Nagoya or Takayama?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Nagoya at least has the sea within reach. Utsumi on the Chita Peninsula is about an hour away by train, and the ferry to Shinojima makes a small-island day out in midsummer, though the bay water is sheltered rather than clear. Takayama is deep in the Hida mountains, about two hours from the coast, so the nearest thing to a swim there is a hot-spring pool.

Nagoya has the wider range of food. Its own cooking, known as Nagoya meshi, runs from grilled eel over rice to misonikomi udon simmered in an earthenware pot. Around it are good sushi and izakaya, the basement food halls near Sakae and the station, and the morning service custom that turns a coffee into breakfast.

Takayama's food is narrower but very focused. There is Hida beef grilled on a magnolia leaf or sold on skewers from street stalls, soy-glazed dango, pickles from the riverside markets and tastings at the old sake breweries. That makes two or three excellent days of eating, after which Nagoya's variety starts to matter.

The two are well matched for sights, but they give you very different experiences. What survives of old Nagoya is a set of separate landmarks in a postwar grid: the rebuilt castle with its painted-cypress palace, the forest shrine of Atsuta and the Genji scrolls at the Tokugawa Art Museum. It adds something unusual in its industrial history, told at the Toyota and railway museums.

Takayama is the opposite: one intact old town you walk through rather than a list of stops. The timbered lanes of Sanmachi Suji, the feudal government office at Takayama Jinya and the thatched farmhouses of Hida Folk Village give a sense of Edo-period Japan that bombed Nagoya can no longer offer.

Nagoya is no late-night capital, but it does have a real district for going out. Sakae and Nishiki pack tiny bars, karaoke boxes, whisky and cocktail bars and a few dance clubs into narrow buildings, and Friday and Saturday are the nights to choose. In Takayama you can have a sake or a beer in an izakaya near the station after your ryokan dinner, but there are no clubs and very little is open after eleven.

Takayama is the place for mountain scenery. Within about an hour and a half by bus, the Shin-Hotaka ropeway rises towards peaks near 3,000m and Kamikochi's flat riverside trails run beneath the Hotaka range. In winter there is skiing within reach.

From Nagoya, real landscape means an hour or more of travel out of the flat Nobi Plain, to Mount Gozaisho in the Suzuka range, the maples of Korankei or the old Nakasendo road through the Kiso Valley. In the city itself there are the Tokugawaen and Shirotori gardens and the large Higashiyama park, which are pleasant but cannot match Takayama's mountain views.

Nagoya's place on the shinkansen line gives it much the wider reach. Kyoto is about thirty-five minutes away and Osaka under an hour, and Ise Jingu and Nara make longer days out. Closer in are the original castle keeps at Inuyama and Hikone and the old pottery towns of Seto and Tokoname.

Takayama has fewer options but one outstanding one: Shirakawa-go, with its UNESCO-listed thatched farmhouses, about fifty minutes by bus. Hida-Furukawa's canals and Gero Onsen are easy trips as well, while Kanazawa works better as your next stop than as a day out and back.

Nagoya can hold children's interest over a longer stay, and not only with its best-known attractions. There is also the Science Museum's giant planetarium, the roller coasters and water park at Nagashima Spa Land, and stations with lifts and family restaurants everywhere. The catch is distance, because the main attractions are in separate corners of the city.

Takayama is safe and compact, and children enjoy the morning markets, the festival floats and the winter snow. It has no zoo, aquarium or theme park, though, so it fits a day or two of a family trip rather than forming the core of it.

Neither needs a car, and Nagoya's transport network is the more capable of the two. Away from the Sakae, castle and Osu area, its wide postwar avenues make for long, dull walks. But the subway and three railway companies share one IC card, and Nagoya Station connects you easily to the whole region.

Takayama is the reverse. The old town, the Jinya and the markets are a short, flat walk from the station, which is a pleasure. Anything further away depends on regional buses, whose connections need planning and which can fill up in busy seasons.

Nagoya has the broader shopping. Department stores around Sakae and in the towers above the station carry the big international brands and have deep food halls. The covered arcades of Osu mix secondhand clothing, anime and electronics, and a flea market runs at the Kannon temple on set days.

Takayama has almost no fashion or department-store shopping. Its strength is traditional craft: amber-toned Shunkei lacquerware, carvings cut from a single block of yew and Hida bentwood furniture, with red sarubobo charms in almost every shop.

Nagoya is a little easier on the budget, mainly because its many business hotels keep room prices moderate. Morning service and noodle shops also make cheap eating simple. The costs mount up with eel dinners, shinkansen day trips and the theme parks.

Takayama is fair value if you stay in a simple guesthouse and live on street and market food. Spending rises with the things many people come for, a ryokan night with a multi-course dinner and a proper Hida beef meal, and rooms cost more again in festival weeks.

Nagoya has a proper programme: opera and touring orchestras at the Aichi Arts Center, kabuki at the Misono-za, Noh near the castle and jazz in the small live houses, though most of it is in Japanese. Takayama's stage is its spring and autumn festival, with mechanical karakuri puppets on the floats and lantern-lit processions. It is memorable if your dates match, and there is little else the rest of the year.

Takayama is the more restful stay. It is in the middle of hot-spring country, the riverside open-air pools of the Okuhida villages are about an hour away, and Gero Onsen is under an hour by train.

Nagoya's bathing is more urban. It has neighbourhood sento and large super sento with saunas, plus the Nagashima complex, and Gero is a two-hour trip best done as an overnight stay. The city's gardens offer some calm, but around them is a working city of offices and wide roads.