This weekend I took a trip to Takayama. The name means "high mountain", and truly it is high in the mountains. Until semi-recently the town was inaccessible by car, as the town was kind of a hidden secret. You can still see very traditional thatched-roof houses in the area, which are covered with a thick layer of snow in the winter.
The steep roofs protect the houses from caving in in the winter under the weight of the snow. This town looked like I had stepped back in time to a much older age.
The lifestyle here is also a lot slower, despite a heavy influx of tourists. You still see people in traditional rice hats, farming, gardening and making crafts.
The interior of the houses, probably look something like this. The all used to have a small fireplace in the middle, where people cooked and heated themselves in winter. Nowadays they are still sometimes the centre-piece of a dinner.
The outside doors were slid open and a wonderful breeze blew into the house. This was actually, the government administration building, so it had a large garden in the middle.
This is what I saw.
Outside the narrow streets were bustling with action. The city is actually a city of carpenters! About 80% of all stores sell wooden goods. They were such specialists in their field that the Edo government would often call upon them to build palaces and temples. And in fact, many of the ordinary things were made of wood.
Bowls, forks, spoons: all wood!
The city is still very self-sufficient and lives in relative harmony with nature. If you go into a convenience store, you are likely to see the person behind the counter sanding or carving a wooden toy. The famous food from the area is called 'sansai', and is actually a collection of miscellaneous mountain plants. Most of which I didn't recognise. Some looked like ferns, others like a sweet asparagus (a kind of grass maybe?), yet others like potatoes. All very delicious. So delicious, in fact, that I ate it all before being able to take a picture!
This weekend I took a trip to Takayama. The name means "high mountain", and truly it is high in the mountains. Until semi-recently the town was inaccessible by car, as the town was kind of a hidden secret. You can still see very traditional thatched-roof houses in the area, which are covered with a thick layer of snow in the winter.
The steep roofs protect the houses from caving in in the winter under the weight of the snow. This town looked like I had stepped back in time to a much older age.
The lifestyle here is also a lot slower, despite a heavy influx of tourists. You still see people in traditional rice hats, farming, gardening and making crafts.
The interior of the houses, probably look something like this. The all used to have a small fireplace in the middle, where people cooked and heated themselves in winter. Nowadays they are still sometimes the centre-piece of a dinner.
The outside doors were slid open and a wonderful breeze blew into the house. This was actually, the government administration building, so it had a large garden in the middle. 
This is what I saw.
Outside the narrow streets were bustling with action. The city is actually a city of carpenters! About 80% of all stores sell wooden goods. They were such specialists in their field that the Edo government would often call upon them to build palaces and temples. And in fact, many of the ordinary things were made of wood. 
Bowls, forks, spoons: all wood!
The city is still very self-sufficient and lives in relative harmony with nature. If you go into a convenience store, you are likely to see the person behind the counter sanding or carving a wooden toy. The famous food from the area is called 'sansai', and is actually a collection of miscellaneous mountain plants. Most of which I didn't recognise. Some looked like ferns, others like a sweet asparagus (a kind of grass maybe?), yet others like potatoes. All very delicious. So delicious, in fact, that I ate it all before being able to take a picture!
6 comments:
oh yeah? interesting travels! have you eaten bamboo shoots yet? i am told they don't have much taste but they smell wonderful?
yeah, bamboo shoots are great in salad. I like them a lot, but they are more of a spring food.
I tried some bamboo shoot pickles in Takayama which were pretty good, but like you said — no taste.
would you say bamboo shoots are the zuccinni of the orient?
oh and if I had a "japan" blog I would be very dissappointed that someone beat me to the punch about posting THIS:
http://www.patrickmacias.blogs.com/er/2007/09/darling-love-is.html
That looks like a really authentic experience. You're so lucky to see stuff off the beaten path.
benj,
unfortunately your copy-paste technique is a little ol' skool.
But I think I found the post you meant.
It's pretty...uh...interesting.
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