Autumn Colours – Day 7 – 17/11/2018 – Japan Unmasked 6 – Takayama

Tags

Hyouka, Takayama

More time in Takayama with some interesting options available.

Autumn Colours – Day 6 – 16/11/2018 – Japan Unmasked 5 – Takayama

Tags

Hyouka, Takayama

A visit to the traditional crafts town of Takayama.

Day 6 Planned:

After the travel in the morning there are a number of options:

• A riverside walk then through the merchants quarter
• A festival float museum
• The Showakan museum

The accommodation will include onsen and a traditional meal. This is another possible anime déjà vu moment since I’ve only recently seen Hyouka. The “Kamiyama City” of Hyouka is heavily based on Takayama.

Day 6 Actual:

After breakfast I headed to Matsumoto Castle for the inside climb and tour. This was interesting given that I was carrying my shoes in a plastic bag for the entire tour. Matsumoto Castle really is worth seeing, although more translations in the gun/other artefacts museum would have been appreciated.

I then took a walk around the outside of the castle acquiring many photos of this very scenic spot. In terms of anime deja vu, I was getting hints of it in the Matsumoto Park, and one of the nearby shrines, but I’d have to rewatch Orange to be sure.

I did check in with the Tourist Information Office, and they do have Orange walking maps but only in Japanese. Amusingly I think there are slightly different maps for the manga and the anime.

Then I headed down Nawaete Street, the traditional shopping street, where I stopped off at a bakery for a custard pan before heading back to the hotel. I’d checked out earlier so all I had to do was meet up with the group for the 12PM taxis to the bus terminal. A quick (and light) lunch in the terminal and then it was time for 1:05PM limited express to Takayama.

Judging by the scenery we were passing through it doesn’t particularly surprise me that there are no easy train routes from Matsumoto to Takayama. As a hint: I didn’t get photos of all of the dams we passed by/over (there were at least 3, I think I only got two), nor did I take photos in any of the many tunnels.

On the technique side I think did reasonably well adjusting the polarising filter to kill the reflections in the window.

Arriving in Takayama we were picked up in another bus by the family running the traditional inn. We dropped our bags and went out for a quick walk in another old business district as night was falling before returning to the inn for a traditional set Japanese meal (in a yukata no less).

I have been getting occasional “I think I know that” vibes courtesy of Hyouka but nothing I can really pin down yet.

Then a bath in the traditional manner where I chatted to a Brit who was doing a self guided tour with planning by Inside Japan. Hmmmm, SCHEMING INTENSIFIES.

That was it for the day really.

Photos

And here are the photos for today.

Viewing the Autumn Colours in 2018

Tags

Canberra, Hakone, Hiroshima, Hong Kong, Kanazawa, Kurashiki, Kyoto, Matsumoto, Miyajima, Nagano, Sydney, Takayama, Tokyo

I headed back to Japan in November to view the Autumn colours. I really enjoyed travelling with Inside Japan last year and enjoyed doing so again this year.

This trip included meetups with online friends in Japan, and some semi-self guided touring at the end. A summary of the trip is after the jump if you’re interested in catching up, and links will be added as the photos for each post are curated.