Takayama walking tour

Today started off with a walking tour of Takayama. There were 5 of us on the tour in total, another couple from the UK. First shocker was he started his speech with what he expected to be paid from the free walking tour, it worked out to be around $40 per person, crazy, we have never paid more than about $15 per person, pretty sure he was disappointed at the end with what he got.

This tour lasted about 3 hours, lots of history about Takayama and what is going on now. Very interesting, he was a little shocked when we told him we were staying here for 4 nights, typically a tourist stays here for 1 night or maybe 2. Not sure why we choose this, but we are all happy to stay put in one place for a bit after all our moving around.

Takayama is famous for its festivals in the spring and fall. We are missing it by a couple of weeks, but I guess it is crazy busy here when it is on. It only lasts 2 days, 11 or 12 floats are in the parade. Used to be attended by the Japanese mostly, but it is now known to tourists, so it is very busy. I am kind of glad we are missing it, though I am sure it would have been fun.

One of the fun things he showed us is when you see a cedar ball hanging over an establishment door it is a sake brewing spot. If the ball is green it has the new sake released, brown it is showing that they don't have this years in yet. I think that that tradition has gone a bit, but we did see cedar balls hanging over 3 of the breweries we passed by, I think there are 6 in this city.

Our guide recommended lunch at a place for Takayama Ramen, this is a bit different that we have had ramen in other cities, everyone seems to put their own spin on the food. This ramen had thin curly noodles in a soy sauce based broth.

After lunch Andre and I went to a mochi making class in a temple. Learned about the history of mochi and we made some. Quite a lot of work to make, that now is mostly done by machines. It is a lot of pounding to get it to come out right. We made so much we were able to bring some back to Heather to try as well.

Heather met us after the class and we went to a sake place we had visited briefly yesterday. This place you buy a ticket for about $10 and then you choose from the 100 different sakes which tasting you want to do. It works like a credit card that you scan, each sake showed how much it cost and a little about the sake, they ranged from about $1 to $5. I of course looked for the prettiest labels for my choices. A fun way to spend some time, could be dangerous if you spent to much time in there.

A little more wandering around Old Town in the late afternoon when most of the tourists have left, but before it got too dark. This city is known as Little Kyoto and we can see why, beautiful old homes, but so many less people!

Last night we made reservations at a sushi place that we could not get into for tonight. It is a small place with just a couple of staff that are very busy. We had an absolutely delicious supper. Very slow service, but they posted a sign up front that the service was slow as everything is made from scratch, it was amazing presentations and so yummy. It was really good, and about $40 cdn with drinks, crazy. I sure will miss extra taxes and tipping, they just don't exist here. You are never even given an opportunity to tip, pay by credit card you just tap, cash you are given the change. I have heard they are insulted if you even try to tip, I hope it stays this way, it has gone so crazy the other way at home with tipping.

One of two wood carvings,  this one with long arms and one of a figure with long legs. These are Tenagazo (long arms) and Ashinagazo (long legs). They are Japanese yokai (monsters) and these two worked as a pair. the one with long arm sitting on the one with long legs. The legend goes that Tenagazo sits on Ashinagazo’s shoulders, and they then wade into rivers and grab fish, boats, or people from the water.

Our guide said this 85 old lady does the best meat on a stick. She open at 10 and closes when she has nothing left

Love the lamppost 

Baseball is #1 sport in Japan

This area id famous for wood products

Sarubobo or bobo, the mascot of Takayama

Amazing tree at the temple

This street has a clock frozen at 11:37, a beer party street meant to tell men it is time to go home

The panel on the bottom indicates that the gov't sponsored a school for these wood carvings

The street grates lift up, for snow to be pushed down.  They are everywhere

Listing of restaurants and bars,izakaya are like tapa bars in Spain

This building used to be a bath house, only 3 bath houses remain in Takayama

Morning market street

Storage for floats 

Menu for rice balls

Sake brewery indicated by the cedar ball hanging at the entrance

Castle was destroyed and not rebuilt

Afternoon so busy with tourists in old town

Sake selection

Small ramen restaurant where we had lunch

Takayama ramen, thin curly noodles in a soy sauce based broth

Outside of the little restaurant where we had lunch

at 7 11 in the freezer section, yummy

Making mochi, lots of hard work pounding

Final result

Takayama is famous for its Hida beef, beef sushi is not something I would put together

Purchasing ticket for sake tasting

100 choices of sake

Crazy parking 

Old town once the tourists leave

Another method of purchasing take at a different sake bar

A block with about 20 small restaurants, very neat

Lots of beautiful woodwork in this city, amazing tables on display here

Our sushi dinner, so yummy

Spicy tuna, very spicy tuna