D6 Takayama part 3

Takayama holds two morning market everyday. Selling local produce and crafts. Every other stall is selling different types of pickles vegetables.
We bought a special hida apple.

Trying our soy flacour dango 

The old streets were calm and peaceful as most of tourists have not arrived yet.

A object to indicated rice wine shop

No one's lined up for hida beef skewer yet

After returning from our day trip, Jon wanted to have hida beef again!

Satisfied!

D5 Takayama part 2

After lunch, we visited the floats exhibit.
Takayama holds two annual festivals which attracts over 300,000 visitors. The main part of festival is the floats parade.

Next to the exhibit, it's the shrine that directs the festival. We saw an amazing display of chrysanthemum and chrysanthemum bonsais.

Chrysanthemum exhibition

Bonsai Chrysanthemum

Crafted onto a rock

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Lots of bonsai on show

We also visited a nearby museum. After we got in, we realized it's showing miniature models of the Toshogu mausoleum in Nikko; made by local craftsmen.

Miniature Toshugu Mausoleum in Nikko

Miniature Toshugu Mausoleum

J-hopper hostel- double japanese private

D5 Takayama

My original plan for D5 was visiting Shin- Hotaka and Hirayu onsen during the day and stay at Takayama for the night. However we had to changed D5 and D6 around as the weather forecast was not great for visiting Shin- Hotaka.
So we ended up going straight to Takayama.

The bus trip took 2.5 hours. We were not an little bored thank to the ever changing scenery in the Japan alps.

Sunny Alps

Looking over Hirayu Onsen

Closed ski resort  near Hirayu Onsen

melting snow near Takayama

We dropped off our luggage before exploring Takayama. Takayama is full of protected traditional buildings, hence got it's name of little Kyoto.
Among the shops, the most abundant has to be the hida beef skewers.

So we could not resist having Hida beef for lunch. It is the most tender beef we have eaten, almost like tofu, easily broken apart with chopsticks.