Takayama

Travel Advice for Seniors: Takayama

The beautiful city of Takayama is home to plenty of interesting sights as well as the beauty of its historic neighborhoods in dark wood. The narrow streets of its historic district around  Sanmachi Street, are lined with wooden merchants’ houses dating to the Edo Period. It’s easy to picture a shogun and his entourage coming out of any of these buildings. It’s a page out of history.

The city is also well known for its Takayama Festival, going back to the mid-1600s, which celebrates spring and fall with parades featuring ornate floats and puppet shows. There was a museum dedicated to the exhibition floats which we toured for a sampling of the festivities.

We started the day at the Farmers Miyagawa Morning Market. It is located along a river and features many local tradespeople and of course vegetable and fruit  markets, etc. A very enjoyable way to start the day. We did buy a few things and found the prices to be reasonable, though we did haggle a bit as one should in any market! Market appears to be accessible.

Later in the day we toured the National Historic site of Takayama Jin’ya governmental offices, also from the Edo period of the Tokugawa shogunate from 1692 to 1871. Technically called a Daikansho, the offices were administrative bases used by the Tokugawa shogunate to govern territories under their control. It was an interesting walk through with much history. Allow a hour or two to appreciate.

As sidenote, Takayama is considered one of the top Sake producing areas in the country.

There are many Sake breweries here and several in our small group tour had a sampling. The well-known Hirase Sake Brewery here is over 400 years old. Sake is a type of rice wine made in Japan, which is definitely an acquired taste. Another more palatable type of liquor is Sakura, a type of cherry wine, very popular during Cherry blossom season, which is when we were traveling in Japan.

Where we stayed: Ouan Takayama Ryokan. Breakfast and lunch included. Very nice accommodation.The Ryokan has accessible parking, entrance and elevator. Accessible rooms should be available but check.

How we got there: Express Train from Hakone.This was part of a three-week small group tour through Japan, starting in Toyko, traveling south to Hiroshima and then back to the north island and ending in a loop back in Tokyo.

General Accessibility Information: See notes above. Japan is pretty accessible. Major attractions have accessibility features and most new buildings and hotels are accessible. Much transportation is also accessible. See Accessible Japan for specifics. Call in advance to verify and make specialty arrangements.See our sections on specialty apps and accessible travel for more on accessibility assistance.