Marc's Blog: trips - Japan Day 09: From Tateyama to Takayama

π 2016-07-20 01:01 in Japan, Japan2016, Ntrips, Trips

After sleeping in Tateyama, we took the first train we took that would take us to Takayama, but sadly getting out of Tateyama was long and slow, and because of a complicated train routing, staying on the direct train got us in Toyama 9mn too late and made us miss our fast train connection to Takayama (apparently we had to exit our direct train and take a connection to arrive in Toyama quicker, that wasn't obvious). As a result, we wasted an hour waiting for the next train (this time a slow one), and arriving there at slower pace:

this is where we climbed up

our first train out

Finally we arrived in Takeyama, and went to Matsuri no Mori, the museum on the big float festivals they have. The floats are kept in a temperature controlled room, and on animated display once an hour. They were quite impressive:

the big door allows for the floats to get in and out a few times a year

Next, we went to the Hida Folk Village, which was an interesting tour showing how old houses were in that region (turns out in Shirakawago where we went the next day, they had more houses still like this):

we learned about raising silk worms

they make little white cocoons like those, and they are unwrapped to make silk threads

Next, we took another cab to Takayama Festival Float Exhibition Hall and Sakurayama Hachimangu Shrine next door, which has a fantastic replica of Toshogu Shrine in Nikko:

From there, Jennifer was tired of walking with the long hikes we had done the last day, so she went back to our ryokan, while I did the very well marked Higashiyama Walking Course, a very nice walk that takes you through more than 10 temples and shrines, and to the forest where they have castle ruins, and deer like animals that I sadly was not able to see during my walk:

aqueduct that allowed a water stream to cross another water stream, cool :)