Takayama Old Town

This article is based on a visit made on Friday, 18 May 2018.

Previously on Sekai Ichi, I visited the Showa-kan museum in Takayama.  The museum stands on the edge of one of Takayama's main draws, its old town.  Formally known as the Sanmachi Historical Houses Preservation District (三町伝統的建造物群保存地区, Sanmachi Dentouteki Kinzoubutsugun Hozon Chigu), the old town is a neighbourhood of homes and shops, some of which have been standing since the Edo period (1601-1868).

The old town is located on the east side of the Miya River (宮川, Miya-gawa).  One of Takayama's two popular morning markets, the Miyagawa Morning Market, is set up every morning along the riverside, just north of the old town area.  But since it's the afternoon, let's move on to where the real action is.

The action in the old town is centred around three parallel streets.  Some of the buildings are private homes, but many others are shops which specialise in all manner of foods, crafts, and sake, a.k.a. nihonshu (日本酒, lit. 'Japanese liquor').  Like the Higashi Chaya district in Kanazawa, I found that the similar building styles and Japanese signage tends to make each business blend into the next, but the wider variety of businesses does help each to stand out a bit.

One object you'll see lots of in Takayama is the sugidama (杉玉, lit. 'cedar ball'), a common decoration found in front of sake-related businesses.  They are made of cedar branches and leaves, the same tree whose wood was traditionally used to make casks for fermenting liquor.  They are coloured green when made in the winter, and turn brown later on in the year, when the sake has aged enough and is ready to drink.

Numerous sake shops in Takayama offer samples for a low cost.  The sample shown above is umeshu (lit. 'plum liquor').  For obvious reasons, only those who are of drinking age in Japan (20 years old) and who are not planning to drive anytime soon need apply.

One of the other sake breweries in the area even sells sake-flavoured ice cream!  If the alcoholic bite of the real thing is too much for you to handle, this is a good way to experience it with a more mellow sweetness.  The same age restrictions apply for the ice cream, just to be on the safe side.

Looking for something more substantial?  Hida beef, along with the more famous Kobe beef, is one of the most prestigious varieties of wagyu (和牛, lit. 'Japanese cattle'), and Takayama is the best place to try it out.  One of the most accessible places to try out Hida beef is a nikuman, or steamed beef bun, from Kihachiro Beef Bun, whose signboard is shown above.  Kihachiro also has additional stores as far away as Kyoto and Kamakura.

Sugidama aren't the only creative signage to be found here.  This soba restaurant incorporates some noodles draped over a pair of chopsticks.

And in front of another place, I came across this animatronic puppet.  Simply put, you never know what you'll find out here!

Case in point, I found a chopsticks shop where I was able to get my name printed on a pair of my own.

Making this moment even more special, I also got a ¥2,000 note back with my change.  This denomination was first printed, appropriately enough, in the year 2000, but is rarer to come across than the other bills (¥1,000, ¥5,000, and ¥10,000).  In that sense, it's a lot like the US $2 bill, although closer in value to $20.

Not every business in the old town is steeped in tradition.  My grandmother was drawn into a shop that specialised in tomato juice and similar products.  The store itself gave off a hipsterish schoolhouse vibe.

We came across that place while we were searching for some place where we could get a rickshaw ride.  It took some searching, but we found one.  Our guide for the ride spoke enough English -- not that much according to her, but suitable enough for me -- to give us insights that helped us enjoy the neighbourhood even more.  She was even willing and able to take a couple of pictures of us, one of which I've used for my sign-off above.  If you'd like a rickshaw ride for yourself, expect to pay ¥5,000 for 30 minutes, but if you can get a shorter and cheaper course like we did, you'll still get your money's worth.  As for us, there was one more city we made a stop at on our way back to Tokyo.  Find out where, next time on Sekai Ichi!

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Access: From the Takayama Bus Centre, take the Machinami loop bus to Sanmachi-dori (さんまち通り, ¥100), in the middle of the old town.  The Counterclockwise route takes 9 minutes to get to this stop, while the Clockwise route takes 24 minutes.

You can also reach the area in about 10 minutes on foot from Takayama Station.  Turn right out of the station's East Exit, then take the next left at the traffic light.  Continue on up the main road for about 850m (½ mile).  After crossing the river, you will have arrived in the old town.

Kihachiro

Hours: Open from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM.  Closed on Wednesdays.

Address: 35 Kamisannomachi, Takayama-shi, Gifu-ken 〒506-0845

Website: (Japanese)

Takayama Showa-kan

This article is based on a visit made on Friday, 18 May 2018.

