welcome to takayama the gateway to the Japanese Alps it's a small northern town that we fell
in love with for the friendliness the deliciousness and the feeling of being transported back
in time from exploring the Ito era UNESCO sites to feeling like we were in a snow globe
this quaint town was so worth a stop on our Japan itinerary we are taking quite a few
hours of trains from Kyoto let's go our journey took us on two trains from Kyoto through Nagoya
and upwards to gifu prefecture [Music]
those trains are clean modern and I love looking out the window at this clear gorgeous Blue
River our constant companion on our way up North [Music] well here we are in takayama
just occurred to me that it's well at least it's written tall mountain from my Mandarin
studying days that's what it looks like anyway we're about to check into our little rental
umbrellas we got we're gonna add the white one yeah let's just add to it messed up first
thing you see when we come in is a Beer Dispenser
it's not bad refreshing cute little kitchen hang out area it's got a little outdoor
okay and upstairs we've got our little open area we have to figure out this bed situation
though
[Music] we found a really cool looking restaurant where we're gonna try some of the famous local
Pita beef I just found it on Google Maps but it looked good and it was close and we're
starving and I could not be more excited it was 3 P.M and an odd time to be eating so
we popped into this pretty famous and popular restaurant having had no idea what we'd stumbled
upon we came to find out that this region is famous for heated beef some of the most
tender marbled beef I've ever tried the flavor is really nice it's super tender grilling
it over the charcoal gives it such a nice flavor we got the beef three ways we got two
cuts that we grill ourselves with some veggies we got rice we got miso soup which is delicious
and although Garrett kept joking that they tricked us into cooking our own meal honestly
this is one of the best meals that we'd had yet [Music] so there's an event on Sundays
each weekend in January in this UNESCO world heritage town called shirakawago it has houses
with grass roofs that'll obviously be covered by lots of snow today and they do this event
where all of them light up it took an hour of hitting refresh and crashing the website
over and over and over again to get tickets so this is a popular event I feel really lucky
to have gotten tickets too so I hope it's good [Music]
shirakawago is located in the remote chagawa River Valley an hour from takayama it's a
UNESCO world heritage site featuring an Edo era Village that looks incredible in every
season
this remote area surrounded by mountains made this Village isolated from the outside world
until around the 1950s for some this region was known as the last unexplored area of Japan
[Music]
so much snow on everything this region receives a ton of snow and it really felt like we were
in a snow globe exactly the lights just came on [Music]
[Music] and this is what I loved about this part of Japan the big cities can feel so modern
and like you're blasted into the future but you can also travel back into the past it's
like we're in a snow globe I didn't know how our baby would handle it and I'm so glad we
brought the umbrella for Felix and this jacket that I can zip him into it created the perfect
napping environment and kept us both warm I'll link it down below we've entered one
of the houses it's a little Museum there's a lot of beautiful wood carvings in here but
the main reason we popped in is because there's maybe a nice view from my top there's an observation
deck platform in shirakawago that we were hoping to make it up to but they had limited
tickets in those ones sold out first so we weren't allowed but I definitely recommend
heading up there under normal conditions when it's open for a great view alternatively you
can head into one of the museums that are in the bigger houses and head up to the top
floor to try to get a nice view well we're almost done now after I got tickets I was
kind of like oh no then I read reviews and people were kind of mixed on it but I actually
really liked it did you like it it was awesome yeah Winter Wonderland it's a winter wonderland
for sure 10 a.m my boys are still sleeping so I'm gonna enjoy feature that made me want
to book this book traveling with our baby has definitely reduced the amount of things
that we pack into a single day but thankfully babies are pretty adaptable and portable and
he's been a great traveler so far went on the road Garrett and I try to take turns with
him and this morning while they slept I got a chance for some me time
[Music] I booked this place because it has this bath outside as the option and it was
also really cheap like under 100 US per night I have some pretty big tattoos that I can't
cover so usually allowed to use the Onsen here so it's nice to have the option to still
kind of get a little bit of that flavor
Ed app has been saving me
there we go [Music]
never mind I'm watching a YouTube video penis might be let's try this again it's already
getting warm that's what it was [Music] good good job wow time to eat again oh this is
so cute this is so cute [Music] this is such a cute area oh yeah [Music] cute [Music]
we are having the matcha tea here in the suit which I'm very excited about oh nice it's
a Pity to break into this matcha
um sweet creamy and machae delicious you're making quick work with that so there's a fair
amount of things to do in this area especially in the winter there's a ropeway you can take
up to the mountains you can ski in the mountains but since we kind of live in the mountains
what we wanted to do is explore the cultures [Music] although shirakawago is a must-see
you don't have to leave takayama to go back to the Edo era there's a walking street right
in town with preserved houses kind of similar to the one that we were staying in full of
shops and cute little cafes foreign [Music] but seeing these snowmen everywhere snowmen
are a much beloved Pastime here on our final day after a leisurely morning we made our
way to another Village that you don't have to go far to see hiranosato it's a 15-minute
bus ride from the main station in town and is similar to shirakawago but on the way we
had to get some sweets [Music]
what did you say it smells good it smells really good smell good
doesn't make a lot of sense to get ice cream in the snow but like we saw grape and white
peach and we had to do it that tastes just like grape soda I'm so delighted what's white
peach taste like very peachy yeah wow [Laughter] the desire the desperation
folk Village it's gonna be a similar issue yesterday but I think less crowded and now
it's daytime but we are still very much in a snow globe this will be cool oh yeah literally
I didn't even mean to pun snowy bamboo I love that
all right oh there's this random spot at the entrance with a whole bunch of little toys
that are probably meant for children but have greatly appealed to Garrett so this is the
oh eat a folk Village and it was built during the Edo period from the 16 to the 1800s so
we were at something similar when we went to share a cow go it was much bigger but this
one is sort of in town in takayama being in this Village really helped me to imagine what
it was like back then the inside of much of these houses has been turned into a museum
and we would have looked at more but you had to remove your shoes to go into each one which
is kind of hard with the snow but still standing there in the pouring snow you really had to
imagine how hundreds of years ago people just made it work
it's freaking snowing hard in these small communal Villages where everyone played an
important role hey friend it was a treat to see two of these and to have the chance to
be in such a queen historic town for a few days up ahead we had the beauty of Mount Fuji
and the futuristic feel of Tokyo ahead of us so this was an amazing contrast if you
get the chance absolutely check it out foreign
[Music]