Looking Back: Japan Solo Travel - Day 8 & 9: Takayama (Final Chapter)
One of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Shirakawa-go has been one of Japan's major tourist hotspots, drawing in more than a thousand visitors every month, and even more so during winter, when a magical wintry spell is naturally cast, transforming the sprawl of the Gazo-zukuris (the photogenic traditional houses of Shirakawa-go) into a work of inimitable wonder, especially when viewed from a lookout.
Day 8 - Takayama
My feet guided me to Hida-Takayama as the final destination of this solo adventure of mine. The town of Hida-Takayama is chiefly a starting point for whoever wishes to adjourn to the famous Shirakawa-go. I stayed at another branch of J-hoppers (a hostel branch in Japan I strongly recommend) here in Hida-Takayama for a night. I arrived very late at 9 pm, so I was really worried if there would be any restaurant that was still open at such a late hour. And rightly so, I was only given such limited options, as most restaurants had already closed by the time I arrived. The hostel staff recommended me two izakayas, one near the station and another in the downtown area. I opted for the latter as I was informed that it served one of the best Hida beef at a very reasonable price.
Rotten luck! By the time I arrived, it was already flocked by locals, and I clearly couldn’t afford to wait outside in such a piercing cold. I then quickly made my way to the other izakaya which was closer to the hostel. Lucky me! I made it just in the nick of time. It was still up and running. A bowl of king crab porridge and their signature char-grilled Hida beef on miso splendidly warmed me up in a way I would’ve never imagined.
The hearty dinner concluded my day, as I had to retire as early as I could, for on the following day, I would have to stand by in from of the train station at 9 am, where a local tour bus to Shirakawa-go would be waiting for me. At the same time, the next day was going to be the day that would conclude this solo adventure of mine, hence urging me to prepare my luggage, reorganizing what was in my carry-on luggage to make space for the souvenirs I’d bought.
Day 9 - Shirakawa-go
At around 8 in the morning, I walked to the Takayama train station, which was within walking distance from the hostel, to catch the tour bus bound for Shirakawa-go. The local tour originally cost 4000 yen, but since the hostel, I stayed in, J-Hoppers, owns the tour operator, the guests were able to join the tour for only 3000 yen. That’s a thousand yen saved. The tour operator is called J-Hop Tour. Highly recommended! It's cheap, the guide is entertaining, and you get local tips about the area.
I’m sure these days there are a lot of different tour companies offering a half-day or full-day tour to Shirakawa-go, not only from Takayama but also from other major cities, which undoubtedly is going to be more expensive.
The journey took about an hour and a half as we slithered along the mountain roads and passed through several tunnels. Throughout the journey, our tour guide, Yama-chan, explained to us the rich history of Shirakawa-go and the surrounding regions, which predated hundreds of years ago. We learned that Shirakawa-go used to be very detached from the rest of the civilization due to the difficulty of access to reach the area from the cities. He also introduced us to Sarubobo, a red-colored human-shaped plushie with no facial features wearing traditional Japanese clothes, which serves as a good luck charm native to the town of Takayama.
The first stop was a lookout point up a hill, which gave us a generous and majestic view of the once hidden, tranquil, iconic village of the Hokuriku region. White-capped, steep-sloped, thatched rooftops dominated the view, and as if it wasn’t majestic enough, a dramatic backdrop of a gallant mountain range gave the cake its final cherry.
Oh, and don’t let me start with how magnificently beautiful Shirakawa-go is during the winter illumination, which I sadly had to miss out on due to my tight schedule. The winter illumination, however, can now only be seen on selected Monday and Sunday evenings during winter. Make sure you time your visit right.
Once everyone was happy with the pictures they had taken from the hill, we were finally brought to the real deal: the village of Shirakawa. As no vehicles are allowed to enter the village, we had to exit the bus and walk across a suspension bridge acting as the gateway to the magical village of Shirakawa. The scenery from the bridge was also another thing worth mentioning.
There are several residential houses within the village that visitors can choose from to visit and experience, and in some cases, interact with the residents of said houses, with a small fee. Since our visit was time-restricted, we had to choose which house we wanted to visit wisely. According to Yama-chan, with a history of over 200-year-old, Wada house (Wada-kei) seems to be the main attraction and the oldest building in the village. My choice became clear. I navigated myself following the map I was given and quickly found myself at the doorstep of the famous Kanda house.
Frankly, not much we could see there aside from the attic that housed an assortment of relics from the past, such as the tools used by the people living in the area hundreds of years ago (might have changed now). But, if you want to know more about the history of the village and how life was back then in Shirakawa-go, or if you’re curious about the reasoning behind such architecture and how they were built, the Kanda-ke is definitely a must-see. You will be delighted, as the host is so friendly and informative. My Japanese was no way near excellent, yet I was able to grasp some information from him, as he explained about all kinds of stuff to a couple of Japanese tourists, who occasionally nodded in response to the load of information they got.
A few windows, or should I say, openings adorned the attic, and from which these following pictures were taken.
Another house worth visiting should we still have enough time is the Kanda house. The Kanda house is unique in that they offer the visitors nibbles and tea brewed traditionally over a fireplace. So, visitors can relax and unwind there a bit after a long cold day wandering around the village.
As I sat down and enjoyed a cup of tea I poured myself, I remember, I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that my journey had come to an end. Yet, at the same moment, I started pondering real good about life: what I wanted to do once I graduated university (I was 20 at that time and was in my 3rd year of university), what kind of realistic goals I wanted to set for myself, and whether I was ready to become an adult, knowing I had just turned 20. I also began thinking seriously about my condition and how I should cope with it as an adult. The faces and the voices of those sharing the same story as mine who had already left me crossed my mind all of a sudden. It was a sheer moment of reflection and retrospection for me.
I made my way back to the bus and slept like a baby throughout the journey. I was woken up when the bus came to a halt. We were once again parked right in front of the Takayama train station. After thanking the driver and Yama-chan, I went back to the hostel, grabbed my stuff, bid farewell to the hostel staff, and made my way back again to the train station, all set to go back to the airport. I caught a train to Nagoya from Takayama station before switching to shinkansen Hikari bound for Kyoto station. I knew that I would be wasting a lot of time if didn’t reserve a seat in advance, so I had already secured a seat the day I exchanged my JR Pass at the Osaka Station.
From Kyoto station, there were several ways to get to the airport, I took the earliest I could find, the Limited express train Haruka. It was, however, more expensive than the airport rapid train, but, hey, I got it covered by my JR Pass, so all was good. Boarding was around 9 pm, and I arrived at around 7.30, so I had more than plenty of time to kill and squander more of my money on duty-free merch and souvenirs. You know, you just can’t go to Japan and come back with some money still in your wallet. Oh, I love Japan.
That’s all I have to share with you about my first ever solo trip to Japan. Like all other articles in the “Looking Back” series, I’d been meaning to share my travel experience with everyone since a long time ago, yet never had the resolution to actually do so, let alone starting a blog. Oftentimes, the hustle-bustle of work just won’t let me write at all. Other times, I am just a slug that doesn’t wanna get off his tail and prefers to slack off. *Insert Pikachu meme here.
*I’m planning to make more food reviews and expand my “Hidden Gem” series since a lot of my friends actually loved it! I’m also gonna be posting some travel articles but they’re gonna take a different twist on the format.
Finally, if you actually read until this very sentence, I applaud you and you are majestically, fantastically, hands-down awesome!!! ’m guessing only 1 out of 500 people actually manage to read through this boring article. But, guess what, no one is gonna read this anyway. *sad
Again, thank you so much for all the support and I’ll see you in the next post. Stay classy.