What went right

Adding in Yatsusan-kan, despite the initial headache, worked out better than I hoped for. My parents are quite pleased with the experience there, their first time at a ryokan and public outdoor onsen, and I loved the atmosphere of the heritage building.

If anyone is thinking about heading to the Hida Takayama area and might be considering a ryokan, I cannot recommend Yatsusan-kan (八ツ三館) enough. It is incredibly close to a station (less than 2 minutes if they drive you, and since it’s so close they can come out or drive you anytime you ask, no reservation required, they’d probably appreciate a head up but it just means whether they can drive the van around now or a bit later).

The place is full of charm and the staffs are very kind and helpful, several of them also have decent English so it’s no issue at all. The food is also excellent (I don’t know about wow since no food has ever made me wow, none of them disappoint)

There are a few other ryokans that look to be also quite traditional, however they are further out into the mountains and takes more time and effort to get to (whether you drive yourself or arrange a pick up with them).

I miss it already, if I ever swing past the area I think I will definitely spend another night with them.

 

The plan to not use the Hida Road Free Ticket and go to Yatsusan-kan on a Friday is absolutely the best decision made. The amount of money and time saved, as well as enjoying a mostly empty ryokan without much people to contend the onsen with.

During planning, the budget for the entire trip excluding plane tickets and souvenirs are about 78000Y per person. Because we actually cheaped out on a few meals, bought fewer snacks and drinks and had no unexpected expenditures, the cost ended up being around 70000Y only. For that we spent 6 days, stayed at a ryokan and a homestay during lightup. Traveling with others is definitely so much cheaper on accommodations, that’s about the same as my San’in trip which was business hotels all the way (most of the cost was spent on the JR Pass, so many it’s not a fair comparison)

Even if you add in the plane ticket that’s close to what a 5 day tour of Nagoya + Hida + Kanazawa from Taiwan would cost if you went with a packaged tour.

 

Choosing Shimizu as the homestay at Shirakawa-go is the right one, my parents got back quite a bit earlier than me and had the owner been unable to speak English I imagine it would have been quite inconvenient and nervous for them.

The decision to spend more time by myself at Takayma was also spot on. I got to cover 90% of all the Hyouka spots and the chance to buy the special limited Takayama only coasters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t fret

There’s a proverb to not worry excessively about things, this has definitely been true for this trip. Or perhaps you can say luck has been with me.

The easiness which I secured homestay at Shirakawa-go, relatively trouble free affair of acquiring various tickets, the thoughtful service of Yatsusan-kan to send an inquiry email (in both English and Japanese) and to actually come out to meet us at the station.

Though it was snowing heavily at Shirakawa, the snow actually made for quite beautiful and unique photos not usually seen for light ups. And luck would have it, the snow died down to okay levels just in time for the light up.

 

 

What went wrong

Skipped too much on research on meals. Most of my planning was spent on sorting out the schedule, only the bare minimum was spent on trawling through Tabelog. When my parents expressed they didn’t like ramen (something I really should have anticipated), what I researched went out the window. We ended up eating not as well as I’d like.

If this had been a trip just by myself, I wouldn’t have cared. I can dine on convenience store fried chicken, bread and coffee all day. But for my parents more proper meals should have been there.

 

I think the decision to not line up at the tripod queue was probably a mistake. I don’t know how much a tripod would have helped, but it probably would have gotten me more usable shots.

 

Overall, I’m pretty happy with the trip. I’d say 85% went according to plan or better.

 

 

Reference materials:

Accomodation

Jalan http://jalan.net/

Rakuten Travel http://travel.rakuten.co.jp/

Yatsusan-kan http://www.823kan.com/

 

 

Transport

Nouhi Bus (Takayama -> Shirakawa-go) http://www.nouhibus.co.jp/

Gifu Bus (Shirakawa-go -> Nagoya) http://www.gifubus.co.jp/

Hida Road Free Ticket (飛騨路フリーきっぷ)  http://railway.jr-central.co.jp/tickets/topics/convenience/hida/

Jorudan transport timetable checker http://jorudan.co.jp

 

 

Food research

Tabelog http://tabelog.com

 

