Takayama is often cited in Japanese tourism guides as a castle and shrine city, and although there are its fair share of both attractions, the actual city is quite small and the sights took us less than half a day to cover. Nonetheless, the Hida-Takayama area is well known for its breed of wagyu beef, which we couldn't help but to try as soon after we checked in as possible:
A night view of the famous Nakabashi bridge:
A view from the bridge the next morning:
And then the next morning, along the old streets of Takayama (San-machi Suji):
The morning market:
Hida Kokubunji temple, one of the oldest surviving shrines in Japan (746A.D.)
Before taking us to lunch at this great place along Yasukawa-dori which included raw Hida Takayama beef and Hida beef wrapped in miso:
Next stop was Gero-Onsen (下呂温泉) in Gifu Prefecture (岐阜), one of the 3 famous onsen towns (along with Arima and Kusatsu), opting to stay at Armeria, a ryokan hotel which was aged and overrun with more tourists, but compared to most of the other places in the city, seemed to be in pretty good shape.
From Gero-Onsen, it was another 2.5 hour drive back to the civilisation that is Nagoya for New Years Eve.
Passing Nagoya castle on the way:
And visiting Atsuta shrine before the NYE crowd came:
As we drove around Nagoya city at night:
Lunch in Nara the next day:
Before setting off to see the shrines known collectively as the "Historic Monuments of Nara":
The crowds were still strong going up to Kasuga Shrine:
Leeann's encounter with a deer:
A view of Nara city from the top of Sangatsu-do hall:
Vendors still serving NYE food along the streets:
Heijo Palace at night:
And then we found this gem of a cafe nearby serving all the best things - natto, crab, ikura, oysters, etc.... all for very little!:
Back to Todaiji the next day:
From here, we hopped on the shinkansen, bound for Hiroshima, passing Himeji castle on the way..
Once there, it was a quick 15 minute ride on the tram to our hotel:
With the afternoon well under way, we dropped our bags off and headed off to Miyajima shrine, the famous torii which sits in the middle of the sea. This meant that we had to take an hour train across Hiroshima to Miyajima port - followed by a 15 minute ferry ride to Miyajima Island where they are famous for oysters!
The 2nd photo shows an oyster (kaki) rice roll.
Some grilled meat:
and some more oysters:
The famed torii:
And the Itsukushima Shrine:
More food in the form of an Okonomiyaki pancake:
And yet more oysters for Leeann:
and more:
The biggest rice scoop ever:
And then at dinner, we had nothing but... you guessed it.. more oysters (even the salad dressing was oyster based)!
Back near the hotel, some interesting lights and sights:
The next day, we headed off to the A-bomb memorial - sometimes called the Peace Memorial. The significance of this dome is that the first bomb exploded a mere 160meters above this dome but a large part of the dome remain intact.
Before walking a couple of km to Hiroshima Castle:
And an alarming number of vending machines along the way:
Before heading off to Okayama by train and visiting Okayama Castle and the Koraku-en Gardens:
Koraku-en Garden panorama:
We then picked up our car and headed for lunch in Himeji to try out their famous Oden:
Before taking a quick peek inside Himeji Castle:
Having visited so many shrines, temples and castles over the past few days, we were looking forward to relaxing in some onsens... Arima Onsen was next on our list!
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