Day 13 of #rjapantravelog.
I went here to see The Spring Takayama Festival. It has raving reviews.
Unfortunately, it was raining that day, so the outdoor festival was canceled 😔. So, I decided to stroll around the town, and I love it! It's very different, and traditional, than the other towns that I'd been to in Japan.
Even this simple alley, for me, is charming.
Since the festival was canceled, so let's get lost in the old town, alone!
Ok, not totally lost, since I got a working cellphone with internet connection with me.
But really, got lost in a rainy day wasn't that fun.
Torii at the entrance of Takayama Yatai Kaikan (Takayama Festival Float Exhibition Hall).
Sakurayama Hachiman Shrine. The origins of this shrine date from the time of the Emperor Nintoku (413 - 439), when he requested Prince Takefurukuma-no-mikoto to subjugate the monster Ryoumen Sukuna, an incredible beast with 2 heads, 4 arms and 4 legs.
*thanks @sitamanda for the translation.
This is the ceiling of a gazebo-like structure in Sakurayama Hachiman Shrine. Very interesting.
Sennin-tai (Mountain Hermit Float), with a sad monk sitting on its middle tier. He is said to have tumbled down from the clouds while gazing at a beautiful maiden washing her clothes. Over his head, high in the crisp fall air, coil two golden dragons.
Designated as national treasures, many of the 23 floats (yatai) in this celebration are three centuries old. Each would cost about $2 million to duplicate today.
The predominate color is gold, the design is opulent. For the night parades, 100 red-and-white lanterns festoon each float.
These great wheeled carriages are nearly 30 feet high and require at least 20 men to pull them. A dozen yatai appear in the spring event.
In this hall, only 4 are shown, while the others are located at tall storehouses around Takayama.
Sakurayama Nikkokan (I couldn't even find the location name in Instagram!), a hall displaying a dazzling one-tenth-scale replica of 28 buildings from Nikko’s Toshogu shrine.
The attention to detail of these miniatures are outstanding! I bet the actual buildings in real life would be so awesome. Well, UNESCO has included it in its World Heritage Site list.
Continuing my #rjapantravelog. While some of the yatai are placed in the exhibition hall, but most of them are stored in special storehouses throughout the city.
You could spot the yatai by following where the sound like this comes from.
Three young lads in front of the float. I bet they felt quite unhappy because of the gloomy weather.
The high altitude and separation from other areas of Japan kept this town fairly isolated, allowing Takayama to develop its own culture over about a 300-year period. That's why the traditional atmosphere of this town is very thick.
Fantastic Birds and Where You Can Find Them: Parrot, Bird of Paradise, Peacock, and Bat.
Ok, not all of them are birds.
Miyagawa River, Spring 2015.
That day was like a roller coaster ride for me. I almost couldn't catch the last train. And that town had no room available that night, so basically I'd have no place to stay if I missed the train.
Alhamdulillah, I was able to get the ticket to Toyama to spend a night there before continuing my trip back to Osaka.
However, with my soaking wet shoes and unhealthy body, seeing this kind of scenery thru the windows was just very worrying. Thick snow everywhere! And it's like only one or two buildings around. I was like, "okay, I'm really dead if Toyama is no different than this area"
Thankfully, Toyama was a real city, and the hotel that I stayed in was also nice.
