In no particular order, these are the places that Rosie enjoyed visiting the most in Takayama. OK, so there is a couple more than ten…Rosie just couldnt make the cut.
All of these places of interest can be found on the Takayama Walking Map which is available FREE at the amazing Tourist Information Centre at Takayama Station and at other locations around town.
Takayama Showa Museum
What a gem! This is the first place Rosie visited in town and get ready to step back in time!
The swinging robot at the front door looking like something out of The Jetsons lures you into a bit of a tacky souvenir shop….Rosie was a bit reluctant to part with her Y800 when she didn’t really know what to expect but she is sure glad she did. An hour and a half later Rosie left with a huge grin on her face.
This is a retro museum dedicated to the Showa area of 1926-1989, which corresponds with the reign of the Showa Emperor Hirohito. This time has been described as a era of ‘Radiant Japan’. A time of great change from militarism to democracy, from agriculturalism to industrialisation – Japan was changing fast and packaged consumerism was being introduced for the first time.
This museum is like taking a walk down memory lane….literally. The displays are awesome. A peep at how people lived in the day, beautifully re created snapshots of rooms in houses and restaurants.
Games of the time….early video games in fully working order ready to be played!
Pachinko games….remember this game at the Black Cat Fish & Chip Shop in Hawera….that was a Japanese invented game! The modern Pachinko machines are the equivalent of Western slot machines. It is illegal to gamble here, so you play the machines and exchange your winning balls for prizes.
Then you take your prizes to another window…where you can exchange them for cash. Crazy eh. They had so many of these machines here that you could play for fun. There was a dress up area…which is no fun when you are on your own.
Back in the day when smoking was good for you LOL you could collect all these beautiful pictures printed on the back of cigarette packets.
This is a great start to visiting what Takayama has to offer!
Y800 1.5-2 Hours
Takayama Library
Such a beautiful Victorian style building, so graceful and well kept. The added bonus, it is only a couple of hundred meters from my door.
The sash doors and windows are opened during the day letting in the fresh air and there is not a hint of stuffiness or mustiness in this state of the art building. They have a tower accessible by lift where you have a great view over my neighborhood and Takayama.
You have to be a resident to take books out, but, they have English language newspapers available to read on the premises free of charge. Rosie comes here every couple of days…then she realized she can buy The Japan Times from the 7/11 where she gets her grocery supplies…this means she can now read the paper and have a coffee.
FREE – take lift to top floor for great views and photo ops
Takayama Museum of History and Art
You cant beat a FREE Museum and this one has been modernised and renovated in the last few years. As you go through the main outdoor gate do say hello to the lady in the office window.
She will ask you where you are from for their visitor records and then give you a FREE floor guide in your language. This is great, because some of the rooms do not have any English translation to what you are seeing.
This somewhat antiseptic museum charts the history of Takayama from Kanamori the feudal lord that established Takayama through to modern days, outlining along the way the economic history and that of the traditional crafts of the region. The amazing thing is that the Museum is actually housed in the original warehouses of two of Takayamas, wealthy merchant families dating from the late 1700s…..check out the construction of this bad boy building, it is mighty.
You were only allowed photos in this room, perfect, Rosie loves the antique carp and the chunky warehouse construction where you can still smell the wood it was originally made from.
FREE – 1 – 1.5 Hours
Karakuri Museum
Rosie didnt really have any intention of coming here…she was heading off somewhere else and saw the sign with an arrow pointing up the road 50metres. Not so much of a detour, and, this is a lovely area of town, Rosie will go and have a nosey. Well, well, this does look interesting. What is Karakuri? They are automated dolls/puppets.
The story goes that the repairman of the shoguns watch in 1617 (watches in that time?! had to google that one, the first watch was made in the 1450s by a German clockmaker) was fascinated by the interaction of the cogs, wheels and springs. He copied this system to make the first automated dolls which were used in festivals and theatre. Moving puppets with body parts manipulated by string (marionettes) were already popular, but these puppets were free from strings and could do amazing things.
The museum was awesome, I was the first person through the door on opening, they must get alot of people in here because the demo room had about 100 seats. As I was the only one there they did the show especially for me. It was awesome. Of course, I was the one picked from the non existent audience to interact with the puppets…the karakura delivered me tea and then took my empty cup away, they did tricks above the stage on a trapeze, it was incredible. Definitely worth the half hour detour!