Tourism Site

Hida area () Tourism Site http://www.hidatakayama.or.jp/

Takayam () Tourism Site http://www.hida.jp/index.html

Shirakawa-go () Tourism Site http://www.shirakawa-go.gr.jp/search/?m=1

 

Pilgrimage

Hyouka-Takayama Support Site http://hyouka.hida-ch.com/

Hyouka-Takayama Festival and Map Site http://www.hidamiya.com/event/map.html

Hyouka Pilgrimage Map!!! Extremely detailed, a must bring for a pilgrim https://maps.google.co.jp/maps/ms?msid=202772626234101531178.0004bf87ce98dff2cdc42&msa=0

Hyoka Pilgrimage Blog http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/fujisyuu01/folder/437095.html

http://d.hatena.ne.jp/paffue/20120828/1346166541

Higurashi blogs

http://d.hatena.ne.jp/riyot/20090418/1240012890

http://www.dengeki.ne.jp/repo/higu/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There’s no breakfast at Montblanc today. When I made the reservation I didn’t book it with breakfast to keep the last day’s schedule flexible. Had the first day’s breakfast proved to be worth it I planned to ask the hotel to add it. It wasn’t and I didn’t.

Much better choices are available. Like Doutor!

What is a trip to Japan without breakfast at trusted lovable Doutor. Nice, good value and reliable. Sandwich or Hotdog plus latte for the price of just ~390Y. I can have 2 of them and still have enough change left to buy a bread at Lawson for what Montblanc’s breakfast costs.

Even better, there’s a Doutor right next door to Montblanc.

 

 

 

 

Check out, leaves luggage with hotel. Our flight leaves at 4, counting in time to get there we get the morning to do some sightseeing. Again not enough to go very far, but enough for maybe one spot.

We decide to go to the Noritake museum, a fine tableware brand, since it’s just a few hundred metres north from here.

Established in 1904, Noritake is well known for its fine china, some even used by the Imperial family for hosting foreign guests. It has turned its original headquarter into a museum and sales centre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There’s a science museum with interactive displays about various uses of ceramic and pottery, from nano coated toilets to air filters and plenty more. There’s quite a few exhibits so we decides to leave it for last, should we have time (turns out we don’t).

 

The sales centre has a wide range of tableware and peculiar dining accessories. Like a spring loaded teaspoon that lets you put tea leaves in, so guests can decide how strong they want their tea and take the teaspoon out at the appropriate time.

Photos are not allowed inside, so no not much to show.

 

We barely had time to finish browsing the wares and make some purchasing decisions before it’s time to go.

We pick up our luggage and again take the Meitetsu train.

 

Nagoya Airport (or Centair) is quite the interesting airport. It has an entire shopping level, styled in european archways and facades, filled with restaurants, ramens, souvenirs. Even its own onsen!

Imagine that, taking a dip in an onsen before your flight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the bowl of ramen we go through customs and head for the lounge provided by our credit card. It’s the Star Alliance lounge, very high standards compared to what is usually offered.

 

The lounge is small but well equipped. There’s your usual coffee and bread, but also onigiri (rice ball), sushi roll, a good variety of beer and juices, also miso soup and corn soup.

Luck would have it, while at the lounge the Dreamlifter happened to land and roll across the tarmac.

As many of Boeing’s airplane parts are built in Japan, there’s a need to transport them to the US. Shipping by boat is too slow, so they converted several 747 into specialized transports, the Dreamlifters, to fly the parts across the Pacific.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morning in the sleepy mountain village is chilly and quiet.

 

 

 

The snow has stopped, leaving a layer of fresh powdery snow over the world. So soft, they crumbs beneath the feet like marshmallows.

I would have made a snow angel, but there’s no clothes to change if I got wet.

Breakfast at Shimizu is fairly basic, a little disappointing to be honest. But alas, not here for good food to begin with. For homestays in this remote village, other than the few professionally run ones, light up nights are one of the few chances for the people here to supplement their income during the winters, not complaining if they want to save a few yens.

Outside of light up nights, I would definitely book one of the professionally run homestays through the tourism centre.

 

 

 

 

We check out just before 9. I asks if we can leave our luggage here, and the owner tells us we can leave them at the tourism centre. If we tell the tourism centre we stayed at Shimizu, we can leave our luggage there free.

