Takayama – Ian Louis Harris

Japan Day Six: A Great Day In Takayama, 25 October 2018

We rose reasonably early, as we had arranged a morning tour of the town, but not at silly o’clock.

For the first time in ages, we would be doing a group tour. We like to travel independently and so, to the extent that we take tours, we usually arrange private ones. But our agent Tim recommended this and a few other tours we’ll be doing in Japan to be best taken as group tours and we trusted him. Spoiler alert: Tim was right as usual – we had a great morning.

We had been given just a simple joining instruction in our pack, to be at the Takayama Jinya Main Gate between 9:15 and 9:20. I guessed that this was a place where many tours gathered and wondered whether we’d find it difficult to locate our particular guide. But in truth most of the groups gathering there were Japanese tour groups so I quickly spotted out guide, Momo, with an English couple, Martin and Jane, waiting for the rest of our group.

I soon learnt that Martin and Jane are from Kendal but that they do not like mint cake. Soon another pair joined us; Travis and Keely, from Sacramento, California. Then just one more couple, Peter and Janet from York. We were complete.

Momo took a group picture of us all in front of the Takayama Jinya Main Gate and then continued to take pictures of us throughout the tour which she then sent to us later that same day – such is the modern way with group tours perhaps, or some extra care and attention in Momo’s excellent approach to guiding.

This was basically a food and culture walk, with more food than culture on the itinerary.

To make my life easier, Momo’s covering note with the photographs explains our itinerary…

…we visited today:

・Jinyamae Morning Market(陣屋前朝市)

・Harada sake brewery(原田酒造)

・Miyagawa Morning Market(宮川朝市, everyday around 8am to noon)

・Fukutaro(Café,福太郎)

・Bunrindo（Confectionary,分隣堂）

…except, of course, that the itinerary only tells you what formally happened. Informally, there was a whole load of other stuff going on, not least because we were a very curious group of eight people. I don’t mean weird-curious…

…although some of us, me and Daisy included, might be thus described…

…no, I mean we had eight people all exerting their curiosity and interest in the sights, smells and tastes of Takayama, while wandering around, theoretically in a group.

Momo answering one of Ged’s trickier questions

At one point, Keely described looking after our group as an exercise in cat-herding and I thought that was a pretty spot-on description. Yet somehow Momo managed to keep a watchful eye on all of us and gently cajole us in top following the route she had planned and sort-of doing and seeing the things she had chosen for us.

Lots of photos – some of which are peppered in this Ogblog piece, tell the tale better than words. Some of the photos were taken by Momo, others by me and Janie. If Janie and I are both in the photo, then you know it was Momo – we’re not selfie stick types…yet.

Everyone in the group was really good company – we found out a lot about each other and our various journeys through the culinary elements of life. Some had been fussy eaters when younger but had relented over the years; one or two of us were still quite set in our ways with regards to food and were finding that aspect of Japan quite challenging. Janie and I were probably the most familiar with Japanese cuisine before the visit to Japan.

The conviviality was, of course, assisted by the visit to the sake shop to sample several sakes at around 10:00. That must be the earliest in the day that Janie and I have taken alcohol in living memory. Writing this up early (6:30ish) the next morning, I wonder whether I will get a “it’s sake o’clock” feeling when we are on the train to Kyoto at 10:00. (Editor’s subsequent note: no I didn’t).

The town is geared up to people going around and sampling food and drink, it seems. For example, we made an impromptu stop at a miso shop that wasn’t on our itinerary and sampled their miso.

We tried some street food along the way – no I don’t mean the above children or dogs.

I was the only person in our group who braved the takoyaki – octopus dumplings. Very hot temperature-wise but rather interesting in taste and wonderful textures – the goo of the dumpling then the chew of the octopus.

Soon after that, Daisy and I got chatting to an antipodean mother and daughter combination; Marianne (I think) and Sophie. But where were they from? The mother’s accent was French but I’m sure one of them said they were from Perth. Daisy came away from the conversation convinced that they had said that they were from New Zealand…quite a difference.

A whole-hearted debate about the origins of this unusual antipodeans ensued – Travis even opened a betting-book on the question and Daisy chased after the pair to interrogate them further. Daisy eventually returned, having heard the mother’s entire life story, claiming that both of us were right, as although the pair were sort-of from Perth, they had also lived in New Zealand. So all the bets were off.

