Takayama I`m in Love

My first day of solo travelling finally arrive.  Saying goodbye to all my friends at Shin Osaka and scream to my myself, let`s start the adventure. Grab my ekiben and hop to the train.  It`s like a picnic, once train start moving, people most are grandma and grandpa open their box full of food. The scenery was breathaking, seeing the green river with trees and mountain so beautiful the water was very clear you can see rocks under.

Finally i arrive at Takayama.  Step out and i see the tourist information, and also nouhi bus office.  Should take care first for all my transportation for tomorrow, because my schedule is packed.  Walking to my hostel according to the map from tourist information.  I can see that the city is so quiet, very different with Osaka and Kyoto, i didn`t see many people or cars.  Arrive at my hostel and it`s already 3 pm and the hostel guy tell us that the stores will be closed at 6 pm.  Put all my stuff at my room and i ask for the recommendation about the city from the guy.  Meet two malaysia girls and we went together.

Takayama is a small city and you can reach the whole town by foot, eventhough there are many taxis.  I just can`t stop admiring everything, people`s houses, the little detail like flower pot in front of houses, small store with the display.  They hang persimon fruit everywhere. Sometimes we met people on bikes.  We go to the old town, and see these wooden houses lining up along the way.  It feel like i ride a time machine and arrive sometime in the past.  It had all the charm that i love with it`s quieteness, the traditional houses, the empty and neat street.  When the sun slowly dissapear and the city light turn on, it`s just getting more romantic.  I`m officially in love with Takayama.

They sell the unique grill meat with miso on leaf for souvenir, dried fruit, mochi, and a doll called sarubobo.  The doll is Takayama specialty.  The other thing that will make you get more excited is the food.  They have the famous hida beef as Takayama special food.  They make hida beef as a skewer dish, grill, put on a sushi and also steamed bun stuffing.  You can find them here at the old town and also at the main street.

It`s getting late and we continue to walk to the main street and i look around there are no one on the street, just the three of us.  But we hear music everywhere made me want to dance in the middle of the street. It`s almost christmast so they put illumination everywhere.  Spot 2 santa statues.  It`s almost felt like it`s not in Japan but somewhere in European cities.  The only thing missing was snow.

We were very hungry and cold, it`s about 2 degree, when we were trying to decide which restaurant to try, we pass this restaurant with trip advisor sticker and food display, yes they serve hida beef.  We jump in and turn out it`s quite crowded inside, two family were already there. We order hida beef grill, sukiyaki and sushi beef.  Hida beef grill serve on a hot plate and we cook it while it`s hot, eat only with sprinkle salt, no sauce. It`s delicious  and very tender.  The sukiyaki for me is just so-so and da bomb was the sushi beef.  I highly recommend this dish.  The beef cooked rare and they put wasabi on top so when you put in your mouth, they just melted and the rice was very good also.  Omg so good and we only paid less than 600 yen for three (shared food).  Wish i have more. And we sleep very tight that night.

hida beef from Manpuku Tei

In the morning i rush myself to pack all my bag and ran out to miyagawa market.  When you walk around Takayama you will notice there are many bridges and the most beautiful is the red bridge so don`t miss to take photos there.  Miyagawa market which located on the side of the river start at 7 am and it`s also very quiet.  Not so many buyer and not so many seller.  They sell veggie, dried food, plate and vase, dried chilli (i keep seeing these), big mushroom.  Buy a custard puding from famous noix de coco.  Beside of the beef, takayama also famous for the hida milk. And the puding is so good.  I keep saying all the food are good in Takayama and yes it is and a lil bit dissapointed i didn`t have enough time to taste all the famous food here.

So sad to leave this beautiful town for my next destination.  I never thought i will fall in love so deep with Takayama and this is the most memorable time during my Japan trip.