Takayama

Takayama sits in a basin in the Hida mountains, well inland, and the nearest coast at Toyama Bay is roughly two hours away. Nobody comes here to swim. In summer the closest thing to bathing is a soak in a hot spring, and a visitor who wants the sea should plan a separate stop elsewhere.

Takayama eats like a mountain town that knows what it is good at. Hida beef turns up everywhere, grilled on a magnolia leaf with hoba miso, seared on skewers from street stalls in the old town, or served as sushi on rice crackers. The local soy-based ramen, mitarashi dango glazed with soy rather than sweet sauce, and pickles from the morning markets by the Miyagawa river fill out the everyday side.

Sake is the other draw: several old breweries in the merchant quarter, marked by cedar balls over the door, offer tastings. Beyond these specialities the range is narrow, with few international options and a dining scene that winds down early. Two or three days of eating well is easy; a week starts to repeat.

The heart of Takayama is Sanmachi Suji, a few parallel lanes of dark-timbered Edo-period merchant houses, sake breweries and lattice fronts that have survived largely intact. Nearby, Takayama Jinya is the rare surviving example of a feudal government office, with its rice storehouses and interrogation room. The Kusakabe and Yoshijima houses show the craftsmanship of wealthy merchant families in their beams and light.

On the edge of town, Hida Folk Village gathers thatched gassho farmhouses on a hillside, and a hall by Sakurayama Hachimangu shrine displays the elaborate festival floats. The Higashiyama walking course links a string of quiet temples, and Hida Kokubunji has a three-storey pagoda in the centre. It is a coherent, atmospheric town best seen in a day or two, not a city of major museums.

Evenings in Takayama are short and quiet. Most visitors eat at their ryokan, and the old town shuts down once the shops close. A handful of izakaya and small bars around the station and the streets east of the river keep going for a while, good for a beer or a sake after dinner, but there are no clubs and little after eleven. Treat it as a place to rest between busier stops.

Takayama is a gateway to the Northern Japan Alps. Within about an hour and a half by bus are the Okuhida valleys, where the Shin-Hotaka ropeway lifts visitors to views of peaks near 3,000m, and Kamikochi, a high river valley with flat trails along clear water beneath the Hotaka range. Norikura offers high-altitude walking in summer. In winter, snow covers the region and there is skiing within reach.

The town itself is gentler: the river through the centre, the temple-lined Higashiyama walking course and the wooded hill of Shiroyama park. Autumn colour in the mountains is a highlight. Kamikochi closes for the cold months, and serious hiking needs planning around bus connections rather than a walk out of the door.

The headline trip is Shirakawa-go, about fifty minutes by bus, a village of steep thatched gassho farmhouses listed by UNESCO, especially striking under winter snow. The quieter Gokayama villages share that listing a little further on. Hida-Furukawa, a quarter of an hour by train, is a smaller sister town of white-walled storehouses and canals full of carp.

Gero Onsen, one of Japan's best-known spa towns, is less than an hour south by limited express, and the castle town of Kanazawa, with its garden and samurai and geisha districts, is a little over two hours by bus, best combined as an onward stop. Beyond these, much of what lies around Takayama is mountain country rather than towns.

Takayama is safe, clean and easy to manage, and the flat old town is short walks from the station. Children tend to enjoy the morning markets, the street snacks, the thatched houses of the folk village and the giant festival floats, and in winter there is snow to play in. What it lacks is anything made for them: no zoo, aquarium or theme park, and much of the town is craft shops and old houses that hold young attention only briefly. It suits a day or two within a wider Japan trip with children.

The centre is small and flat: the old town, the Jinya and the markets are all within a fifteen-minute walk of the station, and a circular bus reaches the folk village on the hill. Trains on the JR Takayama line link the town with Gero and Hida-Furukawa, while the bus centre beside the station handles Shirakawa-go, the Okuhida valleys and Kanazawa. Regional buses need some planning around connections and can fill in busy seasons, but a car is never necessary.

Shopping in Takayama means local craft. The old merchant lanes sell Shunkei lacquerware with its translucent amber finish, ichii itto-bori carvings cut from a single block of yew, Hida bentwood furniture and sake from the breweries. The red, faceless sarubobo charms are everywhere. The morning markets add pickles, miso and handmade goods. There is little fashion or department-store shopping, and plenty of the old town leans towards souvenirs, but for well-made traditional objects it is rewarding.

Takayama is moderately priced. Simple guesthouses and business hotels near the station are fair value, and ramen, street snacks and market food keep everyday eating cheap. The costs gather around the things many visitors come for: a night in a ryokan with a full multi-course dinner, a proper Hida beef meal, and rooms in the spring and autumn festival weeks, which book out and cost more. Sights are inexpensive, and the town is small enough that transport costs little beyond regional buses.

Performance in Takayama comes almost entirely from the Takayama Festival, held each spring and autumn, when ornate floats are paraded through town and some stage karakuri, mechanical puppets worked by strings, along with lantern-lit evening processions. It is a remarkable tradition, but outside those days there is no theatre, concert or live-music life to speak of.

Takayama sits in Japan's hot-spring heartland, and much of a stay here is about slowing down. Many of the town's ryokan pipe in spring water for their indoor and open-air baths, so a soak before dinner and a yukata evening come with the room. The town itself is quiet, with early nights and morning walks along the river.

The great baths lie just beyond. The Okuhida villages, about an hour away, are known for open-air pools beside mountain rivers, and Gero Onsen, one of the country's most celebrated spa towns, is under an hour by train. There is little in the way of Western-style day spas, but the bathing culture more than makes up for it.