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August 22, 2014 - Gifu Road Trip Part 3: Hida Takayama
Details on a float at the Yatai Kaikan, Takayama
We spent the night near Takayama, and spent our final day exploring the city, starting with Takayama Hachiman Shrine and the Yatai Kaikan.
Takayama Hachimangu is a nice shrine on a hill, and the Yatai Kaikan is right next to it so they are easy to see together. I thought the entrance price for Yatai Kaikan was a bit steep at 820 yen, but it also gets you entrance into the Sakurayama Nikkokan as well, which is totally worth it.
The Yatai Kaikan features 4 of the 11 floats used in Takayama's spring and fall festival, including fun little anecdotes and stories about each. It also has a 10 minute video about the festival, and a few odds and ends of historical clothes and items related to the festival. It's nice, especially if you come during a time when you can't see the festival, but are interested in it. If it wasn't for my postcards, I'd probably have skipped it, but I'm glad I didn't because it got me entrance into the Nikkokan.
Apparently, the wood carvers and craftsmen who worked on the famous temples and shrines of Nikko are from the Takayama area. When they finished building Nikko, they decided to build a 1/10 replica of the 28 buildings of Nikko's Toshogu Shrine, which took 33 people 15 years to accomplish. Each replica has astounding detail, and allows you to examine closely parts that you'd never see of the original shrine, such as the roofs. There is almost no explanation in English, a shame because maybe more foreign visitors would be interested if there was; otherwise, you don't really know what it is you're looking at!
Takayama HachimanguTakayama HachimanguTakayama HachimanguGoshuin, shrine calligraphyHorse emaSarubobo doll and Sarubobo postcard!Entrance to the Yatai KaikanView of the floats on displayA story about how members of a rival stole the "turtles" on top of this floatThe "turtle" in question... yikes! A face only a mother would love!Entrance to Sakurayama NikkokanFull-scale replica of the famous sleeping catToshogu Shrine in miniature; the building in the front has the famous monkey carvingRight next to the shrine is also the Marionette museum
From there, we spent another hour or two wandering about the old town area, before grabbing lunch and some omiyage, then starting the drive home through Nagano.
Old Town areaOne of the bridges across the river, still showing debris from the storm two nights before... the walk along the river is also all torn up
Although the trip was a little disappointing in the beginning, I really enjoyed Gifu a lot, and I can see why Shirakawa-go and Takayama are so famous. I hope to visit again!
If you're interested in the Prefectural Postcards called Gotochi, available in each prefecture, you can read all about them here: postacollect.wordpress.com.