Meanwhile the tour was coming to a conclusion. We all took tea/coffee and some mostly savory nibbles in a tea house at the end of the food stall market…

…and then strolled back to the centre of town via a confectionery store.

There the tour ended, so Daisy and I presented Momo with a gift of some English nibbles (Harrods I think they were, or perhaps Fortnum’s) before saying goodbye to the delightful group who had helped make our morning very special.

We strolled a little on our own, not least stopping at an interesting furniture-oriented department store (Takayami is renowned for its carpentry)…

…but only really to kill a little time before getting the bus to the Hide Folk Village.

The folk village is a falsey in a way, as the medieval houses have been transported from various other parts of the country.

But the houses have been placed artfully around a rather beautiful artificial lake and the interesting displays that have been placed inside them – authentic from the point of view that the relics relate to the houses (or at least the villages from which the houses) that have been transplanted to the Hide Folk Village.

In short, it made for a very charming and informative stroll. Hardly a Western tourist to be seen at that site – quite a lot of Japanese tourists and school groups though.

We returned briefly to our hotel just to wash and change in preparation for an early evening visit to Ajikura Tengoku, the restaurant we couldn’t get into yesterday, to ensure we got a table.

Ahead of our meal, though, we encountered a rare example of poor service in Japan as my laundry at the Best Western Hotel Takayama came back with a significantly higher price than expected. The laundry decided that my casual cotton shirts should be priced as overcoats and that my simple cotton trousers required a premium of a few quid over the (already very high) rate on the card, all for no apparent reason.

Daisy got quite incensed by all of this as a matter of principle, not least because the hotel functionary insisted that I bring the laundry back down for him to examine and then only tried to put matters right with a derisory couple of small coins, rather than the actual amount I had been overcharged.

Irritated but determined not to let such a small matter (a few quid, albeit a matter of principle) ruin such a lovely day, I simply resolved to get Audley to complain on our behalf and to report in detail on Trip Advisor a warning about how laundry happened for us at the Best Western Hotel Takayama.

Far more importantly, we had a date (but not a booking) at Ajikura Tengoku, so off we set to ensure we got there about 17:30, within half an hour of the place opening. There we found a tiny queue (we were second in line) and were in business within five minutes of our arrival – success.

Note for anyone who thinks that 17:30 is ridiculously early…when we left the place just after 19:00 there was a great long queue and the staff were already putting out the “full for the evening” signs.

Anyway, we got to try the wonderful local Hide beef and pork on a yakiniku grill. So once again we ended up cooking our own dinner and paying for the privilege of doing so!

…I just hope Daisy doesn’t photograph my undignified exit from this low table

No seriously, that restaurant is a very good place and although the meal was quite pricey, it was nowhere near the £100 plus per head prices in some of the more high-falutin’ looking places in town where the reviews are lower-falutin’ that the Ajikura Tengoku reviews.

So we had a very special meal to round off a very special day.

All the pictures from Day Six (ours and Momos) can be seen by clicking the Flickr link here or below:

Japan Day Five: Tsumago to Takayama, 24 October 2018

However much I try to be ready ahead of an earlyish travel day, it always seems like a bit of a rush in the end – this morning was no exception.

Of course there was bags of time when I rose, with difficulty, from the futon bed at 4.00 am to enjoy the onsen for one last time and relax myself sufficiently to go back to sleep again before 5.00. Of course there was loads of time to do some writing up first thing when I did rise properly.

There even seemed to be bags of time when we went down to breakfast at 7:45 with little left to do. Yet that Japanese style breakfast takes time even when you don’t want to eat all that much of it…

… so when I couldn’t find the version of the key that had the safe key on it, 20 minutes before our transfer bus, I did start to worry.

But of course I had only temporary mislaid the key and of course I was still downstairs and had settled the bill 15 minutes before the shuttle bus.

When Janie emerged five minutes or so after that, she was carrying not only her own bag but also that of “Mrs Tinker”, with “Mr & Mrs Tinker” following behind.

I must now explain about that couple, who were also staying at Fukinomori. To protect their identity we shall refer to them as Mr & Mrs Tinker. They clearly didn’t seem at all happy. We had heard Mrs Tinker grumble about her food and the fact that Hideo couldn’t speak English. We had heard very little from the Tinker table at meal times; he seemed to speak hardly at all. They didn’t seem at all friendly. I did hear them at the front desk the previous morning making their arrangements to leave, so I knew we would be on that shuttle together and I guessed they might be travelling our way.

