Takayama

We said goodbye to Kanazawa this morning and took the train into the mountains to Takayama. We arrived just before noon, so our first stop was a shop selling Hida beef "sushi". Hida beef is the wagyu beef from cows in this area (Hida), and the term sushi in this case just means that it's a slice of cooked beef over rice. The beef melts in your mouth and is incredible.

We next head down some streets with traditional edo architecture and land at the Takayama Matsuri Yatai (Festival floats exhibition hall). Here, a subset of the floats used at the famous Takayama festival are displayed. They are hundreds of years old and very intricately carved and decorated.

We then walked along the path of temples and shrines. The architecture is different here than other places we've been, with the roofs featuring more rounded corners and having flatter shingles. There's also nice detail on the joints and still snow present off the sides of the paths.

Next up was Hida Folk Village, an open air museum exhibiting over 30 traditional houses from the Hida region. The houses were built during the Edo Period (1603-1868) and were relocated from their original locations to create the museum in 1971. In a village-like atmosphere, the museum features buildings such as a former village head's house, logging huts, storehouses and a number of gassho-zukuri farmhouses, which are named after their steep thatched roofs resembling a pair of hands joined in prayer ("gassho"). All exhibited buildings at the Hida Folk Village are carefully preserved and open for exploration. They have unique wooden architecture and exhibit tools and utensils used in everyday life in the past. Interestingly, the buildings' indoor fireplaces are lit every morning, making this outstanding open air museum a treat not only for the eyes but also for the nose.

For dinner, we had takeout Hida beef burgers that really hit the spot.En savoir plus