Previously on Sekai Ichi, I visited the Sakurayama Hachiman shrine, home to a museum about the city's semi-annual festivals.  Its location proved to be a fine starting point for walking into another of Takayama's most famous attractions, the old town.  However, on the way there, we stopped at a museum offering a more recent slice of history: the Takayama Showa-kan (高山昭和館) museum.

What is Showa?  In Japan, the reign of each Emperor is given a unique title, which is also bestowed upon that Emperor himself after his death.  For example, the reign that started this year (2019) is called the Reiwa era (令和, lit. 'fair peace').  The Showa era (昭和, lit. 'enlightened peace'), then, was the period ruled over by Emperor Hirohito, lasting from 1926 to 1989.  This holds the record for the longest reign of a Japanese Emperor, and indeed, much happened to Japan during these 64 years, some of it infamously unfortunate.  But most Japanese who were alive back then associate Showa more strongly with its post-war half, from the mid-1950s on, when the country embraced democracy and capitalism, and its economy grew at a meteoric rate.

The halls of this museum are done up to resemble a cityscape that may have been seen in 1955 or so, and are lined with rooms which re-create different kinds of homes or businesses.  The car seen above is a Daihatsu Midget, a three-wheeled mini-truck first manufactured in 1957.  They came in one-seater and two-seater varieties; the model in this museum is the latter, and you can even sit inside it.

This room is the living quarters behind a general store; the store's counters are out of frame.  It would be interesting to compare these to the model homes in, say, the Fukugawa Edo Museum.  Maybe this is just one room out of many in the house, maybe it isn't.  Living standards had certainly improved since the Edo period, but space has always been precious in urban Japan.  One thing's for sure: there was a wider variety of stuff available in the Showa period.  The TV in back plays a loop of vintage shows, and there is a shogi (a Japanese strategy game which evolved from chess) board which these two 21st-century ladies are happily chatting over.

Moving on to the restaurant, and -- hel-lo, whom do we have up there...?

I'll try to ignore that temptation, and instead take a closer look at the food models adorning the restaurant's shopfront, which is common in Japan even today.  The advent of plastic manufacturing gave restaurateurs the ability share their menus beyond the barriers of language.  I, and many others, I'm sure, are thankful for that.

One of the rooms you can enter from the main hall is an appliance store.  Electric appliances like these became status symbols of the post-war Japanese.  Junichiro Koizumi, the Prime Minister from 2001-2006, compared the most sought-after home goods of a given time to the three treasures that make up the Imperial Regalia of Japan; for example, the washing machine, refrigerator, and black-and-white TV.  I mentioned this comparison in detail before, on my article on the Edo Tokyo Museum.

Next door is a toy store.  I described the evolution of Japanese toy trends in another article, on the Arima Toys and Automata Museum.  The collection on display here encapsulates the transition period I described then.

The second floor offers more to explore, such as rooms from a private home and a school.  I honestly doubt that every student in a given class would use their own typewriter, but having them here does help to show the evolution of technology that took place during this time.

Speaking of technology, video games also helped define the late Showa period.  Japanese arcade games like Space Invaders and Pac-Man became worldwide phenomena in the late '70s and early '80s, and Nintendo and Sega both launched their first home consoles in 1983.  Here, on the second floor of the Showa-kan, you can play on a couple of Nintendo's Famicom and Super Famicom systems.  (The latter was actually launched in 1990, after the Showa period ended, but... eh, close enough.)

However, an even more widespread pasttime in Japan, both then and now, is pachinko (パチンコ).  To play, you shoot little metal marbles into a vertical board lined with pegs.  The balls bounce around these pegs on their way down, and if they fall into the right holes, you'll get additional balls to keep playing with.  It bears resemblance to pinball, but the player's only control is how rapidly the balls are shot into play.  The balls you earn can be exchanged for prizes, and even though most gambling is illegal in Japan, there is a booming grey market of exchanging those prizes back for cash.  At the Showa-kan, you can try out some old-style pachinko machines for free.  No prizes, though.  As for the real thing, pachinko parlours are very widespread across Japan, but the experience of being in one is extremely loud, like a casino on steroids.  I think I'll stick to video game centres if that's all the same to you.

Or, I could just go out and visit Takayama's old town.  Join me there, next time on Sekai Ichi!

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Hours: Open from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM.  No regular closing days.

Cost: ¥800.

