Day 14 - Takayama morning markets, Hida folk village, Tenaga Ashinaga restaurant

We started our morning off with the famous morning markets in Takayama. There are two markets, one located in a square in front of Takayama Jinya (hence called Jinya-mae market) and the other along the river bank of the Miyagawa river.  We visited the Jinya-mae market first.

We were confronted with a handful of stalls, mainly selling local produce such as vegetables and local arts and crafts. We bought some zori, traditional cloth sandals for 1000 yen. It was handmade by a very old looking lady. Funny thing, the sandals don't really fit properly...anyway, happy to support her in her endeavours. We also bought some sarubobo amulets from her. These are figurines that you will see everywhere in Takayama.  They are supposed to be a protective amulet for children. Have to say, ours looked very handmade in comparison to what you could get in the shops. Beware though, many of the items in the shops are now made in China. At least from this market, we know it is made in Japan!

Then it was off to the other market. It was a bit of a relief to us to see that it was more populated with lots of stalls. The shop fronts along the market are also open. They generally sell omiyage as well as food specialties from Takayama.

First off, we heard about this egg marshmallow cake and we came across the shop selling it. Happy lady calling for all customers. We got a hot one.

What do I think? It's an eggy tasting sweet marshmallow? Worth a try. When hot it does have a caramel flavour from the burnt bits of sugar.

Next up, a Hida beef bun. Similar to the chinese  steamed buns. Could have had a bit more filling, but it was ok.

 With all those cows, there had to be milk. I hate milk, but hubby had a bottle and he said it was creamy and tasty. You drink it on the spot and return the bottle to the lady.

 Next, Hida beef. A cheap way to try the beef. I think he was quite bored until we placed an order. There were certainly no one else around his stall. He cooks it up for you and there are seating around.

 It was certainly tender. The best beef I have ever had? I don't think I can say that, but it was worth a try!

This stall was making a certain type of candy specific to Takayama. We didn't try it, wish we did. All the shop fronts had plenty of free tastings, and they all encourage you to try it.

After breakfast we went to the Hida Folk Village. We didn't take the bus as we felt we needed to walk off our breakfast. I have to say, the maps of Takayama are useless for finding this village on foot. They just show it as somewhere on the other side of the train tracks and across a main road. There were signs pointing to it which suddenly peter out. After a very long walk in the sun, we made it up the hill into the village. 700 yen and we were in.

This is what you are greeted with when you enter

It was very quiet and there were hardly any people around. The Hida Folk Village is a collection of houses from across Japan and from different time periods. They have been placed here and restored. You can enter the houses, climb the stairs, play with the equipment. It is all very interactive. To the left of the lake is a set of traditional toys you can play with. From water pistols, stilts, spinning tops and a little daruma hitting game. 

The water pistol game. I filled it up with water and shot it at hubby. What I didn't realise was the amount of water that came out!

Bahaha! Soaking wet! At least it was a hot day, he dried off quickly.

Oh no, he was seeking revenge!

Pretty thatched roof house. I think this is typical of the traditional houses you see in the Hida area. The most well known images of these houses have them covered in snow.

You have to take off your shoes for most of the houses, they provide slippers for you and disinfectant too!

Pounding machine. Makes quite a bit of noise and vibration when you use it.

 

One thing that annoyed me was the number of caterpillars just dangling in mid air from a thread. I collected a few on my hat. I hate caterpillars!

We occasionally heard this bell toll, you were free to go an ring it as many times as you like. There were a few woodworking artists around, the one we say was hand carving rice scoops out of wood. The handicraft centre looked closed when we where there.

By the afternoon, we had gone around the whole place and it was time to head back to the town centre. My verdict on the Hida Folk Village? GOOD. At least there are signs in English to read, and you get to go inside the houses and touch things.

On the way down from the Village, we stopped by a soba restaurant. We were the only customers, but it was quite a big restaurant. We sat at the counter and got to see the old couple running the place cook our lunch.

 We both ordered a vegetarian soba with mushrooms. It came sitting in a delicious dark broth that wasn't too salty. The soba was not home made (we saw them take it out of a packet) but it still tasted good. Of course hubby had his beer, I guess it was a hot day.

Back in town, we walked around the old merchant quarter again. The clear mountain waters around Takayama means that good sake is brewed here. Not surprising, we saw sake ice cream being advertised. We got a local sake one and a peach. Looks like ice cream is known as "soft cream" in Japan.

 Sake one didn't taste of much, maybe just a slight alcohol flavour, but the peach ice cream did taste like cream with a much stronger alcoholic undertone.

 

We then went around the quarters looking at all the sake places. Looks like sake crewing and soy sauce brewing go hand in hand, one sake place was selling shyoyu ice cream, or, soy sauce ice cream. I guess clear clean waters mean good brewing for many things. See this is why it pays to learn a bit of hiragana before you go.

 Of course we had to try it (it was hot, have I said that before?). The taste, you can definitely taste the soy, but it was sweet at the same time. The closest example is the senbei Japanese rice crackers, that have a sweet and salty flavour. It was quite nice actually, what would have been even better is some crumbled senbei on top.

Yes, and Takayama is also known for senbei, there are shops selling freshly made crackers, some as big as your head. They do have a big price tag though.

By the time we had wandered around the town and the parks for a few hours, it was time for dinner. This time we chose Tenaga Ashinaga, another place we picked out of TripAdvisor.  

I had the hoba miso again. This time it came on a brazier and the miso and vegetables were cooked on a magnolia leaf. This one I found really, really salty, far too salty, even with the rice.

 Hubby tried the Hida beef, also cooked on a magnolia leaf with miso, maybe they used less miso, but it wasn't as salty, the beef portion was quite small.

 Both came with all these side dishes and we were craving vegetables by this time into our trip.

As Takayama is also known for it's special type of ramen, a dark broth with springy noodles. At this place you can order a half serve if you want to try it. So we did. Plain and simple, not that much different from our lunch actually, only with ramen noodles.

With this meal set you can get a sake or a drink included. We had a sake each, a clear filtered one and an unfiltered sake. Hubby added a draught beer to the list.

I don't like sake, I never really have. I tried the clear one, and I didn't like it. So I tried the unfiltered one, with bits of rice in it, and I didn't like it. To me, it has a turpentine undertone, so no, that amount of sake was enough for me.

My verdict on this restaurant? OK, they have a menu in English which is convenient and you can try servings of all the Takayama specialties if you want. I just found the miso to be far too salty at this place. I have to admit, that I much preferred the food at Heianraku that we went to the night before.

On the way back to the hotel, we tried another Takayama brew, or two...

This time we used our own cypress bath, considering that it wasn't hot spring water anyway, we thought it would be nicer in our own rooms with no other naked people to content with.

Early night, as the next day, we were off to Tokyo!