Takayama 2019: Arrival in Takayama

It was late afternoon when I arrived in Takayama but because the town is up in the mountains the days there are a bit shorter and it felt more like I had arrived in the evening. Takayama is a town of about 88,000 people and is a transportation hub in Japan’s mountainous Gifu Prefecture. I would be staying in a place near the Miyagawa River and not too far from the historic part of town.

After settling in I went out and passed through Takayama’s preserved area. Because I was using Takayama as a base for a trip to two of the region’s famous mountain villages I wouldn’t actually see much of Takayama itself until my departure day, but this evening walk gave me a first glance of what I’d be exploring in a couple days.

At night I came back through the old part of Takayama on my way to a grocery store. Many of the businesses in this part of the city close down in the evening but the streetlights stay on and the preserved buildings have a nice look at night.