Address: 6 Shimo-Ichinomachi, Takayama-shi, Gifu-ken 〒506-0858

Access: From the Takayama Bus Centre, take the Machinami loop bus to Betsu-in Temple (別院前) (¥100).  The Counterclockwise route takes 11 minutes to get to this stop, while the Clockwise route takes 21 minutes.  From the bus stop, head west, downhill along the main road, and take the third right, at the traffic light.  The museum will soon be on your left.

You can also reach the museum in about 15 minutes on foot from Takayama Station.  Turn left out of the station's East Exit, then take the second right at the traffic light.  Continue on up the main road for about 850m (½ mile).  After crossing the river, turn left at the next traffic light.  The museum will soon be on your left.

Website: (English) (Japanese)

Takayama Festival Museum

This article is based on a visit made on Friday, 18 May 2018.

Previously on Sekai Ichi, I embarked on a day-trip to Takayama, starting with the Hida Folk Village just outside of town.  Now, the city of Takayama is especially famous for its festivals, held twice-yearly: the Sannō Matsuri (山王祭り) in spring (14-15 April), and the Hachiman Matsuri (八幡祭り) in autumn (9-10 October).  From what I have gathered, it is supposed to be a stunning experience, especially in the presence of the massive shrine-floats, or yatai (屋台), that are carried about the old town.  But, as you can tell from the dateline at the top of this article, I obviously missed out on either of the festivals.  Fortunately, there are places where one can witness glimpses of the festival experience year-round, and one such place is the Takayama Festival Hall (高山祭屋台会館, Takayama Matsuri Yatai Kaikan), where some of the actual yatai used in the processions are stored when not in use.

This museum is located in the grounds of Sakurayama Hachiman-gu (櫻山八幡宮), the Shinto shrine which serves as the base of the autumn festival.  The spring festival is based at Hie Shrine in the south side of town.  The bus from Takayama Station drops you off near this wooden torii gate.  It's one of the larger toriis I've yet seen in person, and it would have to be in order for the festival floats to fit underneath (which I'm not sure if they do).

For a shrine in a city of this size, Sakurayama Hachiman-gu has a nice bit of woods surrounding it to the back.  I think the unpainted wooden tones of its main hall fit in nicely.

As a Hachiman shrine, also related to the one in Kamakura, it is dedicated to the Shinto war god of the same name.  Hachiman is the second-most prevalent deity out of all the Shinto shrines in Japan, second only to Inari-Okami (as in Kyoto's Fushimi Inari Shrine) [1].  As such, the bronze horse statue near the entrance does fit the theme of cavalry soldiers or archers.

Paying your way into the museum, you will enter a giant hall, and follow the path around the windowed-off centre of the room where the floats are parked.  The floats on display in this museum are the same ones that are used in the festivals every year.  The selection is rotated three times a year, in March, July, and November; the rest are privately stored elsewhere around the city.  When it's time for them to be moved out, one of the room's walls has a massive sliding door big enough to move the floats out through.

The shorter golden float shown above is the mikoshi (神輿), which temporarily houses the patron deity of the shrine.  In essence, a mikoshi is a portable shrine.  The one here weighs in at a massive 2 and a half tons (2,267 kg), and takes 80 people to move it!

The other yatai are much taller than the mikoshi --  the "Jinma-tai" (神馬台), shown above, is the tallest at 8 metres (26 feet and 3 inches) -- but come equipped with wheels and require fewer people to pull them about, about 20 to 30.  A hidden fifth wheel is used to turn the yatai in place.

Another testament to the intricate adornments of these yatai are the moving puppets that occupy the upper tiers.  For example, on the "Hotei-tai" (布袋台), a larger figure stands out and waves, while a smaller figure swings itself across the bars hanging out to the side, one at a time, before ending up on the bigger guy's shoulder!  The whole thing is operated by eight puppeteers, and even if I can't say whether or not they were working the thing in person while the float was at rest in the museum, it was impressive to watch!

Another fun thing to watch would be the video that plays on loop in a back room.  It shows footage and explanations about both festivals, with Japanese narration and English subtitles.  Visitors may check it out on their way up and around the museum, culminating with close-ups with a few more artifacts from the festivals such as yatai wheels or happi coats (shown), before reaching the exit.

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Also located in the shrine complex, and included with admission to the Yatai-kan, is the Nikko-kan (桜山日光館, Sakurayama Nikkō-kan).  This large hall contains scale models of Tosho-gu Shrine (東照宮, Tōshō-gū).  The real Tosho-gu is located in Nikko, all the way back in the Kanto region.

