We woke up to pouring rain in Hakone. We got fairly wet walking to the bus stop but after that it was an easy commute to Odawara and time for the Shinkansen (bullet train)! We hopped on the bullet train bound for Nagoya and switched trains to make our way to Takayama. It was a very beautiful train ride but next to impossible to capture on camera. We arrived in Takayama around mid-afternoon. I was surprised at how big the city was but now I can see hot it got the nickname, “Little Kyoto”. It doesn’t look like anything too special from first glance but with some exploration, charming streets and shops and areas emerge. We ate Hida ramen at a tiny little shop close to the station. Nothing to write home about but loved that we had to walk through the kitchen to get to the toilets. After lunch we called our ryokan (a traditional Japanese inn), Hagi Takayama. We had full intention to make our way back to walk around after settling into our room but realized that wouldn’t be happening once we got picked up in the van and made our way up into the hills. It was a walkable distance but it would have been a risk with the threatening clouds in the distance. So we settled into the ryokan. It had an amazing view of Takayama city and a number of different onsens (hot springs) at the hotel to choose from, including one that was outside. After we settled for a bit someone from the hotel did come and let us know that there was a night tour of the town after dinner we were so inclined to join in, which we did. I’m so glad we did! It was really nice to see the town with no people and the shops all closed up. It gave it a much more old town Japan feel. The streets were lined with cute little street lanterns and the streams running on the side of the streets provided a pleasant nature soundtrack. Just beware, there are no covers to these streams… we found that out the hard way. I highly recommend the night walk though, Takayama wouldn’t have been the same without that little excursion.