Y800 – 45 mins – Before you buy your ticket ask when the next show is going to be in English
Takayama Festival Float Exhibition Hall
The Takayama Matsuri Festivals are regarded as one of the top three in the whole of Japan. The festival happens twice a year in Spring and in Autumn with the focus of the festival on the magnificent floats which are pulled through the streets of the town.
The origins of this festival started about 350 years ago as a simple village ceremony uniting the town. There are 12 floats in the Spring Festival and 11 in The Autumn Festival. As the town got bigger and more merchants and more skilled craftsmen moved here the floats became more and more magnificent as a spirit of competition developed between the various districts of the town who made and managed their floats.
The floats date from the 17th century and are decorated with intricate carvings, gilded wood and detailed metalwork. The floats are usually stored throughout the year in thick walled storage warehouses like below , these store houses are all within the districts the floats belong to.
The museum has permission to show 4 different floats every 3 months, so we can have the opportunity to see these amazing pieces of art outside festival time.
The festival is huge and everyone one in the district that has a float seems to be involved with theirs. The owner of another coffee shop I frequent said he plays the flute in the spring procession of his float and his son helps pull it.
This float is one of only a couple that is carried. It weighs over 2.5 tonne and has a company of 80 men that all have to be the same height in order to carry it comfortably. 40 men carry it for 10 mins at a time…then the next 40 men seamlessly move into take the weight and away they rotate, throughout the whole course.
This looks like an amazing festival! Rosie would love to experience it one day. It seems such fun and inclusive to everyone living in the town.
Y900 – 45 mins – A free audio guide is given in your language to self guide through the listening post stations.
Sakurayama Hachiman Shrine
This beautiful shrine is right next door to the Float Hall. Rosie is going out on a limb and saying that this is the most beautiful shrine in Takayama.
Like the rest in this town, and, in comparison to the rest of the country…it is still a plain shrine. This shrine has been crafted though by Takayamas finest woodworkers and artisans and it is like a majestically beautiful log cabin, sitting, glowing in the sunshine with a glorious forest rising straight and tall at its back.
This shrine is the focus of the Spring and Autumn Float Festivals and at this time the shrine sees up to a million visitors.
Today, Rosie was lucky, it was very quiet which was great for a contemplative walk in the still silence.
FREE – Y300 if you want a souvenir Goshuin – 20 mins
Yume Kojo
This place is marked on the Takayama Tourist Map as ‘Rice Cracker Factory’. Rosie didn’t mark it as a specific place to visit, but hey, Google Maps told me I was only mere meters away from the front door. Really? I am in an empty street, lined with buildings and there is nothing to indicate I am near a tourist spot. I pulled up a picture of the building…Yes, I am standing in front of it. Shall I go in or shant I? It was a bit intimidating, there was no welcoming English anywhere…..oh’ what the hell, no regrets. I can always hastily retreat.
Once again I am the only one here, and the room is huge with a line of rice cracker cookers along each wall as if they were waiting for the next tour bus to pull in.
No English was spoken here at all. I am being shepherded to a stool in front of a cooker and as quick as that I am being given an instructional in fast paced Japanese on how to cook rice crackers in the gas oven.
Let me say for the record, he had a hell of a lot to say about the production of these crackers….and I suppose Health and Safety..? Rosie nodded and smiled like she understood every word. Then a pair of tongs is thrust into my hand and a basket of uncooked crackers put in front of me and I am away.
Well it kind of is as easy as it looked…with abit of practice. My crackers turned out a little to well fired with too much colour and a few to many lumpy bits. My crackers were bagged and graded out of 4 with mine being classed as seconds….I kind of wanted to go back and have another go…. I know I could do better….it was great fun!
The lesson to be learned, do not be intimidated by closed doors.
Y400 – 45mins – Instructional and then you make your own Rice Crackers – you take away the crackers you made.
Takayama Jinya
Rosie has walked past this site a couple of times, it is touted as an ancient government building. It didnt really sound that interesting, but….I was in the area today and I was a little too early for my coffee shop to be open so I thought why not. Glad I did! Another triumph for this small town!
