Hilma

Where Hilma would send you

1. 1 Miyagawa Morning Market Shop Sep 22
   Miyagawa Morning Market

   ★★★★ Hilma's pick

   The riverbank market that has run since the Edo period — women in aprons handing out Hida apple slices and pickled vegetables, handmade lacquer bowls, komo-dofu wrapped in straw. Go early before the tour buses arrive, and let the grandmother who pours green tea without a word be your first encounter with the town.

   Shimosannomachi, Takayama, Gifu 506-0841, Japan
2. 2 Sanmachi Suji (Old Town) Attraction Sep 22
   Sanmachi Suji (Old Town)

   ★★★★★ Hilma's pick

   Three streets of Edo-period merchant houses, alive and working — sake breweries, lacquerware shops, canals with carp swimming between the buildings. Not a theme village: people live here, brew here, age their sake here. Walk it at dusk when the lanterns come on and the tour groups have gone.

   Kamiokamotomachi, Takayama, Gifu, Japan
3. 3 Takayama Festival Yatai Kaikan Attraction Sep 22
   Takayama Festival Yatai Kaikan

   ★★★★ Hilma's pick

   Preview hall for the autumn festival floats — four of the eleven wooden carriages rotated in, covered in gold leaf and black lacquer, with the karakuri marionettes that nod and dance when pulled by hidden strings. A ten-minute visit that tells you whether you need to come back for the real thing in October.

   178 Sakuramachi, Takayama, Gifu 506-0858, Japan
4. 4 Hida Takayama Museum of Art Attraction Sep 22
   Hida Takayama Museum of Art

   ★★★ Hilma's pick

   An improbable collection of European Art Nouveau glass — Gallé, Daum, Lalique — brought to the Japanese Alps by an ophthalmologist who fell in love with Nancy glass. The contrast is everything: delicate milky vases from a French town, displayed in a building that looks out at the Hida mountains.

   1-124 Kamiokamotomachi, Takayama, Gifu 506-0055, Japan
5. 5 Hirase Sake Brewery Shop Sep 22
   Hirase Sake Brewery

   ★★★★ Hilma's pick

   Brewing since 1700 from a wooden trough built in 1782. They pour namazake at the counter — unpasteurised spring sake, cold and grassy, straight from the vat. The building still steams and ferments. Drink it standing, the way travellers have for three centuries.

   82 Kami-Ichinomachi, Takayama, Gifu 506-0844, Japan
6. 6 Hida Takayama Autumn Festival (Hachiman Matsuri) Event Sep 22
   Hida Takayama Autumn Festival (Hachiman Matsuri)

   Oct 9 – Oct 10

   ★★★★★ Hilma's pick

   The autumn festival of Hachiman Shrine, October 9–10 — eleven floats heavier than houses gliding through the old town at dawn and dusk, karakuri puppets bowing to the crowd, the city in kimono. One of Japan's three great festival floats. If you are anywhere near central Japan that weekend, this is the thing.

   178 Sakuramachi, Takayama, Gifu 506-0858, Japan
7. 7 Hida Takayama Meat Restaurant Sep 22
   Hida Takayama Meat

   ★★★★ Hilma's pick

   Yakiniku spot right in the old town, where you grill Hida beef over charcoal at your table — the marbled cut that competes with Kobe but costs half as much. Order it with hoba miso (miso and vegetables on a magnolia leaf over a burner) for the full Hida mountain experience.

   69 Kamisanno-machi, Takayama, Gifu, Japan