Hida Takayama

High in the Japanese Alps, Takayama was wealthy enough in the Edo period to build in fine cypress — and remote enough that almost none of it was ever torn down. The result is an old town you walk through rather than queue for: lattice-fronted merchant houses, water channels along the streets, and barely a convenience-store sign in sight. Most people give it half a day on the way to Shirakawa-go; give it two nights and it pays you back.

Walk the Sanmachi old town

The three preserved lanes of Sanmachi Suji are the heart of it — a tight grid of dark-wood merchant houses that now hold sake breweries, miso makers, coffee roasters and tiny galleries. Half a dozen breweries still operate here, and through winter and spring they take turns opening their doors for tastings.

Look above the entrances for the sugidama: a ball of cedar branches hung fresh and green when the new sake is pressed, fading slowly to brown as it matures — a living signboard for how the year's batch is coming along. A few hundred yen gets you a flight of three or four cups, and nobody rushes you out.

The riverside morning markets

Takayama runs two open-air morning markets every day from about 7am: the Miyagawa market along the river and the Jinya-mae market by the old government house. Farmers sell pickles, apples, sansai mountain vegetables and miso from folding tables, and there are hida-beef skewers and sweet mitarashi dango to eat as you wander. Cross the bright-red Nakabashi bridge over the Miyagawa for the shot everyone comes for — especially in April, when cherry blossoms frame it.

Hida no Sato and the festival floats

Fifteen minutes from the center, the open-air Hida Folk Village (Hida no Sato) gathers more than thirty steep-roofed gassho-zukuri farmhouses around a pond — the same architecture as Shirakawa-go, but without the tour-bus crowds or the entry queue. Back in town, the Festival Floats Exhibition Hall displays a rotating set of the towering yatai used in the spring and autumn festivals — some over 350 years old and rigged with working marionettes. If you can't line your trip up with one of the two festivals (mid-April and mid-October, among the finest in Japan), it's the next best thing.

Hida beef, and where to eat it

The reason locals are quietly smug is the beef. Hida-gyu is graded alongside Kobe and Matsusaka, and here it's both everywhere and relatively affordable:

• A grilled skewer from a market stall — the cheap, perfect introduction.
• Gyu nigiri — seared beef sushi served on a rice cracker, eaten standing on the street.
• Hoba-miso — beef and miso grilled on a dried magnolia leaf over a tabletop burner.

Sit down for it properly once at dinner and you'll understand the fuss.

When to go

• Spring (Apr) — cherry blossoms and the spring festival.
• Autumn (Oct) — the autumn festival and alpine colour.
• Winter (Dec–Feb) — the old town under snow is the quietest and arguably the most beautiful; pair it with the nearby Okuhida onsen.

Getting there & where to base

The Limited Express Hida runs from Nagoya in about 2h25, winding up the Hida River gorge — a beautiful ride in itself; there are also direct trains from Toyama and a few from Osaka. Base yourself two nights in or near the old town and use Takayama as a springboard for the Northern Japan Alps: the bus to the Shinhotaka Ropeway puts you under genuine 3,000-metre peaks in a little over an hour.