Japanese Alps: visting Chubu

Kenrokuen Garden

Day 6: Takayama
Using Toyama as a base, it is time to put our Takayama Hokuriku Pass to full use.
After checking out from Toyoko Inn Toyama, we store our luggage in the hotel and made out way to Takayama using Hida express train, covered by our pass.

Takayama is an old town with rustic charm. I had a bit of regret of not spending a night here. The town has certain character that excite and yet felt relaxed. Reminded me a bit of Brussels. Our pass also covers the Sarubobo tourist bus so traveling in town is basically free.

Kenrokuen garden

Morning market: Arriving in the morning, we manage to visit the Miyagawa morning market, which is a gem. Lots of street food, it reminded me of a small pasar malam. Come empty stomach and exit full.

Yatai Kaikan: Near the market, we visited the exhibition of floats for the famous Takayama festival, Yatai Kaikan. Although the ticket price felt steep, but that is the nearest we could get to Takayama Festival without attending the actual one.

Hida Folk Village: After that, we spend the whole afternoon in Hida Folk Village. The first impression was exciting but the buildings tend to get repetitive. It lacks the diversity of Sarawak Cultural Village. None the less, it is one of the more interesting place to visit. After visiting all the houses here, at least we do not need to enter any of the houses in Shirakawa-go later.

Eco Teddy Bear: On the way down Hida Folk Village, we made a brief stop at the Eco Teddy Bear Museum, which is a private collection of teddy bear. Some of the exhibits are rather impressive but do not expect the scale of the famous teddy bear museums of Korea.

Kanazawa castle

After returning to Toyama and collecting our luggage, we use our pass to board the Hokuriku Shinkansen to Kanazawa. Again we chose a hotel near to the station; this time, we stayed at Oka Hotel, which is also a rustic but comfortable hotel.

Day 7: Kanazawa & Shirakawago
It is a busy day ahead, attempting to covers both Kanazawa and Shirakawago. Staying near the station is beneficial as we have to arrive early to book our bus ticket to Shirakawago (covered by the pass). The initial plan would be to go in the morning but the earliest available ticket is the afternoon. Lesson learnt that tickets should be booked as early as possible.

Kenrokuen Garden & Castle: Firstly we visited Kenrokuen garden in Kanazawa. This is a must-go in Kanazawa.  After a few garden in Japan, this could easily be one of the top few. Very pretty, the size is not too huge to walk, but not too small to look tiny. Across the garden host the castle park. Comfortable to walk around the castle, there are free good will guide available

Tea district: We made our way to of the chaya (tea) district, Higashi Chaya district. We manage to visit one of the tea house which housed geisha in the past, and had relaxing walk around the area.

Shirakawago: With a leisure pace, we reach the time to board our bus to Shirakawago. For a taste of the area, we visited the popular Ogimachi village. A fully functional village with buses of tourist, the area is full of authentic gassho zukuri houses. An afternoon here is very relaxing, there is no regret coming although bit out of the way.

Day 8: on to Osaka
the last full day, we made our way to Osaka using Thunderbird limited express which is covered by our pass. The rest of the day is actually shopping, which we had a gala time visiting Den Den town. Given more time, we could have walk around Shinseikai more since we just stayed behind the area.

Day 9: Flight Home
concluding our journey this round, it had been a fruitful and wondering adventure.

Link
Introduction
Leg 1: Tokyo to Nagano
Leg 2: Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route