no-Machi and San-no-Machi are lined with aged-dark wood traditional buildings which houses shops, sake breweries and museums. It really is quite pleasant wandering in and out of the various shops, admiring the traditional wares, sampling some sake and local food.



The exterior shop front of a sake brewery


The sake brewery at the back of the shop


Pretty sake bottles on display


A pleasant discovery - a serene indoor garden located within a souvenier shop.


Not surprisingly, we walked away with bags of Takayama goodies, ranging from Propolis essence to doggie figurines!

Later that day, we had one of our best meals of our Japan trip at Maruaki Restaurant (look out for the large cow display at the front of the shop). We splurged on a Hida beef lunch (knowing that we won't have an opportunity to taste such high quality beef for a long, long while. In any case, most restaurants have cheaper lunch sets, so if you want to enjoy a nice meal in a restaurant, it's best to eat during lunch).

We ordered the grill beef set - check out the lovely marbling on the beef.


We also tried the Sukiyaki beef set. Seeing our puzzled faces, the waitress showed us how to cook the Sukiyaki. First, she took the huge chunk of pork lard to season the shallow iron pot. She then took out the lard, poured some sauce (soy sauce, sugar and mirin) and gestured to us to start cooking the meat and vegetables. She then cracked the raw eggs into a small bowl and made dipping gestures to tell us to dip the cooked food into the raw egg before eating. It was amazing that despite the language barriers, the waitress was able communicate to us the right way to eat sukiyaki.


The Maruaki Restaurant in Takayama gets a double thumbs up!


After such a heavy meaty lunch, for dinner we opted for a simple roast pork ramen noodle at what I would call the "Red Dragon" Restaurant since I couldn't read the Japanese sign. Fortunately, they had an English menu with pictures so we had no issues ordering our meal.


This simple but delicious noodle dish was just what we needed to finish off our trail of food and markets at Takayama.

The Best of Takayama, Japan

As we made our way south from Tokyo/Hakone to Kyoto, we took a detour cum side trip to the lovely town of Takayama, in the mountainous Hida district (west of Honshu Island). The journey on the Shinkansen involves a change of trains at Nagoya. The train journey from Hakone inclusive of transfers takes about 4.5 hours, but the scenery in the Hida region is spectacular. We also discovered later that the food rivals the scenery!

One of the many beautiful gorges in the Hida district

In spring, the cherry blossoms bloom by the riverside

Upon arrival in Takayama, we made our way on foot to our hotel, The Rickshaw Inn. As mentioned in an earlier post, it makes sense in Japan to use the luggage forwarding service. The Rickshaw Inn is centrally located in town. This small narrow inn is very popular among travellers as it is clean,reasonably priced and offers a little kitchen and laundry facility.


Our Japanese room - mattress on tatami mat.

Taller individuals (6 footers and above) should be careful when exiting the bedrooms as the door is quite short. They post a notice to be careful on the outside door but not on the inside. The bedroom is spacious but the bathrooms are rather narrow, typical of Japanese hotels.

We headed out to dinner to Origin, a Japanese pub (izakaya) located close to the train station. You won't find an English signage in the front, so look out for the bamboo poles.


As you enter the pub, you will come across a bar counter. Further inside, there are more rooms for dining. Origin has English menus but the staff don't speak much English.


Before we came to Japan, we had only heard of the famous Kobe Wagyu beef. When we arrived at the Hida district, we discovered a well-kept Japanese secret - the Hida beef - titled "The best beef in Japan" at the Eighth All Japan Beef Convention". Like the Kobe beef, the breed is also the Wagyu, but raised at the Hida district. Apparently, the success of the Hida beef is thanks to one bull "yasufukugo". According to some, since the yasufukugo was born, the Hida beef has become more marbled and tasty. I have to say that the Hida beef is the best I've tasted! Our first experience with the Hida beef at this local izakaya was good, but the best was yet to come.

Hida beef on Hoba Miso (DIY grill beef with Miso sauce on magnolia leaf)


One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.

~Luciano Pavarotti and William Wright, Pavarotti, My Own Story