Tosho-gu (the real one, that is) serves as the mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川家康, 1543-1616), a successful warlord who kicked off the Tokugawa Shogunate, the shogun dynasty which effectively ruled Japan from Edo (modern-day Tokyo), for over 250 years.  In respect to his grand status, his initially-simple mausoleum was expanded upon by his grandson, Tokugawa Iemitsu (徳川家光, 1604-1651).  Pictured above is the Yomei-mon (陽明門), the giant gate which stands in front of the shrine's main hall.

To end this article, let's appreciate the detail of the miniature Tosho-gu with a close-up shot.  The full-sized counterpart is no less ornate.  After all, it is the origin of the famous "three wise monkeys" woodcarving.  I hope to see it myself in person some day, along with the rest of Nikko.  But for now, I have another one of Japan's must-see places to cross off my bucket list.  Next time on Sekai Ichi, I shall venture into Takayama's old town!

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Hours: Open from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM; closes at 4:30 PM from December through February.  No regular closing days.

Cost: ¥900; includes entry to both the Yatai Kaikan and Nikko-kan.

Address: 178 Sakura-machi, Takayama-shi, Gifu-ken 〒506-0858

Access: From the Takayama Bus Centre, take the Machinami loop bus to Sakurayama Hachiman-gu (¥100).  The Counterclockwise route takes 12 minutes to get to this stop, while the Clockwise route takes 17 minutes.

Website: (English) (Japanese)

[1] Motegi, Sadazumi. "Shamei Bunpu (Shrine Names and Distributions)" (in Japanese). Encyclopedia of Shinto. Retrieved 17 October 2019.  http://k-amc.kokugakuin.ac.jp/DM/detail.do?class_name=col_eos&data_id=22988

Hida Folk Village

This article is based on a visit made on Friday, 18 May 2018.

Previously on Sekai Ichi, I introduced the city of Takayama, which is where I went on the tenth full day of my vacation.  To get there from Toyama, I took the Wide View Hida express, which I have written about before in a Know Your Trains article, for a 90-minute ride south into the heart of Honshu.

As I described in the above article, the Wide View trains live up to their name not only with extra-large windows along the sides, but also with a wrap-around front window on the end car.  It is ordered at the front of the train when heading from Nagoya/to Toyama, and at the back in the other direction.  We got seats in that car both ways, and since it is designated as a Green Car, we had it almost all to ourselves.

The Wide View Hida is officially my favourite train journey ever, in terms of scenery.  Despite the cloudy weather, the hues of the brilliant green forests and clear blue streams shone through.  Some of the best scenery can be found in the section between Inotani and Hida-Furukawa, which the Hida covers in over half an hour without any stops.

Occasionally a cloud of mist would hover over the swiftly-flowing streams, which I also found pleasantly atmospheric.  Yet, all good things must come to an end, and we did have to leave the train eventually, but the best was yet to come.

From Takayama Station, we took a bus to Hida Folk Village (飛騨の里, Hida no Sato), an open-air museum which has collected and preserved houses from farming towns across the region.  As soon as you enter the park, you are greeted with a splendid viewpoint of some of those houses from across a lake.  Many come from Shirakawa-go, which has become popular in its own right after becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Indeed, I had also planned a day trip there, since there are also direct buses that go there from Toyama, where I was staying, but ultimately I decided that it would be more convenient just to get the same experience here.

There are a few free small activities put out around here for visitors to try out.  You can put on the coat, hat, and back-mounted basket of a farmer, or even try out an Edo-period water gun.  It's one of those straight rod-like things where you push a plunger in and it shoots the water by pressure alone.  It was surprisingly hard to hit the targets posted above the lake.

There are multiple styles of houses, all grouped under the term minka (民家, lit. "house of the people"), on display at Hida-no-Sato.  They date from the Edo or Meiji periods, and most of them are open for visitors to walk in.  As you explore the houses, you'll be taking your shoes on and off a lot, and there are quite a few staircases, both inside and out.  Visitors with mobility needs should be aware of that ahead of time.

Hida no Sato holds seasonal events throughout the year.  They celebrate festivals like Girls' Day (3 March) and Boys' Day (5 May), and also some agricultural activities.  In these fields, rice is planted in the late Spring, and harvested in the following Autumn.

