Takayama has an old town that has remained the atmosphere of the Edo period. It is lined with historical architecture, now used as restaurants, cafes, and souvenir shops. We biked to old town from our hotel, and I cannot even count how many pitstops we made to try all the food stalls along the way, because…Alan. LOL!
This region is known for Hida beef, which is a very high quality beef that comes from black haired cattle raised in the Gifu prefecture. We consumed quite a bit, being that our whole family loves beef. My favorite method to eat it is shabu shabu, while Bridge and Alan prefers to grill it. We were so lucky to have found a restaurant that offered both at the same time!
From Takayama, there are a number of villages that you can do day trips to, most conveniently if you have a car. Shirakawa-go is a popular one. It is a traditional village that is most known for its building style known as gasshō-zukuri and has been declared a UNESCO Heritage Site.
Although most people flock to visit Shirakawa-go in the winter for its magical, fairy tale-like sceneries, we found autumn to be a beautiful time to visit as well. The temperature was a bit on the cooler side, but it was still mostly sunny and very easy to get around without the snow. There were lots of autumn foliage all around which was sooooo beautiful!
As with most other traditional villages, there were food stalls, cafes, temples, and small shops selling items unique to the prefecture. We always love taking our time to stroll through these villages and then eventually finding a cafe to chill. If you go up further to a viewpoint where you can see the entire village from higher up, you’ll also find a small stall selling churros which we highly recommend. Alan’s favorite sweet is churros and he declared it one of the best churros he’s ever had!
Two other villages that we visited along our road trip included Tsumago Juku and Magome Juku. Tsumago is known today as one of the best preserved post towns in Japan. The town and its residences invest a lot of efforts into recreating the ambiance of the Edo Period. Cars are prohibited from entering during the day and phone lines as well as power cables are kept concealed to ensure that visitors truly feel like that stepped back in time.
We didn’t find a whole lot of shops or restaurants open when we were there. Perhaps not everyone has gotten back into business yet post-COVID since Japan had just recently reopened its borders. We did, however, encounter a very interesting shop! It was a clothing shop call Obarajun where every piece of clothing is made with an original fabric that’s modified from firefighter uniforms during the Edo-era. The designs were quite funky, but we met the designer/owner and were keen to support his artistry so Alan picked the least funky pair of pants and bought them, lol.
Magome Juku is also a post town from the Edo Period. The cobblestone streets are lined with old, lattice-windowed residential houses, museums, tea houses, and souvenir shops, replicating a scene that very much resembles how the post town looked in the Edo period hundreds of years ago. It is also known for its delicious soba, which we can now attest to because we tried not just one, but two soba restaurants!
