We set off early after a quick brekker at the lobby of the Toyoko Inn, as we had a lot of train travel ahead of us. We took the shinkansen to Kyoto and then transferred to another to Nagoya. From there we boarded the Hida Wide View trains that chug into the Japanese Alps region. Regarded as one of the most scenic rail journeys in the country, it does not make for great photos with all the wonderful sights zipping past but here are a couple of samples of what you see enroute.
We arrived at Takayama early afternoon and walked the 10 minutes to our accomodation - the Rickshaw Inn. After a quick check in and freshen up, we headed into the Old Town. We had lunched by way of snacks and such on the trains. THIS is one of the first things we saw enroute to the old town.
Takayama, just like every city, town and village in Japan has its own unique manhole and grating covers.
Takayama's old town, just a short 10 minute walk from the Rickshaw Inn, is a heritage area with old wooden houses converted mostly into craft shops. Wood carving, textiles and other local craft shops abound.
These shops with the tell tale cedar wood balls hanging over the entrance signify sake distilleries.
We walked back towards the train station and ended up for a drink at this little bar cum cafe facing the station. Gordon was very keen to figure out what kind of sake had been served to us at the ryokans, and the bartender, a young man in his late teens, was finally able to deduce from our clues of how it tasted that it was not sake but ume, a plum liqueur unique to Japan. We asked him where the movie theatre was, thinking we would do a repeat of our Kyoto downtime after dinner and after trying to figure out on a map, asking another service person, and the chef, to no avail,he politely excused himself saying he was going to ring his boss and tell him that he was stepping out for some time because he wanted to physically come along with us and show us where the theatre was. We rapidly dissuaded him from doing so, but the fact that someone was willing to take this much trouble completely floored us, even if, after almost three weeks in this country, we should have known better.
We stumbled onto this gem of a place for dinner, it was in the list of restaurants recommended by the Rickshaw Inn, and seemed like the only non-Japanese place, with a possibility of vegetarian options in town. Chapala does home made Mexican food, and when I say home made, I mean home made. The restaurant has a staff of one ! The owner is also the chef, the maitre d', the sommelier, the waiter, you get the drift. One has to wait for a while to get one's order since the maitre d' dons the chef's hat and starts cooking, but great food, well worth the wait.
We walked back to the Rickshaw Inn after a very pleasant day in this mountain town.