This National Historic Site has been a continually running government office for the region from 1692 til its closure in 1969…is that incredible or what!
Built in 1692 as a branch office of the shogun warrior government this is where all the regional administrative duties were carried out on behalf of the Shogun including tax collection and recording, all financial matters involved with the town, forest management, police action, civil court and judgement.
In 1867 when Shogun rule was disbanded the office just plain old carried on working and became the Prefectural Government Office until its closure in 1969 when preservation of this unique site was instigated.
This a pictures of the ‘office’ set up where the administrators sat…not ergonomic enough for Rosie…I wouldn’t last a week there.
The offices were dived by status and the boss had his own rooms to relax and rest in looking out onto this magnificent garden. He even had his own cubby for tea ceremonies….
In the main conference room which can be closed off with screens to make three smaller rooms these ladies were performing on their stringed zither like instruments. You can hear in your minds eye the high pitched wailing…but on masse….it was very emotive and melancholy sounding.
The civil court was located in this area, disputes were mainly about the payment of taxes and money lending problems plus boudary issues on land.
In a criminal case, back in the day they also had an area of confession where the guilty party would sit on a jaggedy stone and have weights put on his legs….
The storehouses though were just amazing. So robust with super think mud walls, shingled roof and giant tree beams smoothed with age and gleaming in the muted light.
The storehouses were built about 1600 and are the biggest in Takayama, this is where the Shoguns taxes were kept….so you know they had to be the biggest storerooms around. Taxes were paid in the form of rice and farmers were taxed especially heavily for the rice they were producing. On tax collection day the rice payment was stuffed into these straw bales, each bale held 60kgs of rice. There seemed to be a lot of rebellion and fighting over these taxes, Rosie would loved to have been able to understand all the ins and outs but there was no English translations when it came to the skirmishes of the times.
Y430 – 1-1.5 hours – Guided English Tours are provided on certain days, there was non on the day I went but there is enough information provided in an entrance leaflet and on boards as you self guide around the rooms of the offices and stores.
Hida Kokubunji Temple
This is a Buddhist shrine not far from the Railway Station and a line of Buddhas watch over the front gate as you enter.
These temple grounds are over 500 years old and it is said the bell tower gates, on the left of the picture below, came from Takayama Castle upon its destruction by the Shogun in 1695.
The three story pagoda is intricately carved and very beautiful…when it was originally built it was seven stories tall but it has been burnt down and rebuilt so many times that the last time it happened in the 1820s they only rebuilt it three stories high.
Even more impressive is the 1250 year old Ginko tree, a Registered National Treasure of Japan. This mighty specimen stands 38 meters high and has a ten meter trunk diameter. It is said that when the leaves start to fall the snow will arrive soon after.
Just take a moment and think about that…..this here tree was already ancient when they started building this temple 500 years ago…I wonder if those builders sat under the tree for shade to eat their lunch whilst they were building? Rosie had to sit and ponder that as well….the things that tree has seen. Tucked away in its trunk was its own mini shrine of longevity and thanksgiving.
A sub shrine featuring Takayama Sarubobo is tucked away on the street side before you enter. These red colored, faceless dolls are sold all over Takayama and are pretty much the mascot of the town.
The origin of the doll goes back hundreds of years when Mothers used to make these Sarubobo as dolls for their new born baby girls as a charm for good fortune in life, ensuring her future home is happy and a promise of a good match in life.
FREE – Souvenir Goshuin Y300
Higashiama Walking Course
A walking course that links a number of shrines, historical gardens, bell towers and points of interest. Rosie has covered this in her Blog Takayama – Introducing ‘My Town’. Please refer to that for thoughts and pictures.
FREE – Allow 3-4 Hours to wander the top temple course at a leisurely pace.
Miyagawa Morning Market
A beautiful Morning Market covered in the blog Takayama – Introducing ‘My Town’. Please refer to that for pictures and impressions.
You cant deny what a great place Takayama is! There is plenty to see and do here alright. Rosie hopes this guide was a helpful insight of where she has been hanging during her stay and if you are planning on visiting too.
My next blog gives you a local insight to my neighborhood and where I have been living in this town, plus the colorful characters of my neighborhood.