That’s actually very convenient, means we don’t need to waste time coming back here in the afternoon. If we had to store our luggage at the tourism centre’s lockers it would have easily been 500Y a piece.

 

 

 

 

 

Snow covered Shirakawa in the morning sunlight is a sight to behold. A pristine white landscape void of footprints or grass or stone. The snow a contrasting blue hue in the long shadows.

 

 

 

 

 

At the tourism centre we drop off our luggages and head to the Minkaen, a museum that consists of a dozen gassho houses that has been relocated from various places after being abandoned.

Shimizu had given us discount coupons (400Y instead of 500Y) for the place. But I seems to have lost one on the way. The guy at the counter is very nice though, seeing we have 2 so we obviously stayed at a homestay, he asked us who gave us the coupons and stamped another coupon for us on the spot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The museum is very much worth the visit, there’s a good variety of gassho houses, from huge five floors mansion sized to small two floors storage for harvests. English texts are lacking, not counting the 40min long video that introduces the culture and heritage of the gassho houses which is english subbed.

Originally I expected the place to take a little more than half an hour, we ended up spending some 80 minutes there.

I can’t say if it’s more worth visiting than the single houses like Kanda House or Nagase House as I ended up not visiting them, cost per variety,  you can’t go wrong with the museum though.

After the museum, I again split up with my parents. They go sightseeing around the village while I go off on my Higurashi pilgrimage and photo taking. For lunch, we still had some bread from FamilyMart back in Takayama, so we decided to have those then maybe soba or something if we need to by ourselves.

My stop is the Hachiman shrine, the shrine where Rika from Higurashi is a miko at and tragically the site where she is brutally slain each time.

 

 

 

Unlike Hie shrine in Takayama, here the ema stand is packed full of emas. Probably because during winter there are very few worshippers so the caretakers do not need to clean them up as often.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The base of the trail to the vantage point now has a rope across it with a sign saying the trail is closed. Somewhat disappointed, I turned back from ascending the trail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To get to the vantage point, I have to take the shuttle bus instead. I think 200Y per ride? It’s always packed full of people, the village now swarming with endless stream of tourists.

Most of the tourists came with tours, they won’t be staying here for more than one or two hours, most definitely not enough to experience the village.

That’s why I generally avoid going with tours. Tour companies always try to squeeze in as many sightseeing points as possible to make their “sale”, disregarding whether there’s sufficient time to see the place. Some Taiwanese companies are even known for busing people about all day before settling them into onsen hotels past dinner time. Wasting time that could have been spent relaxing at the onsen notwithstanding, it often means the onsen has all of the guests’ dinner prepared and tabled, cold by the time the guests finally arrive.

 

 

Turns out I need not have paid heed to the sign at the bottom of the trail. Plenty of people are walking up and down the trail, and indeed from up here it’s easy to see the trail is free of snow and no danger to walk on.

I thus walk down the trail, saving the trouble of waiting and paying for the shuttle.

 

 

Time flies quickly. Soon it is 3 in the afternoon and I meet my parents at the tourism office and get ready for the bus back to Nagoya.

 

 

 

The bus to Nagoya is a 3 hour journey, it makes 3-4 stops along the way where it sets off/pick up passengers as well letting people go to the restroom.

 

The Meitetsu bus centre is on the 3rd floor (I think) of the Meitetsu building. There’s an elevator that goes directly to the ground floor.

We cross the road and check in once more at Montblanc. It is so comforting to have the hotel so near, after several days of walking we are pretty exhausted. I can’t imagine if we had to transfer to the metro or walk another 10 minutes to get to a hotel.

While the hotel choice was spot on, I made the mistake of not researching enough on food places at Nagoya station (I focused mostly ramens, and well, parents don’t like ramen). There isn’t enough time to go to Sakae and being as tired as we are, didn’t feel like the restaurants on top of Takashimaya department store above the station. So we looked for something simple and quick in the underground mall.

Not much can be said for underground mall quality. Had I researched more I probably could have found something within a few hundred metres of the station.

After returning to Montblanc, I duck out for a short walk, browse around the nearby convenience store, and also take the opportunity to charge up my Suica card from the Tokyo trip several years ago.

