I can easily while away whole days wandering about Takayama old town -- and did, in fact, do just that a couple of times on my recent Japan trip. What with my having budgeted to spend four nights in that mountain town, I could have spared time to do what lots of visitors to the area do and head over to Shirakawa-go and/or Kanazawa -- but eschewed doing so since I had visited there back in 2014.
Instead, the only excursion I ended up taking from Takayama was to the even smaller mountain town of Hida-Furukawa just 20 minutes or so by train to the north. And while I covered quite a bit of ground in town and took a whole bunch of photos, I ended up only spending half a day there because that town's picturesque old center was actually in a pretty compact space and, if truth be told, I found the town too quiet for my liking on the Sunday that I visited! ;b
By the river's edge in Hida-Furukawa
On Imamiya Bridge looking toward Shinshuji,
one of the town's three main Buddhist temples
Puppet Ponyo in front of Honkouji
Honkouji's beautifully decorated main building is
the largest wooden building in the Hida region
It really is something when you turn a corner and are presented
with the sight of something picturesque like Enkouji :)
The Watanabe Sake Brewery, whose sake I decided was my favorite
among those produced in Hida-Furukuwa and also Takayama!
The busiest street in town in the (short) time that I was there! ;D
a town this picturesque (yes, those are carp in the canals!)
to be this bereft of tourists (and people in general)!
4 comments:
I knew I'd see some carps in your pictures, but I didn't know that the temples at Furukawa would be so impressive as well. Really like those architectural details of Honkouji!
Hi Paul --
If it's any consolation for your not having visited Hida-Furukawa: the interiors of the temples are not open to the public. On the other hand, I did find their exteriors impressive -- and actually also liked that they didn't feel touristy, unlike with a lot of temples in the likes of Kyoto.
Being devoid of people seems a MAJOR point of attraction as far as I'm concerned. I actually want to go there right now :)
Hi "eliza bennet" --
Hope you get there before the place becomes a major tourist destination!
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