Nara, Tenjin Festival and Kurumon

Well, most people have visited Osaka and Nara (best guess) so I think this would jst serve as a personal insight on what we did during the Tenjin Festival.

We came back from Osaka from Gifu prefecture and one of our stops was the KURUMON market.

definitely a foodie paradise for fresh seafood and other goodies

whole abalone in soy sauce.... so yummy!!!! 1600 yen or $15

 The whole abalone was a winner!!! went back for more!

grilled scallops... 

fresh uni (sea urchin)  about $11 a pc

tak0yaki heaven 

My kids ate several plates

you can actually pick and choose a lot... like resh sushi or sashimi or your choice. some places get crowded and better to scout around because price differ from store to store. We and a full brunch right there. After which, we took a train to NARA for some deer.....

The deer were quite aggressive when they know you have food... they would nudge you and bite your clothes... you can also make them bow to you... you just have to bow to them and they will bow back

The children had fun with the deer and we did not tour the temples anymore... since we were supposed to get back for the tenjin festival..

Tenjin Festival is every July 24 and 25 and it involves a lot of parades which will culminate when the images of the Gods are loaded into the boats and they would circle the city.

some people in the viewing decks

The city came alive with people... and it was interesting to watch how the street (near the festival sight was transformed into street food heaven... lots of new things to try, candy apples too. Most of the people tend to gather around the village to watch the floats come by...

Locals in traditional japanese costume (imspite of the summer heat!)

this was pretty good

I hate crowds but Japanese people are so nice and courteous that you won't mind mixing with them.. they dont even push and actually keep a good distance from you... so you never feel there is a "crowd".. loved the experience!

Shirakawa Go and Hida Furukawa

We booked a van (from our airbnb host who happens to be a tour guide )  to take us to Shirakawa go and Hida Furukawa. You can also reach the village via tour bus from the tourist office.

For info on how to get to Shiarkawa go... refer to my previous post here (jumping point was takayama)

The village and Gifu itself is located in central Japan.. if you ride the bus going there... all I can say is, enjoy the view.... its actually called the ALPS of Japan... views of villages, with fog rolling over them.... sigh...

shirakawa go village

We got to see the view from a hill of the shirakawa go village. It was as postcard perfect as you can get. Designated as a UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE, it has preserved the way it builds its thatched roof houses.

It was quite interesting to see how the people of the village lived. Mostly by agriculture and lately through tourism (they built a road through the mountain, which made the village more accessible.)

rainbow trout feely swimming in the canal

I honestly was blown away by the beauty of the village. MUST SEE definitely. We then did a hike up some waterfalls... it was humid and yes, hot.

hike up to there!

sweaty!!!

July is not the best time to hike up a mountain! I think it was an experience but not the best one we had.


We then proceeded to Hida Furukawa. My kids know this from watching a famous anime hida no sato ( YOUR NAME). We quickly toured the town, the old village and the festival float exhibition (held every April)

We went to the canal where the koi were swimming... some were as big as my forearm!

one of the floats used in the festival

We really enjoyed the outing. We wished we had more time in Hida (it was already late in the afternoon).. maybe should have skipped the waterfalls.....

Takayama

I am back in Japan again for our family trip this July. This trip just came to me when I was attending the annual travel expo held every February and Takayama had a booth. I had seen a few pictures of shirakawa go before but the travel expo really gave me the idea to visit.

I booked a flight to Osaka... but I would later find out that it would be easier to fly to Nagoya and jump off from there to Gifu prefecture.

But then, we already had tickets to Osaka. So first option for us was to take a train. They have trains running from Osaka station (direct trains because I don't want to transfer trains and risk getting lost). We took the HIDA limited express train #25 from Osaka (click here) which leaves at platform 11. They also have trains from nagoya which will be faster.

You can also opt to take the bus ( see here ). the bus station also has bike rentals and luggage storage facilities if you want to take that option. We took this option going back to Osaka. I really enjoyed the ride through the mountains as Takayama is located in central Japan. (skiing is popular in winter) Both bus and train option takes about 4 hours.

TAKAYAMA

We booked an airbnb (which came out cheaper for our 11 pax party) and explored the city. Takayama is the center od HIDA beef of of the three famous brands of wagyu in Japan (other being kobe and matsunaga)

beef sashimi

We visited the old houses in town which preserved all the cooking methods and structures. It was quite interesting.

cooking mama

 another interesting thing is, the rivers had KOI swimming in them!

One of the MUST SEE places is the OLD TOWN which had a lot of preserved buildings (UNESCO sight) They had a lot of local artisans  shops (some, I might say, are quite expensive) and food (very touristy)

local artisan making wooden keychains

Japan in July is very humid (but I had no choice since it was the only time the kids were free) and sometimes, it would rain, which what happened when  we went to the old town.

rainy

I loved walking in the morning market, which is located near the river. There were people who sold vegetables, coffee in a edible cup, some local preserved veggies,

The kids were quite happy with eating hida beef skewers (which were available everywhere) and cooking steak at our airbnb.

You can opt to take the NOHI bus also to tour the other parts of town like the HIDA FOLK VILLAGE. The bus station is located near the tourist center in the middle of town. We didn't get to go there since we already went to shirakawa go and hida no sato (which I will talk about in the next blog)