If a card isn’t charged up or used in 10 years the card will expire, now I don’t think it’ll take me that long to get a chance to use it, but it is still nice to put some money in it as I had run it empty last time, having money in it will save some time next time I’m in Japan.

 

After a good night’s sleep, we head down at around 6:45 for breakfast.

There’s not too much to be said of the free breakfast here. Rice, miso soup, croquettes, fish, salad, omlette, salad, hamburger meat. There’s some variety, but all leaves the feeling of “no wonder it’s free”. The bread buns are good though, interestingly, I don’t think I’ve ever had bad bread in Japan yet.

 

 

The plus side is drinks from the vending is free during breakfast hours, so have as much coffee, milk tea, milk matcha, espresso, hot chocolate or corn soup as you like. The question in my mind as I looks over the selection is, how does a single vending make both coffee and corn soup?

After breakfast we head to Miyagawa morning market. Takayama is really not very big, there’s time for us to take a tour of it first, then come back and take a break before checkout.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We go back to Super Hotel and check out, again leaving our luggage with them.

Then it’s off to the Takayama Jinya, the historic governor’s house for the Hida prefecture.

 

 

I didn’t take many photos at the Jinya since I’ve been here before. A simple walk through, I did my best to translate the various texts for my parents.

 

After the Jinya, we split up again like yesterday. My parents have a few blocks around the historic area they haven’t seen yet, plus hoba miso they want to buy as gifts to bring back to Taiwan. I still have some Hyouka sites that are worth a visit.

First stop, the Hie shrine where Hotaro and Chitanda paid their New Year respects and Mayaka part-timed as a miko.

 

 

 

The shrine is covered with snow. Hie shrine has a branch near Takayama Jinya, so in winter very few people come all the way out here. The place has a quiet, unmoving feel, as if the gods themselves are slumbering away.

 

 

 

 

The ema stand is mostly empty, the caretakers must have recently gone through them. There were a few from fellow pilgrims.

 

 

I pay my respect at the shrine and heads back to town. I hope kamisama will grant my wish this year.

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve gone to most Hyouka sites already. Outside the ones on the outskirts of town, there’s one more I can visit. It’s a little out of the way, up the hills to the east of the historic areas. As I walked back from Hie shrine, it begins to snow.

Snowing, such an amazing sight. It’s the first time I’ve been in a snow. A thousand powdery white specks that floats down from the skies, disappearing as soon as they touch the group.

 

 

Then it’s time to meet up with my parents. Back at the Jinya, we’ve decided that instead of trying to find some place to eat, we’ll go to McDonalds. We’ve seen its sign with directions along the station front street and looks like it should just be on the other side of the station.

 

 

 

 

 

 

McDonalds is indeed right on the other side of the underpass. I shrug off the snow that has accumulated on my jackets, pushes the door in and joins my parents who arrived a minute earlier.

There’s something nice and assuring about McDonalds while you’re overseas. It’s a familiar sight, it offers some safe expectations but also new experiences. There’s always the Big Mac, the Fillet o fish, and the McChicken, you know what they taste like and they won’t be surprises you’d choke on (or maybe some people choke on all Big Macs *shrug*). There’s also local menus you wouldn’t have tasted before, like teriyaki chicken and shrimp burger and also whatever special they have on at the time.

After lunch it’s finally about time to catch the bus to Shirakawa. We stock up on some breads and snacks at the FamilyMart before the station first.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The snow grows ever heavier. I’m starting to become worried about the light up. It’s becoming a snowstorm, the view of the village is going to be obscured from the vantage point up the mountain….

The bus stop in Shirakawa is right near the tourism centre, the snow is falling unbelievably thick and with gusting winds.

It’s snowing so much I can’t risk bringing out the X10 and have to snap away on my phone. Thank goodness for waterproof Xperia, and clever me for choosing it. And people wonder why I didn’t get a Galaxy or HTC.

 

Access to the main village is over a narrow bridge called the bridge of chance meetings (であい橋)

Shimizu is on the outer edge of the village. Hopefully the distance won’t be too bad even with the snow, I hope.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally we get to Shimizu. The owner’s daughter comes out to greet us then disappears. She comes back with a towel for us to brush off the snow before stepping in.