It reminded both of us a little of The Taylor Couple Saga in Malawi (deep in those notes but eventually to be Ogblogged), where we noticed a disagreeable couple early in our trip and discovered that they were following us around for most of our Malawi holiday.

But unlike the Taylors of Malawi, the “Tinkers of Japan” turned out to be a pleasant, but unfortunate couple who had been blighted by her mobility health issues between booking the trip and setting off for Japan. Like us, they were using Audley travel. Like us, they were travelling next to Takayama. Naturally we compared notes.

Strangely, the Tinkers were scheduled (and reserved) on the express train from Nagoya to Takayama at 11:43, over an hour before our reserved train at 12:48 but only eight minutes after the local train arrives at Nagoya.

There were other English speakers on the shuttle bus (a nice Aussie couple) and on the local trains (a nice Scottish couple from Nantwich), which helped pass the time.

Meanwhile, I hatched a plan to try to get to Takayama earlier than expected, by dint of us helping the Tinkers to get to their train on time and us grabbing a couple of unreserved seats on said train…which worked.

In the unreserved car, Daisy and I snacked on the ginger snap-style biscuits that Janie bought in Tsumago for just such a snacking urgency. A Japanese family showed us how you can rotate seats to sit foursome style or airplane twosome style. As the unreserved car was not well populated, we took advantage of thus double-seating.

Why we were recommended a later train whereas the Tinkers were recommended the quick change is a bit of a mystery. The Tinkers had not gone through Tim at Audley and perhaps Tim felt that the eight minute turnaround at a big station was too tight to mention. Certainly Mr Tinker was worried about that aspect of the journey and for sure the Tinkers would have struggled to make it on time without our help.

Still, in the end, we helped the Tinkers and the Tinkers helped us. They seemed extremely grateful to us for our help and disappointed to discover that we wouldn’t be leaving Takayama on the same day.

So, here we were in Takayama with a bit of extra time on our hands. We checked in to the Best Western, efficiently picking up our forwarded baggage.

Janie was very keen to see the Yoshijima Heritage House, which was not scheduled on our tour and I thought, if we had time, would be an excellent short visit that first afternoon, followed by a stroll back through the Sanmatchi (Old Town) district. So it proved.

Janie took loads of photos in the exquisit and tranquil Yoshijima Heritage House, which had been the home of a wealthy money lender and sake maker.

We then strolled to the heaving Sanmatchi district – possibly not the best time of day to see it if you want a sense of tranquility there – it was heaving with tourists and schoolchildren fresh out of school- but certainly a good time to pick up on the vibe of the street food snacking that is the hallmark of this unusual Japanese town.

We decided to follow the lead of our Dutch friends in Tsumago and try the green tea (in our case mixed with vanilla) ice cream. Janie thought it tasted a bit like Odono’s green tea flavour, which made her realise why she sees so many Japanese people in Odono’s. So as we thought, not especially unusual for us – unlike the chestnut flavour which doesn’t seem to have made it to Takayama.

Then back to the hotel to plan our evening meal. After much research, we settled on Ajikura Tengoku which is only three minutes from our hotel and was well recommended not only by Tim but by the TripAdvisor community, including recent reviews.

But that place turned out to be full and you cannot book – you simply have to turn up in good time – we planned to try again tomorrow. So, all dressed up with no place to go, I reverted to TripAdvisor and Google, to find what I thought was a highly-recommended pub-restaurant named Hu.

We ate a splendid simple pub meal of pork ramen, gyoza, fried chicken, fried rice and sake. Served well and efficiently – the owner-chef seemed delighted when I let him know we thought the food was delicious. We turned up at just the right time as the counter filled up soon after we arrived as did, briefly, the low-level eating area which would not have suited us.

Anyway, the meal was a success by any measure…

…but there seems to be some confusion about the place. On re-Googling, while finishing our sake, we discover that Hu is a cocktail bar nearby – no mention of food – whereas we had been eating in a tavern named Nanairo. As good fortune would have it, Nanairo is also highly regarded by the TripAdvisor community and quite rightly so.

Thus we had found exactly what we had been looking for through a flawed method. We’re on holiday – who cares? – the bit that matters is that we had a good meal and a good time.

All the pictures from Day Five can be seen by clicking the Flickr link here or below:

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