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8D Avia Japan Trip: Hida Beef Fest at Takayama Old Town

Hida beef katsu from Takayama Old Town Japan

Hida beef katsu from Takayama Old Town store

Hida beef buns shop from Takayama Old Town Japan

Hida beef bun from Takayama Old Town Japan

Brown on sake barrel at Takayama Old Town Japan

I am getting a bit lazy to write lately because the burden of daily life has make me losing my inspiration. But I forced myself to write tonight no matter what it takes. Anyway, I feel it’s easier to write about past travel story because it somehow motivates you to earn dollars to fund your next travel plan. So let’s continue our walk in Takayama Old Town, shall we?

If you are not keen to go for sake tasting with empty stomach, you may want to take a deeper stroll to the alleys in Takayama Old Town because you don’t know what you will find out here. For instance, the road will lead you to a food store selling Hida beef skewer. Hida beef is so popular here in Takayama but it doesn’t come with cheap pricetag so in order to make it more affordable (and hence, attracting cheapo tourists’ attention like us), shops in Takayama Old Town sells Hida beef at various sizes. One skewer of Hida beef costs 500 JPY. Considering you can get a bowl of ramen at that price, oh well you know it’s not really a cheap delicacy but don’t leave this place without trying it, okay?

A few steps later we stumbled into a fried beef Croquette shop. I suppose all the shops here claim to sell Hida beef so let’s just believe them since there’s no way for us to proof them otherwise. I love this traditional croquette, it’s so crispy and the taste of the hot beef in curry sauce just burst at your mouth when you bite it. Yummy. Best to eat it hot so devour it straight away upon getting your hand on it.

Next, on the way back to the meeting point with the tour group, we saw a shop selling Hida beef buns. Since we are not going to see anymore Hida beef after leaving Takayama Old Town, we decided to say goodbye to this lovely old town by buying this beef bun. Same with the croquette, it’s best to consume this bun immediately because it won’t be so nice when it’s cold. I wish I have more time to explore Takayama Old Town but there is not much you can do when you join a tour group. At least, I had the chance to munch a lot of Hida beef that day. Oops, must not forget to take Brown after some photo-taking hehe.

8D Avia Japan Trip: Sake Tasting at Takayama Old Town

Award for sake sold at Takayama Old Town Japan

Price for hot sake at Takayama Old Town Japan

Sake drinking area at Takayama Old Town Japan

Heating machine for hot sake at Takayama Old Town Japan

Hot sake bottle for two at Takayama Old Town Japan

Doll decoration at Takayama Old Town Japan

Sarubobo decoration at Takayama Old Town Japan

Do you know what’s the best thing to do after a morning walk by the river? It’s a visit to an old town in Japan. This time we are going to visit Takayama Old Town. The old town has so many kind of shops from daily household shop, souvenir shop, skincare shop, food shops and even sake shop. While all of these shops are charming, I really recommend a visit to the sake shop. This is because the shop owner will allow you to taste the sake for free (while he secretly hoping you to buy few bottles of sake of course). The shop owner (or the tour guide, if you are joining a tour group) will give you a picture of all kind of sake which are available for testing. If you’d like sweeter kind of sake, you can mention the word “amai onegaisimasu” and the shop owner will understand. Well it sounds like broken Japanese I admit, but at least the shop owner understood. Hahaha.

Since the weather is pretty cool outside it’s probably the right time to try out hot sake, especially since it’s only 500 JPY. My brother is not slow to take the offer and the shop owner immediately asked us to go to the drinking area (which looks like a simple cafe) where he puts the machine to heat the sake. He gave us a timer too and told us two simple words “three minutes”. I suppose we just needed to wait for three minutes before the timer alarm us to take the hot sake from the machine. The three minutes rules work for all kind of things I suppose, not just cup noodles. There were no other customers except for two Japanese tourists drinking but I had to admit it was a bit too early for sake-drinking. But hey, we may not be able to visit this place again so cheers!

We spent around 15 - 20 minutes drinking sake until our Mum started to nag us to finish drinking it faster cause she wanted to check the other shops but reluctant to go first by herself. But mom, I don’t think sake is meant for one-shot unless we are super depressed about life. Oh well, I eventually tried to finish it faster with the help of my brother but I did not leave the store without taking one cute souvenir, Sarubobo doll in wooden sake cup. Kawaiidesune~

8D Avia Japan Trip: Hida Takayama Miyagawa Morning Market

Miyagawa Morning Market at Hida Takayama Japan

Huge packs of Pretz at souvenir store in Hida Takayama

Sarubobo dolls from Hida Takayama souvenir store

Takoyaki stall at Hida Takayama Miyagawa Morning Market

Red bean bun from Hida Takayama Miyagawa Morning Market

I like to check the surrounding of the hotel that I stayed in whenever I am in foreign country. Japan is no exception and I love it when I found out that there’s actually something to see within walking distance from our hotel in Takayama, Hida Takayama Hotel. From google map, I can see that there are two markets near our hotel but the nearest one would be Hida Takayama Miyagawa Morning Market. Since mum would definitely have revolted if I left her in the hotel by herself, I decided to chose this market for our after-breakfast morning walk.

