Travel to Hida Takayama (高山) with me! Holiday Photo-Journal (Ed. 4)

Hey Steemit-ians!

I am back with another edition of my Holiday Photo-Journal, this time I will take you with me to Takayama (高山) which is a city in the mountainous Hida region of Gifu Prefecture in Japan. The city is also commonly referred to as Hida-Takayama. Takayama retains a traditional touch and has a beautifully preserved old town which we were lucky to stay in the heart of. It is an extremely popular tourist destination and sometimes it’s difficult to find accommodation - so definitely book ahead. A lot of the accommodation available around Takayama have onsens in the complex.

Below image: Sakurayama Hachimangu Shrine: 社殿

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Takayama has various festivities and attractions every year and is a famous Onsen area (Hot springs).

We took a bus from Shinjuku (Tokyo) and it was a visually spectacular ride up through the alpines, I only wish I snapped more photos of the journey through the Japanese countryside.

We couldn’t actually find any accommodation as we left it too late but were fortunate to find an amazing traditional room on AirBnB with the an amazing central location in the Old Town.

A typical street scape in the old town area.

Throughout the town you see huge contrasts of buildings , but where else would you get a late night snack other than Circle K? East meets West.

Hida Takayama is also famous for high quality timber and highly skilled carpenters during the feudal ages and “Hida-gyu” (Hida Beef) which is the specific name given to beef from a black-haired Japanese cattle breed, that have been raised in Gifu Prefecture for at least 14 months. It is literally everywhere and they have everything from steamed buns, to jerky and expensive steaks in the restaurants which have a meat quality that is classified with the A/B rank and the 5/4/3 grade. It all tasted fairly similar to me, except some of the higher grade beef appeared to contain more marbling so it melted in the mouth more.

Some of the hida beef we sampled

Hot steamed bun with a BBQ flavoured hida beef

Our beef skewers, I can't remember which grade, but they were quite expensive for what they were, delicious though!

The main reason we wanted to travel to Hida Takayama was to get away from the world and relax in the beautiful hot springs (onsens) we had seen on all the websites. We were actually referred to Hida Takayama by a close friend who has a Japanese wife and it came highly recommended as a great place to unwind and soak in nature.

We ventured up to a the mountains on a local bus to visit some of the mountain Onsens and the Shinhotaka Ropeway with it's double decker gondola's , the winding roads and the scenery on the way up was magical.

Here is us riding the Shinhotaka Ropeway and the Gondola on the way up the mountain.

I was holding on a little tighter than my wife!

Notice my nervous smile !

Such an amazing 360 degree view of the valleys and the mountains all meeting together.

I hope this ropeline holds ! haha - Look how large that double decker gondola is! Only in Japan would they have a double decker model haha

As we approach the top of the ropeway , the green mountainsides open up to the top of the alpines.

To reveal the snow capped mountains that truely inspire awe

Once we arrived up the top - it was time for more photos - the photo in the header is a panoramic photo and here are a couple more. The height at the top was 2156 metres and only 10 degrees celcius, notice my happy face as it was freezing. We must have been out of our minds wearing shorts haha

Here are a few Panoramic shots

Now onto the hot springs (Onsens). We could only take photos in the private onsens as in the public onsens everyone was naked and they weren't unisex. But here are some photos of the private Onsens we visited.

These had beautiful river and mountain views and were in timber baths with hot spring water.

Check out the view of the river below, it's a true world away from busy city life , extremely peaceful.

Leave your clothes in the cane baskets and have a soak!

You can even have a swing in this one! haha

After rejuvenating at the mountain onsen , we took a walk through nature - watch our short video of the experience.

And here are some more photos of our walk along the river , you will notice the colour of the water in some of the photos, you cannot drink this water as it isn't safe to drink, but it looks crystal clear in most spots.

Here is a photo of the colour further down stream and in some parts.

Walking along the mountain river was beautiful as you can see from these photos. We even found an old rope bridge!

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Hida Takayma, here is a link to the Airbnb we stayed at. The owner Masonori is an extremely friendly host and very welcoming. We were fortunate to find his accommodation at the last minute.

https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/11724981

Here is a Korean BBQ we made for him on our last night in Takayama.