Stacy: Day 11 - An Introduction to Hida Beef
After our whirlwind tour of Kyoto (of which I enjoyed every minute), we moved on to Phase 1a of the trip. This involves changing hotels every 2 nights as we move though the Japanese Alps.
First destination: Takayama!
Takayama is simply our home base for tomorrow's day trip to my must-do item: Shirakawa-go. More on that tomorrow!
For now, this is how the day started... Normal, at first, really. We woke up, had a decent breakfast at our hotel's buffet (not as good as Osaka's, however), grabbed a taxi right outside our hotel, and met up with Kristen and Aaron at Kyoto Station.
We got on our first train (the shinkansen!) without much difficulty. It was a neat experience, and was an uneventful ride.
But, what we did not realize about having the Japan Rail ticketing computer calculate your route--they really do NOT leave much time in between your trains!
So, if you have NO IDEA where you're going in a foreign train station, 10 minutes really isn't much time to get from one end (the JR shinkansen station for the bullet train) to the other (a regular metro station, usually connected underground)........ Next time, I'll have to do each leg separately, giving us at least 20 minutes in between.
We booked it to the other end of the station, shoving tickets into machines, and grabbing at them as we rushed through the gates. It's really all a blur at this point, but I know I'm waaaaay too weak in the arms to carry a suitcase up 30+ stairs by myself. Heck, I had to lug it up 3 floors on the Camino, when we had to stay in a "pension" (our own room in a hostel), and I wasn't rushed then--only physically exhausted from walking 10klicks.
But, back to Japan: we made it to our connection! By the skin of our teeth.
Only to find out that the train was delayed (8 minutes?) because a connecting train had been delayed.
Goodness gracious me. But, shouganai ("it can't be helped;" or "it is what it is").
We were on the correct train, headed to our next destination, and all was well.
The countryside on the way to Takayama, with hills slowly growing into mountains.
Takayama is a very small town. Here, we're standing right outside the train and bus stations, looking down the main street that leads to the old town.
We all were quite hungry, but first we needed to put all of our luggage into coin lockers!
Explanation on why we could not have our hotel hold our luggage until check-in time: we did not have a hotel for Takayama, but a ryokan. Hotels will usually hold your luggage until check-in. The ryokan would no open its doors until 3pm, period.
A ryokan is a traditional Japanese inn. They have tatami mats, futons, communal bathrooms, and usually onsen [hot spring baths, or at the very least large, heated baths]. Traditional ryokan will also serve you traditional Japanese breakfast. I do not know if our ryokan did not offer breakfast, or if we simply did not sign up for it. Either way, we had to find our own food for 2 mornings.
Back to coin lockers: I had done research for this, and it absolutely failed me. Online, months ago, I had found a luggage transfer service company that said they had a location INSIDE the station that would hold your luggage (for a fee). Since they said they were inside the station, I did not take down the company's name, contact information, or anything else.
We arrive, and well, we couldn't find it. The station is not very big. They have maybe 2 tracks, and nothing is inside the gates. Outside the gates, there's a konbini, manned ticket office, escalators, and an elevator.
On the ground floor, Aaron found some coin lockers attached to the train station, but all the larger sizes [that fit suitcases] were full.
I was trying not to panic because of low blood sugar and energy. By pure luck, we found more coin lockers near the adjacent bus station, and there were enough large ones for our needs! WHEW!
On to lunch! It was at the restaurant of a sake brewery, Funasaka Sake Brewery "Aji no YOHEI"! And, we had to cook our own food... BUT, it was relatively safe for me to eat, even if they told me there was nothing I could eat, after looking at my card (which stated, "I can't have wheat, rye, or barley. Can you help me find something on your menu that I can eat?"). I knew the meat and raw veggie would be fine, so we stayed put at the table.
It was delicious!!!
So, everyone has heard of Kobe beef. However, a quite delicious beef-that goes mostly unmentioned-is Hida beef. This meal consisted solely of Hida beef, which is local to this area. Also included were various raw vegetables, miso soup, and a salad. Miso often contains gluten, and the salad had too much sesame on it, so I didn't eat either.
This meat was a superb cut--it wasn't too fatty, was extremely tender, and had such a wonderful flavor that it did not need any seasonings other than salt!
And, Nando ordered a yuzu liquor with his dinner that turned out to be mind-blowingly delicious. We bought a bottle to bring home with us. I hope they ship internationally...! :D
After lunch, we walked around the brewery until our check-in time. We grabbed our bags, and made our way to our ryokan. It was a 17 minute walk, with sidewalk ramps that made it extremely difficult to roll a suitcase. We'll be calling a taxi when we leave, for sure!!!
And, even though we weren't hungry, yet, we had dinner reservations for 5pm (their request when we asked for 6pm) at Heianraku [which has Gluten Free chinese food, safe for Celiacs.
My experience at Heianraku was absolutely amazing. Anyone who wanted to order glutenous food could, but separate pans and oils were used for my gluten free foods [Nando and I shared a 2-person meal].
This meal was so delicious, I only took photos of a few items. It had at least 5 courses... We were the only customers in the restaurant (by design, I believe). I will gladly eat there if I ever visit Takayama again! The owners were so very pleasant, and spoke excellent English. The husband is the chef, and is a chemist; the wife is a nutritionist. While they are Japanese, for some reason they decided to open a Chinese food restaurant. It's definitely not your typical American-Chinese food! Nor is it the "authentic menu items" Chinese food you'd find in American restaurants. Maybe it's their Japanese flair coming through. I don't know. All I know is that it was absolutely fantastic, and I had some fried rice left over for breakfast tomorrow.
Since finding spontaneous food over the next 6 days will be virtually impossible, I'll take the guaranteed breakfast!