While the walk is considered easy (no uphill route), it is still not an easy feat for mum who broke her knee last year. But she seems to be fine to walk at her own pace and she let me and my brother to walk further ahead to check the route just in case we took the wrong path. So by the time she reached the intersection, we would be in time to alarm her that the walk that we just took was actually wrong. Oops. Well, I never say I am good with map but neither is my brother.

After several turns, we finally managed to reach Miyagawa Morning Market which is located at the riverside. A lot of tourists seem to cycle to reach the place but my cycling skill is noob so it’s out of the question for me. Plus who is strong enough to give my mum a ride, definitely not me. She’s not heavy. It’s just me who is weak. LOL.

There are many things to see at Miyagawa Morning Market from souvenir store which sells Sarubobo dolls and huge version of Pretz (oh my, they sold it in 9 packs too) to food stalls such as takoyaki and buns filled with Hida beef or red bean. We just had a bit too many Hida beef the day before, so we tried out red bean bun this time and it tastes so comforting if you eat it while it’s warm. Yummy.

You will feel this good morning stroll vibe while you are walking through the market. We saw our tour guide there too shopping for miso. My mum quickly joined him and well, I did not really know what happened but she ended up with two packs of miso. It’s not for soup base though, it seems to be eaten together with beef. That sounds pretty good actually. Too bad I’m staying away from my mum so my brother will be the person who enjoys this benefit. Damn, I’m kinda jealous but it’s my own faullt. My choice of life, actually.

Do take a walk here if you have the time to spend in the morning. Since it’s named morning market, I guess it will be safer to come in the morning (like around 8 or 9AM) because I’m scared it will close in the afternoon.

8D Avia Japan Trip: Hida Plaza Hotel Review, Takayama

Tatami room of Hida Plaza Hotel Takayama Japan

Western bedroom in Hida Plaza Hotel Takayama

Complimentary Japanese sweets from Hida Plaza Hotel Takayama

Dinner set served at Hida Plaza Hotel Takayama Japan

Sarubobo dolls at Hida Plaza Hotel store

Hello Kitty Sarubobo at Hida Plaza Hotel Takayama

The best hotel that I stayed during my 8D tour to Japan with Avia Tour is definitely Hida Plaza Hotel Takayama. I was quite surprised actually cause I don’t really have any expectation of the hotel to be so nice. We reached the hotel around 5-ish and we are given either tatami or normal Western bedroom. Tatami bedroom does not come cheap in Japan so I was kinda excited to find out that we had been assigned the tatami room. However, the funny thing is since there are three of us, my mum, my bro and I, it seems that we have a combination of Western bed and futon bed. So they only did the futon for one person hahaha. I suppose we would have to draw a lot to decide who’s the lucky person then.

There are complimentary snacks given on the top of the tea table in front of the TV. The snacks are traditional Japanese sweets made from red bean. They taste so good and they make a good pairing to green tea. Since we still had time to spare until dinner time around 6, my mum and I just lazed around in front of the TV while my bro took a nap since he didn’t feel well. You can go to onsen too but I prefer to go to onsen a bit later because I bet before dinner is considered peak hour for onsen.

The dinner that they give to per person is a set dinner and oh boy, it includes the locally famous Hida beef. Japanese dinner set always look so pretty and it usually consists of sashimi, tofu, miso soup, meat and rice. Hida Plaza Hotel Takayama gives us both Hida beef and grilled salmon and I was pretty happy about this meal.

After dinner, we took a quick walk to the souvenir shop located near the hotel lobby and we saw so many Sarubobo dolls. Sarubobo is the mascot of Takayama and Gifu area so you will see them a lot in this area. They even sell collaboration of Hello Kitty and Sarubobo. If you are a Hello Kitty fan, you should get it here because you won’t see it so often outside this area.

While the meal is good and the bedroom is fancy, what I like the most about Hida Plaza Hotel is their onsen. They have indoor and outdoor onsen although the outdoor one is not big and you can’t really see sky full of stars. The common shower area have divider so if you are uncomfortable sitting side-by-side to stranger openly while washing your body and hair, you probably won’t feel so self-conscious here because there’s divider between you and your next-door. You don’t have to carry your toiletries to the onsen because Hida Plaza Hotel put a lot of Shiseido products such as shampoo, soap, cleanser, and moisturizer in the bathing and hairdrying area. Thankfully, my first onsen experience with my mom was quite fun here at Hida Plaza Hotel Takayama. Yeay~

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Wandering Fel

8D Avia Japan Trip: Hida beef fest at Takayama Old Town

8D Avia Japan Trip: Sake Tasting at Takayama Old Town

8D Avia Japan Trip: Hida Takayama Miyagawa Morning Market

8D Avia Japan Trip: Hida Plaza Hotel Review, Takayama