We’re shown our room. About 4 by 5 metres, it has a oil heater and electric blanket. The daughter explains a few rules, how to get to the light up vantage point and dinner times then disappears into the kitchen. I am a little disappointed by the less than enthusiastic welcome. That seems to be their style though, keeping out of the way of guests. As I found out later there are three other Japanese guests that night, and none of them got warmer receives. The more professional homestays have better service and more talkative owners, but then they don’t speak english, a useful thing as proved later.

I scrounge up a plastic bag from our packs and create a makeshift wrap for the X10.

 

 

If it isn’t a light up day, I’ve love the snow. But alas.. now I’m conflicted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At one of the stores we stop and buy an umbrella for my parents. Shockingly they’re only sold at something like 400 or 500Y, decided well restrained from taking advantage of hapless tourists.

 

 

 

 

 

At the foot of the trail leading up to the vantage point, we’re momentarily confused by a sign by the side of the road says the path is closed due to snowfall. A couple walks down from the trail and I asks them if it is possible to walk up, which they replied “yes, you can walk up there”. Whew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At last we make it to the top. The vantage point is maintained by a store which has divided the area up for paying guests, tripod dudes and non-tripod dudes.

I didn’t have any intention of lining up in the tripod queue. In retrospect it might have been worth a try, though I have some doubt if my tripod would have been heavy and stable enough to have gotten better shots.

We find shelter in the store and buys a coffee and some gohei-mochi (五平餅) so we can sit down.

 

 

We got there at about 3:30pm, while seated the snow outside got heavier and heavier. We started talking about whether we should just head down and hope the lights will look okay down below.

We stayed on, clinging to some hope the snowstorm might die down in time. At around 4:30, seeing the ever growing crowd, I decide it’s time to head out and find a spot.

The public vantage point near the carpark is almost packed. I was a little worried until I managed to find a spot by a sign post which with some clever thinking, I managed to put the X10 on top using the gorillapod I bought before leaving Sydney. Best $30AUD ever spent.

I still didn’t get too many usable shots though. The wind was absolutely blitzing making the camera shake just ever so slightly, enough to ruin the shots at any low ISO.

 

The lights begins to be turned on, and hope begins to grow that maybe it’ll still be visible despite the snow. Then…

 

The heaviest snowstorm yet blows in and obscuring everything. I can barely see 20 metres much less the village below.

All that work for the trip, and it had been going so well too. Looks to be going to waste and forever marred with disappointment.

 

Then, as if the will of everyone there was at last heard and answered.

I mount the camera and snaps away, but is constantly foiled by the wind. Still, I persisted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Though I couldn’t get any picture perfect shots you’d see people post around the web, I got some decent ones to be happy, and extremely grateful given the weather. I checked the time, almost 6. Time to head down.

There’s plenty of people going up and down the trail.

Unlike earlier, the trail is now incredibly slippery. Snow had melted after being walked on then frozen into ice.

People are holding hands, grabbing onto each other. People still slipped everywhere though, often knocking down entire groups of 5 or 6 as they fell.

I have already strapped snow shoe spikes to my shoes back at Shimizu, and is one of the few managing a decent pace. I skips and hops without ever fearing for my footing, quickly descends to the village. Best $300TWD ever spent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Down in the village it’s even more packed, I have no idea where all these people came from. The car park across the river must be packed full of buses. The organizers has watch posted at every corner and ditch, waving and directing people, making sure no one fell into a stream or rice field and helping people.

People are robbing the stores of hot drinks and Hida beef skewers and dangos like coyotes.

And people slipped everywhere and terribly. One girl fell with a scream and with a loud screech landed on her side on the icy surface. People all around stops and gathers around the sobbing girl, checking if she is alright. A man waving a orange glowrod rushes over and helps the girl up, waves over another of his colleague and together carries the girl toward the village centre where the first aid station must be.

Hope she’s alright.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got back a few minutes earlier than 7:30 when the lights are expected to go out. I decided against going back to the village center for more shots, it is cold and chilling. Best to not test the limit of endurance.

My parents have already had shower by the time I got back. Since the owners can speak english they are able to explain how to use the shower and things.

The dinner table is already laid out and waiting for me to start.

 

 

 

It’s nowhere near luxurious like Yatsusan-kan of course, but very very delicious. A homemade style that’s easy on the stomach while very varied in taste and textures.