There were so many houses present that I didn't manage to visit nearly all of them, but the ones I did each presented different aspects of life in old rural Japan.  Inside, you will find elements like irori (囲炉裏), which are sunken fire pits used for cooking, located in the middle of the main room.  Pots are hung above the fire pit by hooked steel rods called jizaikagi (自在鉤).

When you climb up to the top levels, you will get a better look at how these homes are constructed. They are typically made without using any nails; instead, wooden beams are lashed together with rope.  The roofs are thatched with straw; the thickness (up to a metre/3 feet) and the steeply-sloped shape (up to 60 degrees) of the roofs makes them strong enough to withstand the heavy snowfalls this region is infamous for, as well as slough off rain that would cause it to rot.

The families who used to own these homes were involved in various trades, and the methods of their labour are represented here.  Exhibits within the houses show how products like silk, paper, or tofu were made back in the day, and include artifacts involved in those processes.  You may also see volunteer artisans making these crafts first-hand.

While you're there, don't forget to check out the Hida-Takayama Crafts Experience Centre, just across the road from the main entrance.  They hold paid courses, with instructions available in English, for making things like sarubobo cloth dolls and senbei rice crackers.  These courses cost ¥600 to ¥1600, and you can get discount if you present a paid ticket for Hida no Sato itself.

We went for the senbei baking experience, not only because it was the cheapest and quickest, but because I had developed a serious taste for the things in trips before.  How it works is you hold the raw crackers by a pair of tongs and hold them in the kiln-like oven in front of you.  The goal is to rotate them at regular intervals so that, as they bake and expand, they grow as flat and evenly as possible.  You get to bake ten crackers in total, alternating between lighter ones flavoured with salt, and darker ones flavoured with soy sauce.  Although it took us some time to get the routine down pat, they all came out delicious!  So for my sign-off selfie, allow me to demonstrate the fruits of my labour.  No time to bask, though, since I still have much more to cover from Takayama, including the Yatai Kaikan festival museum, next time on Sekai Ichi!

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Hours: Open from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM.  No regular closing days.  The Crafts Experience Centre is open from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and is closed on Thursdays.

Cost: ¥700.

Address: 1-1-590 Kamioka Motomachi, Takayama-shi, Gifu-ken 〒506-0031

Access: From the Takayama Bus Centre, take the Sarubobo loop bus to Hida no Sato (9 minutes, ¥210).  The return trip takes about 15 minutes, but be aware that every third bus takes a detour out to the Festival Forest museum, adding 20 minutes onto the trip back to downtown Takayama.

Website: (English) (Japanese)

Introduction to: Takayama

Edit 15 October 2019: Updated prices to reflect the increase in Japan's national sales tax.

Takayama (高山) is a city in the northern half of Gifu Prefecture (formerly Hida Province).  Despite, or rather because of, its isolated and mountain-logged location, the city thrived economically during the Edo period through the high reputation of its wooden crafts.  Today, Takayama is most famous for its festivals, which are held semi-annually April and October, and rank among the top three festivals in all of Japan.  Even outside of festival times, Takayama attracts visitors with its historic old town, and other attractions such as the Hida Folk Village open-air museum.  Takayama also makes an ideal base camp for excursions into more rural areas of the northern Chubu region, such as Shirakawa-go, Oku-Hida, and Kamikochi.

Main Attractions

1) Hachiman Shrine and Yatai Kaikan: A Shinto shrine and a neighbouring museum of festival floats.

By Bernard Gagnon [GFDL or CC BY-SA 3.0], from Wikimedia Commons

2) Kusakabe Heritage House: A former merchant's home preserved as a museum.

3) Showa-kan Museum: A museum of nostalgic goods and scenery from the postwar decades.

4) Old Town: A neighbourhood of museums, shops, cafes, and sake breweries, preserved from the Edo period.

User: Bgabel at wikivoyage shared [GFDL or CC BY-SA 3.0], from Wikimedia Commons

7) Takayama Jinya: An Edo-period government office preserved as a museum.

By Bernard Gagnon [GFDL or CC BY-SA 3.0], from Wikimedia Commons

6) Higashiyama Temple Town: A walking trail, lined by many Buddhist temples, leading to a former castle site atop a hill.

7) Hida Folk Village: An open-air museum of farmhouses transplanted from rural regions nearby.

Opqr [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

8) Festival Forest: An out-of-the-way, but excellent museum about the Takayama Festival.

Orientation and Transportation

Takayama is bisected by the Miyagawa river, with the old town and most other sights on its east side.  The Takayama train station and bus terminal are both to the west of the river.  To reach the bus terminal from the station, turn left out of the East Exit.

