Gifu Prefecture – March Trip to Hida Takayama and Shirakawa-go [Day 2]

I then returned to Kidoya for breakfast. It was a simple Japanese-style meal focused on showcasing local cuisine.

I took some more pictures while I made my way to the bus stop.

I heard that Shirakawa-go is beautiful to visit in any season, but everything really was gorgeous.
I wasn’t visiting on a designated light-up day, but I was lucky enough to have blue skies and be able to take some gorgeous pictures. I really wanted some photos of snowy Shirakawa-go!
I think I’ll visit again in the spring or fall.

Sarubobo are made to look like baby monkeys.
They’re protective charms that are shaped like dolls, and they serve purposes like dispelling calamity, dispelling plagues, finding a suitable spouse, and ensuring safe childbirth.
Faces aren’t drawn on sarubobo because “by not including a face, they’ll always be showing the same feelings as you are.”

I dropped off my luggage at my hotel and started walking around.

My first stop was Hida Kokubuji Temple.
Supposedly it was built around 757.

I’ve visited Hida Kokubuji Temple before, but I wanted to see this three-storied pagoda again.

This amazing local dish, Takayama ramen, is a chicken-based ramen that’s sometimes called Hida ramen. It’s become incredibly popular lately due to being eaten by the main character in the film “Kimi no Na Wa (Your Name).”

Next I went to Takayama Jinya, one of the most iconic sightseeing spots in Takayama.
Jinya were administrative headquarters for politics of the Edo period (from 1603 to 1868), and their present-day equivalent would be government administration offices.

This was a government official’s office.

There was also a lovely inner garden in the housing area where the prefectural governors lived.

This hall was used for meetings and the like. It’s made of three connecting rooms and is measured at 49 tatami mats.

The oshirasu, or courtroom, is the room where investigations and trials took place.
Criminals were supposedly seated on the notched platform in the center of this picture, and a stone weighing about 40kg was placed on their knees.

Takayama Jinya is packed with things to see!

Nakabashi Bridge is an indispensable part of sightseeing in Takayama.
The bright vermillion bridge is extremely photogenic.

Tourists had stopped walking and were enjoying their view.

Sanmachi is a super-popular old area in the center of Takayama that still brims with Edo Period atmosphere.
It was designated as an Important Traditional Architecture Conservation Area in 1979.

Restaurant Sakaguchiya
This restaurant offers Hida beef nigiri sushi that you can order as takeout. There was a huge line outside.

“Kotte Ushi,” located across from Sakaguchiya, also sells Hida beef nigiri sushi.
There was a huge line there too.

Sanmachi is always packed with lots of tourists.

The spring “Sannou Matsuri” and autumn “Yahata Matsuri,” otherwise known as “Takayama Matsuri,” was registered as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2016 along with other festivals from across Japan.
This is one of Japan’s three major festivals and has around 400 years of history, and during the festival there are plenty of luxurious stalls and mechanical dolls to enjoy.

Since I came all the way out to Takayama, I went to check out the area where the festival takes place.

There was still some snow in the shrine grounds.

I took a short break at this café near Nakabashi Bridge.

This small gallery café has woodcut prints by local artists on display.

I looked out at the street view from the lattice doors on the 2nd floor.

Since I came all the way to Takayama, I definitely wanted to have Hida beef at least once!
My choice for dinner out of several restaurants was “Kitchen Hida.”

Kitchen Hida is a steakhouse in Sanmachi.

It’s an old-fashioned steakhouse, and it had an easy-to-approach atmosphere to it.

This corn soup was made using Hida beef bouillon.

A sirloin or rib roast may be the best way to enjoy Hide beef’s characteristic melt-in-your-mouth marbling, but since I’m pretty conscious about my build, I went for the less-fatty fillet.
However, as they only serve A5-grade Hida beef, I was able to savor the tenderness of the beef even having ordered a fillet.

After dinner, I took another walk around Sanmachi.

Most of the shops had already closed by this time.

This is a local regional bank, the Takayama branch of Juroku Bank.
As the office was built in 2016, it looked very modern.

It’s so quiet at this hour that you wouldn’t believe how active it was earlier in the day.

How did you like the streets of Takayama, sometimes called the “Little Kyoto of Hida”?
All of the best sightseeing spots in Takayama are gathered together here, making it easy to sightsee in the area.
The 3rd article in this series will introduce a view of Takayama’s morning market and “Hida Furukawa,” the setting used in the movie “Kimi no Na Wa (Your Name).”