Archive | October, 2011

Travel Checklist: Local Foods in Hida-Takayama, Part 1

26 Oct

Submitted to the November 2011 J. Festa “Dining in Japan,” hosted at Japingu. Part 2 is here.

In September, a friend and I traveled to Takayama, about 3 hours from Kanazawa. Located in Gifu near the border of Nagano, the old towns of Hida (飛騨） and Takayama (高山）are a food tourist’s paradise. Since the town is quite small, most of these foods can be found in stands or restaurants near Takayama Station and nearby morning markets.

Hôba Miso Yaki （朴葉味噌焼き）


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Apple “Hunting” in Kurouchi Orchard Fruit Park, Hida-Takayama

6 Oct

This article is featured in the J. Festa October 2011 edition: “Entertainment in Japan,” hosted at japingu.

The second three-day weekend of “Silver Week,” the week in mid-September with both the national holidays of the Autumnal Equinox (shûbun no hi, 秋分の日) and Respect for the Aged Day (keirô no hi, 敬老の日), found me and a fellow foodie touring Hida-Takayama in Gifu Prefecture. We sampled most of the local specialties, dined at a number of adorable cafes, and sampled some local brews on our trip (more on these to follow in later posts), and as we left Takayama and headed for Kanazawa, we decided to pay a visit to an orchard in Hida for some apple-picking.

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