Autum Leaves in Takayama

Because Japan is the land of superfluous holidays, on Tuesday, 11/23, we had the day off and headed to a little mountain town called Takayama (literally "top mountain"). One of Matt's good friends at work suggested the town as a good place to see fall foliage. My friend Mari from school came along with her friend Kana. It was nice to have some Japanese tourguides, and Matt got to practice speaking a lot.

To get there, we took a special express train over the river, through the woods, and up some mountains. It was about 2 hours one-way, and it was a lovely, if expensive, ride. Unfortunately I was too busy gawking at things out the window to get any good pictures, so you just have to hope that I go back that way again! It was beautiful, with bright red Japanese maples, red and blue bridges spanning sparkling rivers, mountain towns nestled in tiny valleys, and two of the most amazing dams I have ever seen.

Takayama is not unlike a small Colorado mountain town, minus a lot of the health nuts. The buildings are smaller and still look like "old Japan" in most cases. There are shrines and temples everywhere you turn, and in the center of town we found a giant family compound (now a museum of sorts). Below is a picture of the main gates. Through them you can see the compound's temple. Yes, they had their own temple. This picture doesn't show it very well, but there is also a small moat-like structure running around the entire complex.

To see the scale of this compound, take a look at the picture to the right. It is a map of the entire place.

According to Matt, the statue to the right tells the story of how Hida, the area that Takayama is in, got its name. He's not quite certain about the chain of events, but that's a God on a goose, and hi means "flying" and da means "goose" in this case. Yay Japanese kanji that can be read millions of different ways!

This is me blending in with the leaves. Yes, I wore the red coat on purpose in the hopes that I would blend in with some leaves. However, it was very cold up in the mountains, and the coat proved itself useful for more than matching nature's colors.

The man in the picture to the right is making a traditional Japanese food called manjou. It's infinitely more classy than our hot dog or pork sandwich stands! And I'm betting it's better for you, although I can't test that theory due to my allergy to wheat.


This is a good example of Japanese landscaping. This was also outside the little shop where we stopped for dessert, but you can find things like this on almost every corner. I liked the way the trees frame the structure, and the nice colors of the leaves make it a rather artistic picture! This is what I enjoy about Japan: finding little hidden treasures of beauty in every corner. My hypothesis is that since it is a small country, they have learned to be incredibly efficient with their space. As such it is generally clean and decorated superbly.

The picture above I took outide of the place we went for dessert. I just thought the tree was pretty, all red and orange. It's my bias, but I tend to enjoy bright leaves like this the best.

The picture to the right shows my dessert. I'm not generally a fan of food pictures, but sometimes I have to break down. This is one of those times. Japanese green tea and homemade chestnut mochi, anyone?


This is the Takayama train station at dusk. I love the colors of the darkening sky, and the smaller, older building. I get such a wild west feeling from it for some reason, even though Japan surely doesn't have a wild west.

Last but not least, at the end of the evening we all went bowling. Matt, me, Kana, and Mari hammed it up pretty good for everyone. Gutter balls abounded! Matt won, in the end, by getting a strike, and I rolled a few more gutter balls, so my earlier two strikes were basically nullified. I demand a re-match!