Back in December when we were booking our hotels, the booking for Takayama was a complete challenge – all hotels were already booked, and the first 2 ryokans (typical Japanese Guest house) were also fully booked. So we were absolutely lucky to find the place called Asunaro which even had rooms with a private bathroom – sometimes you don’t need much for complete happiness.
The festival is popular because you can see Yatai – a typical Japanese float or type of cart or something similar that is decorated and on the top of some of them they even have dolls like marionettes and play karabuki which is a typical Japanese doll theater. The float is managed and moved by people force – a lot of people pull it in the front, a few including the person who directs it, push it on the back and a few on the sides who pull or push depending on the action – moving or stopping. It looks like it needs a lot of physical power. The people, all males!, were dressed in Japanese typical clothes, wearing hats, kids were also nicely dressed. In addition to the visual presentations, there were also musical performances – mainly drums and flutes (why all festivals have those flutes that make me dislike it?). The music is again monotonous but no surprise here. Hardly any women are present in the festival – except of a few who were playing flutes. On the top of some of the floats you could have seen kids who were playing music too.
During the day, there were a few parades, along with the display of the floats and in the evening, all those huge carts were “driven” on the streets and were with hundreds of lightened lanterns; it looks really magnificent!
Another important moment are the lion dance performances – 2 men form a lion (a mask and a cover) and dance on the streets too (again with some music in the background).
I was surprised to see no emotion on the faces of the men walking on the streets in the traditional clothes. No emotions – nothing! It was slightly different in the night and I believe the reason was the sake that was pouring in glasses and drunk on the streets – alcohol always helps I guess.
The problem – the crowd and its behavior. Push, push, no excuse whatsoever, rudeness; some people were staying on the top of stools to take pics – everybody was an animal especially the locals – sorry but this has been my impression here.
The second day of the festival, the yatais were again lined up and we went to take a look again and the dolls show were played twice – again full of people and not very good opportunity to see. Meanwhile, we visited a museum where they played the Japanese typical doll theater for about 10-15 min and demonstrated different genres so it was OK.
We found a cute coffee house where we had tea and coffee the two days. The second day after I ordered hibiscus tea in a pot, they even gave me as a present a back of hibiscus! They were so nice!
The region here is famous with its wooden arts and a few others so you can find a lot of shops and a variety of wooden arts for interesting prices but no surprise since it is a craft!
Now, a few words about our accommodation. So it was a typical Japanese guesthouse – ryokan - with curfew hour – 11pm. The room was huge – it had a bedroom part (floor futons for sleeping), a living room, bathroom, toilet, corridor, and a small section with 2 chairs and a table in front of the window. Dinners and breakfasts were included. The dinner the first night was a never-ending serving.. a dish after a dish.. a small amount but still too many. In combination with hot sake, it was even better. The breakfast – Japanese style – if I was served the meals and was asked if they were for lunch or breakfast or dinner, the answer breakfast wouldn’t even come to my mind. There was of course a shared bathroom with a hot bath (shared, same gender only). The place is not huge, most of the tourists are foreigners and the staff is very friendly. Of course, as a typical Japanese guesthouse, you take your shoes at the building entrance, put slippers, take off your slippers at the room’s door and walk in your room with bare feet/socks; when you enter the toilet – put the toilet slippers; Furthermore, everyone is given Yukata and many people walk around with it and you can also sleep with it – complete Japanese experience! There were some comments on TripAdvisor that were too nasty and cannot understand why but people differ as we know.
The morning when we left, the owner gave each of us a Japanese handmade bag made from kimono textile by her mother – very nice of her! They were so nice and polite and friendly people! Another charm of the place was the huge collection of small statues (ceramic or pottery I guess) that were present in the ryokan in different places but the bulk part was next to the reception. A marvelous collection which apparently was bought years ago by the grandmother of the owner.
The second day (and first morning) we had a huge surprise… snow on the roofs of houses and cars and on some plants… mid-April in Japan, Japanese Alps, Takayama where the Spring festival was undergoing! As planned, we headed to the Hida Folk Village which is close to Takayama (10min by bus or 40mins walking but considering that we were not really prepared for winter and 3C at 9.30am, we took the bus).
The village is cute small place with typical folk houses from the 18th century or so. The roofs were topped with snow; in some of the houses you had to take your shoes to go in and look around but I did in one only – for the rest, you could see from outside.
In a few houses, Japanese typical crafts were demonstrated.. Poor women (most of them), they sit in front of an open sliding door, well dressed and covered with blankets or so and on their other side, a gas heater was burning but still.. how can you open the door under those conditions?! The third day was for Shirakawa-go and back to Tokyo.
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