Takayama is a highly walkable town, with most sights within 15 minutes on foot from the station.  There are also a couple of loop buses, both of which start at the bus terminal.  The "Machinami" bus goes east into the old town, departs hourly in both clockwise and anticlockwise directions, and costs ¥100 per ride.  The "Sarubobo" bus goes west to Hida Folk Village and the Festival Forest, departs twice per hour in alternating routes (one heads straight back from Hida Folk Village), and costs ¥210 per ride.  A one-day pass for both buses costs ¥630, and also offers discounts at select attractions.  This ticket may be purchased from the bus terminal.  Information and schedule: (English)

Access

To get from Tokyo to Takayama, your options are:

• Take the Tokaido Shinkansen from Tokyo or Shinagawa to Nagoya (100-120 minutes, 2 Hikari/6 Nozomi per hour), and from there take the Wide View Hida limited express to Takayama (140 minutes, 1 per 1-2 hours).  The entire journey costs ¥14,980 for reserved tickets and, unless you take a Nozomi train to Nagoya, is fully covered by the Japan Rail Pass.
• Take the Hokuriku Shinkansen from Tokyo or Ueno to Toyama (130-150 minutes, 1-3 per hour), and from there take the Wide View Hida to Takayama (90 minutes, 4 per day).  The entire journey costs ¥16,120 for reserved tickets, and is fully covered by the Japan Rail Pass.  While this is potentially faster than going through Nagoya, there are fewer connections via Toyama.
• Take the Azusa or Super Azusa (160 minutes, 1-2 per hour, ¥6,620 reserved) limited express to Matsumoto, and from there take a highway bus to Takayama (145 minutes, 1 per 1-2 hours, ¥3,250 one-way/¥5,660 round-trip).  The train is covered by the Japan Rail Pass, but the bus is not.  More information: (English)
• However, if you have a JR East Nagano-Niigata Area Pass, not only is the train covered, but you can also buy a round-trip bus ticket between Matsumoto and Takayama for a discounted ¥4,500.
• Take a highway bus from Shinjuku Station's bus terminal (4½ hours, every 1-3 hours, ¥6,500 on weekdays / ¥7,000 on weekends and holidays).  More information: (English)

From western cities, your best bet is to go via Nagoya.  Take the Tokaido Shinkansen from Kyoto (35-50 minutes) or Shin-Osaka (50-65 minutes) to Nagoya, and the Hida express from there to Takayama.  The entire journey, for reserved tickets, costs ¥10,140 from Kyoto or ¥10,800 from Shin-Osaka.

Note: If you wish to visit Takayama during either the spring (14-15 April) or autumn (9-10 October) festivals, be aware that accommodation in the city is liable to be booked months in advance.  If needs be, you can try booking a room in another nearby city, like Furukawa or Gero Onsen (see below).  Any farther, and you risk not being able to make it back late at night.

Excursions

1) Shirakawa-go: A village famous for its thatched-roof farmhouses, where one can stay overnight.
Access: Bus from the Takayama Hida Bus Centre to Shirakawa-go (50 minutes, 1-2 per hour, ¥2,600 one-way / ¥4,600 round-trip).  More information: (English)

2) Furukawa: A small town with its own history of crafts and festivals.
Access: JR Takayama line from Takayama to Hida-Furukawa Station (15-20 minutes, 1 per hour, ¥240, JR Pass OK).

3) Hirayu Onsen: A hot-spring resort town at the foot of the Oku-Hida region.
Access: Bus from the Takayama Hida Bus Centre to Hirayu Onsen (60 minutes, 2 per hour, ¥1,600).  More information: (English)

4) Shin-Hotaka Ropeway: A double-decker cable car leading up to a mountain trailhead.
Access: Bus from the Takayama Hida Bus Centre to Shin-Hotaka Ropeway (90 minutes, 2 per hour, ¥2,200).  More information: (English)

5) Kamikochi: A national park in the northern Japan Alps.  Open only from April through November.
Access: Bus from the Takayama Hida Bus Centre to Hirayu Onsen (60 minutes, 2 per hour), followed by another bus to Kamikochi Bus Terminal (25 minutes, 2 per hour, total ¥2,780).  More information: (English)

6) Gero Onsen: An urban, but famous, hot-spring resort straddling the Hida river.
Access: JR Hida limited expess from Takayama to Gero Station (45 minutes, 1 per hour, ¥2,280 reserved, JR Pass OK).