J-emine's reflexionando

Waiting to board th 7 am bus ride to Takayama

It was such a scenic route …made the 7 hours ride a real joy!

Takayama Old Town

Rows of traditional, age-old sake breweries

Broke my no beef rule here. The ever popular Hide- Beef. Dad needed a full gastro update over skype on this meal… 🙂

Takayama City view from my uphill trek

Takayama Park Trail

After an hour on the trail, I saw this old man – gave him a slight wave and bow. I love the tranquility.

Sakuras lining the old town

Takayama Canal: during the day

Takayama Canal during the night

Ainokura Village – I climbed up a small hill to get this pic (and away from the others charging towards the village). Solo-ness at it’s best!

Kagizura:having tea the traditional way.

Shiroyama Viewpoint

One of the many farmhouses that’s become a mingshu – would love to stay here during winter for the night illumination

(Move your cursor across the pics for brief pic-description)

Two weeks prior to leaving Tokyo, I went on a weekend trip on my own to a place that I can now happily cross off my bucket list. Shirakawa-go, fell in love with the place when I chance upon a national geo article on it’s ever famous gassho-zukuri farmhouses (with slanted roofs). The place is known for being a picturesque winter wonderland , due to the amount of heavy snow that falls during winter in this particular region, even though the trip didn’t exactly take place during winter, it was equally beautiful and memorable.

Takayama is a city amidst the mountainous region of Gifu prefecture, and the favoured location when one wants to visit the neighboring farmhouses. I took the 7 hour scenic bus ride from Tokyo to Takayama, and checked into the guest house by 2pm, leaving me the day to explore Takayama’s old town and savouring the ever popular, Hide Beef. Old town comprises of preserved, architectural buildings from the Edo period, many now converted into touristy shops, coffee houses/restaurants and age-old, traditional sake breweries; which didn’t excite me much. And, since I have an uncanny preference of roaming into side streets or unknown, vacant areas (reads: no visible beings within eyesight) – it was no surprise that I trekked up a small uphill trail and found myself on top of a park overlooking Takayama city; spent close to 2 hours on the park trail basking in nature’s music, beauty and my own being.

That evening, I sat by a little french cafe savoring a simple 3 course meal with my glass of wine, texting the closed ones back home – and accepting the fact, it was truly time to return home. It was cherry blossom night illumination in Takayama that night, and so I had the loveliest of after-dinner walk around the canal, and all over town till it was time to call it a night. The next morning, I took the free and easy tour bus that would bring us to Shirakawa-go, a good 30 mins away from Takayama.

On the itinerary were two village visits – Ainokura, one of the largest farmhouse village in the area, mainly private residentials and lastly, Ogimachi, the most popular village within the area with majority of the farmhouses being turned into restaurants, museums or mingshus (farmstay).The farmhouses or otherwise known as gassho-zukuri  means “constructed like hands in prayer”, as the steep thatched roof is said to resemble the hands of Buddhist monks pressed together in prayer. Many of the farmhouses in both village dates back to 250 years old, made without any form of nails, the structure not only withstands the heavy snow but many of it’s large attic space were use for cultivating silkworms and some of the houses were known to carry on the tradition of washi paper-making.

As I roam in and out some of the houses that were opened to the public, I had a slight vision of one day returning with my own family during the winter, huddling together over the Kagizura with cheerful banters, and that pretty much sums up how I felt about this solo trip…charmingly rustic, heartwarming and indeed, a place that I would love to share with my loved ones, one day.