Author: Rosie

The ancient castle Inuyama-jo looks down on the town from its lofty perch above the river.  It is a beautiful and commanding site to behold 40 metres above the river.  Rosie and The Operator are getting used to these treks up to temples and castles which are only ever built on the high spots. 

Gujo-Hachiman has abit of everything, an ancient feudal castle, heaps of temples, old town streets and its claim to fame…..the factory that makes all the plastic food models you see around Japan…they are all made here! Lets go and have a look around.

The houses are lovely and rustic looking, perched in a grouping on the valley floor with the mountain ridges rising around it looked very much like a story book village.  A few people were already wandering the streets of the village below and that was where we were headed next.

The Nakasendo Way was one of 5 major travelling routes through Japan formally endorsed by the shogun and one of two that linked the capitol Kyoto with the city of Edo (Tokyo). This inland route was the favored one between the two cities from 1603 – 1869 as there were no huge rivers to ford.

Takayama as a town, has the most English signs, English interpretive boards at spots of historic interest and generally the most Western tourists of all the spots we have visited outside of Tokyo and Kyoto.