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(whole fish of a dozen species).
Takayama We wandered through the Sanmachi
Suji district, a maze of old-world streets
We traveled by rail from Hakone to lined with specialty shops and home to
Nagoya and had 11 minutes to change several quaint museums, including the
trains for our next destination, Takayama. Hida Kokubunji Temple, founded in 746 and
Trains and tracks are clearly numbered. the oldest surviving temple in Takayama.
Large displays throughout the stations up- The nearby Takayama Jinya and Yatai
date on schedules, which are mostly pre- Kaikan Hall house four of Takayama's Au-
cise. We did have a delay on one train when tumn Festival floats. The elaborately dec-
a storm blew through, and we waited for it orated floats have themes and are
to pass before our local train departed, enhanced with intricate characters and
cruising past bubbling streams and dense carvings. Every year, teams roll these hun-
hillside forests on the curving mountain dred-year-old floats onto the streets for
grades. the annual parade, showing excellent ex-
For lunch, we had picked up bento boxes amples of Takayama's legendary crafts-
in the train station, our first of several ex- manship.
periences with this standard of Japanese The weather was fall-like and invigo-
culture. The boxes are inexpensive and rating, so we ventured onto the 3.5-kilome-
popular for take-out meals. A traditional ter (about 2 miles) Higashiyama Walking
bento typically contains a single portion of Course in Takayama's temple town. A cou-
a meal, often including rice, fish, or meat, ple of our gang got so enthralled with the
and vegetables, arranged in a segmented different styles of the more than a dozen
box. common temples and shrines that they
Dividers are often used to separate in- wandered out of sight of our guide and
gredients or dishes, especially those with had to be tracked down. The adventure
intense flavors, to avoid affecting the taste made us hungry, and we returned to our
of the meal. The boxes are made fresh inn for a classic multi-course Kaiseki Sushi
daily and can be found everywhere Dinner. Like a prix fixe dinner in France or
throughout Japan, including convenience elsewhere, Kaiseki is an art form that goes
stores, bento shops, railway stations, and through many different courses, uses fresh
department stores. seasonal ingredients, and is served on
plates and in bowls of various sizes and
We overnighted at Honjin Hiranoya Ka- shapes, with artistic garnishing. We en-
choan, a traditional Japanese inn just a joyed this several times during our visit,
one-minute walk from the historic old town and each chef had their own style.
of Hida Takayama. The inn offers rooms in
both Japanese and Western styles. In the morning, we drove back in time
through the lush countryside to Shi-
rakawago, which was designated a UN-
Morning Market, Festivale Floats ESCO World Heritage site in 1995 and
considered one of Japan's most scenic
The next morning, after breakfast, we places. It includes small neighborhoods in
met our private guide to explore Takayama. the farmlands with its most-photographed
The first stop was navigating our way gassho-sukuri, traditionally constructed
through the crowded aisles in a lively morn- farmhouses with grass thatched roofs.
ing market with an array of vendors selling Some were homes, others shops, one
everything imaginable, from the ordinary housed a sake brewing business, and an-
(rice ball snacks) to the most unusual other was their version of a general store,
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