Higashiyama Walking Course

We had one full day in Takayama. Takayama is the most touristy of any location we have been to in Japan. Lots of Europeans, some Americans and surprisingly a fair number of South Americans. I only have so much patience for touristy stores so after a brief walk through a very touristy open air market and a walk through the old town we headed off to do the Higashiyam walk. Starting at a beautiful public library we walked to the northern part of town were there were multiple beautiful shrines and gardens and cemeteries. Many of the cemeteries were located in these beautiful cedar forests. There was lots of walking up and down steps to various shrines. Multiple signs warned us of the dangers of bears. There were some very impressive gardens and landscaping associated with the shrines. We finished the hike with a walk through Shiroyama park. Shiroyama park is a large park located on a very hilly area just south of the shrine walk. It had been the location of Takayama castle. We wandered off the main trail onto minor trails into the centre of the park and found the ruins of the Takayama castle and some nice views of the surrounding miuntains. More bear warnings and many large bear bells along the route. They also had several bathrooms all with radios playing tuned into a jazz radio station. We presumed this music was to keep the bears out of the bathrooms. Who would have that that bears don't like Jazz music. There were also multiple signs to advise people not to mistake the Japanese Serow for a bear. A Japanese Serow is an goat/antelope with a lot of fur that people often mistake for bears throwing people into an unnecessary panic. Kind of crazy. I guess the serow are habitualized and will readily approach people looking for free food. If people mistake them for bears this could become a rather absurd situation.We didn't see any bears or Serow. All the jazz music and bell ringing must have kept them all away. I have included a photo of a Serow from the internet for people to see how one could easily mistak a serow for a bear if one was outdoor naive.

We did see a very beautiful exotic looking butterfly known as a Silver washed fritillary. My friend David who I met in elementary school is an entomologist. Whenever I see a butterfly on my travels I photograph it and send it to him. I have thought on many occasions when taking these photos that the butterflies would be easier to catch then photograph. Cheryl has just become used to me following these butterflies off the trail into undergrowth. My hope is that I will be able to find a butterfly that stumps David but he got back very quickly with the answer and reported that it was a very common subarctic butterfly found in Europe and Asia.

We finished our walk at 12:30 and bought a convenience store lunch which we enjoyed by the river. We had been going strong since 7:30 am. It was also quite warm and sunny at 28 degreesI just didn't have the energy for any further sightseeing so we headed back to the Air BnB and chilled out. For supper I made a chicken, potato, carrot and onion curry. I had noticed that they had Golden Curry packs at the grocery store so I thought we would take a break from eating out. Eating out here is affordable however the Japanese curry that I had in Hiruya Onsen seemed to be lacking on the meat. I think I enjoyed mine much better.

At 6 pm everyday the Japanese municipalities throughout Japan test their emergency response system by playing music. In Takayama they play Dvorak 3 movement of his 9th symphony "Going home". The emergency response speaker was just outside are apartment building. It was actually quite pleasant.

Tomorrow we are travelling to Kanawaza on the west side of Japan. We will take the train to Toyoma and then transfer to another train that will take us on to Kanawaza.Read more