It's summer vacation and I finally went to a little town I've wanted to see for years - Shirakawa-go. I will show you that village in the next post. I went with another teacher and we stayed in a nearby town called Takayama (which this post will focus on). Some of the buildings, homes, stores and sake breweries were built during the Edo period - 1600-1868. It's a little like Carmel but with older buildings and narrower streets. Shopping, restaurants, lots of tourists. Not exactly my cup of tea. There is a nice temple area which we explored for just a little while before it started raining.
The temple below was right across the street from the inn where we stayed.
There are many rivers and streams in the town which add a nice atmosphere. The water was very clear, which isn't the case where I live, so that was nice.
There's a walking course through the temple area which is located at the base of a small mountain (or large hill). There were beautiful cedar trees and the air was sweet.
An old and a new headstone side by side.
We wandered around trying to decide where to eat and ended up at a soba restaurant. Soba is buckwheat noodles. At this place they made their own noodles and gave us our own horseradish root to grate and add to the dipping sauce. It wasn't as spicy as the 'fake' wasabi we are all used to - which is usually regular horseradish dyed green. This had a little bit of a sweet element to it, with just a little kick of spice.
They also provided an instruction card for preparing and eating the soba, and drinking the sauce that's left - you add soba cooking water to it first - not my favorite.
We were really hungry by the time we found a place to eat and I shouldn't have but I ordered soba with tempura. Chia had hers with a bowl of beef topped rice.
We stayed at a little inn that was run (owned by) an older couple and which had three floors and maybe 10 rooms. There were shared toilets and bath rooms with onsens (hot springs) and wonderful breakfasts. It was Chia's first time in a Japanese inn and she really enjoyed it.
Our first breakfast.
This is a local specialty of small pieces of beef and shiitake mushrooms cooked in a miso sauce on a dried magnolia leaf over a small fire. Very nice.
Fish marinated in a thick, sweet sauce.
Vegetables.
Early morning view of one of the old streets in Takayama.
Takayama has two daily morning markets. One was along this river - see the white canopies on the river bank on the right?
I wish I knew who these interesting guys were...
Dinner the 2nd evening - delicious hamburgers and steak fries.
Breakfast the 2nd morning was salmon, onions and mushrooms, a salad with an omelet and a smaller version of the magnolia/miso dish - of course with rice and miso soup.
While Chia Skyped with her family I went to the morning market and stopped at a couple of shrines on the way back.
There are two big festivals in Takayama each year, one in the spring and one in the fall. They involve parades with floats and the building below is one of the float storage buildings.
It was really nice being amongst so many beautiful trees.
Lotus
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