Bears and time-travel in Takayama, Japan
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| Takayama |
You are a traveller. You drag yourself around Shin-Osaka station with heavy feet. You haven't slept well, troubled by a snorer in your dorm room, and you’re carrying 25kg of baggage on your chest and back. It feels like wading through water.
Your companions are lagging behind, bickering about which direction to walk in. But you know where to go. When you finally lead them to the gates, the bearded one is desperately fiddling with the zips on his puffer jacket to retrieve a Japan Rail pass. The curly-haired one is watching him, patience running thin, anger simmering and about to boil.
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| Shinkansen |
The tension all fades as soon as you see the bullet train poke it's long nose along the track. The Shinkansen takes you to Kyoto in about 15 minutes. You don't stop there, changing at Nagoya and riding through to Takayama, a sprawling city nestled in between snowy mountains.
You head out for a walk around a local park, nervously eyeing signs that read 'Bear Spotted in this Area'. Your curly haired companion does not like it at all. The bearded one, on the other hand, unpacks his long range camera lense in anticipation of spotting one. You hope to see one, if only because the bearded one will be eaten alive while you run away.
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| Beware of bears in Takayama |
The next day you visit the Hida Folk Village. This is a collection of ancient homes moved from a nearby area in an effort to preserve cultural history. At the ticket gate, your companions sign up for the stamp rally. It's a game for kids that involves answering a quiz and collecting ink stamps from locations around Hida. Your companions go about it with irritating childish glee.
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| Stamp book at Hida Village |
You read the information packs about silk-making, wood cutting, cloth-making and the meeting of village elders. It's a portal through time to the Japanese age before Nissan, Mitsubishi, Yamaha, Toyota, Suzuki and all the bright lights and technology that we associate with the world’s third largest economy.
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| Inside a Hida Village home |
You spend two or three hours strolling around the ancient village and rest your aching limbs at a traditional tea service that is held in one of the old houses. An old Japanese woman cooks rice cakes on a wood fire, she uses her modest english to politely ask you where you are from.
"Oh wow!" she says in answer. "Thank you so much for coming to Takayama." The pleasure is all yours.
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| Rain in Takayama |
You walk back down the hill towards the main city. It's raining - a lot - so you and your companions find a sake brewery (Harada Sake Brewery) in the old shopping district, Sanmachi Suji, and join in a tasting.
For only ¥359 (£2-3) you are given a small sake cup that you can fill 12 times, trying each bottle on sale. It's an extraordinary trust system with little policing other than some signs reading "this is not an all you can drink." Your companions sit by the fire inside, becoming rosey-cheeked with alcohol and warmth.
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| Harada Sake Brewery |
The night draws in and you get hungry. The curly haired one has booked you in at a restaurant called Heianraku. It's run by a husband and wife. The husband cooks and the wife serves, mostly. She also spends a lot of time talking to the guests.
She asks you to sign her guestbook, which has names from all over the world scrawled on a detailed map. Her favourite TV shows are Midsommer Murders and Poirot, but the husband prefers Luther.
The food is brilliant. The starter is marinated baby potato and spinach fried in garlic, and it fills you with high expectation for the dishes to come. All the while our chef is busy with flying hands in the open kitchen. He stops only once to point at the Dragonball t-shirt that the bearded one is wearing. He shows it to his wife.
"Oh, Dragon Ball!" she says, and places her wrists together, flowering her hands out in mimicry of the anime shows' energy attack, the ‘kamehameha’.
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| Heianraku |
The next dish is a stir fry with sweet miso sauce. You also try a delicious tofu and veg curry and finish on a sesame and soy milk pudding. Your companions sit in reverential silence as you pass around the dishes.
As you stand to leave, the wife bends her head backwards to look up at your tall companions. "I am sorry," she says, shaking her head softly. "Japan is a very dangerous country," she points to the low doorway, "please be careful of your head."
It's endless entertainment watching your companions constantly smash their heads into beds, rooftops and doorways in Japan. Now they gingerly step through the low doorway, guided kindly by your hostess. "Thank you so much for coming," she says, giving you all a chocolate snack. "This is my favourite sweet in Japan," she says.
Your companions stumble ineptly through the process of bowing and saying "arigatōgozaimashita" and walk down the street. As you stroll into the chill night air you look over your shoulder to see her still standing in the doorway, waving, "arigatōgozaimashita" she shouts and bows. You bow back and say the words again.
