Takayama

Takayama

We cannot really recall how many days we've been in Takayama. 4? 3? We've been to 3 great restaurants, taken 1 long walk, had 2 picnics, WM has eaten 3 beef buns, we've purchased 5 sarabobo dolls, and had 2 all-family fights. And made up 2 times. And did laundry. And gotten used to eating pickled plums.

Takayama really seems to us pretty much like Bellingham, WA where my sister, brother-in-law and nephew live. But with a whole different essential style--wooden streets that are 400 years old and amazingly well preserved. It's a really chill little town with a lot of older people, a cute but small downtown area, lots of craft beer and sake pubs, coffee shops and odd little stores.

It's surrounded by mountains and on clear days they are startling and alpine. There's a coffee shop called The Courier with about 8 seats, where the very relaxed owner gives hiking and climbing advice and sells 2nd hand fleece garments and pour-over coffee. He also actually is a courier, and so he has a suitcase full of coins and odd bills from different countries that he uses as decoration.

Also, there are industrial parts of town but when you walk a few blocks out of them you are in parks with small waterfalls and huge cedar trees. I will say that Bellingham has Takayama beat on the parks, but Takayama is winning in the Japanese Public Baths category. The Sento.

And our AirBB is connected to a Sento, run by the same owner. And . . . entrance into it is included in the rental!! This is such a deal, particularly in the Winter. (In Takayama it is Winter, although in Kyoto it was Spring. This is a little sad because there are huge trees that must be gorgeous in blossom and leaf that we are just seeing in bare bark.) But--the baths! You walk in, are handed soap and shampoo, go to the men's or women's side, wash completely on a little plastic stool with a plastic bowl at a row of spray faucets, and then relax in the super hot water. Repeat!

Pretty much like the Paradise Sauna on Montrose back in the day, but much smaller. The elderly Japanese ladies there are very welcoming and extremely clean. They are washing when we arrive, and are still washing when WM and I leave. We feel like we are doing a lame job cleaning, but we are not sure what else to do. The amazing Sento one door down makes up (almost) for the fact that there is no toilet in the apartment, you have to walk through the garage in a kind of outhouse situation. So--there's that.

But, today it's quite cold and we were freezing walking to the laundromat and back. But before we could have full-family fight 3, we all just walked into the Sento, and now an hour later we are cooking dinner (Dave) and listening to David Bowie (WM), and finding sweaters to keep out a returning chill, and hanging out in the little room where we sleep and roll around on the floor. If Leo was here, it would be just like Bellingham for real.

- Jessica