Today, we went to Hida No Sato (Hida Folk Village). To get to the village, you either walk 30 minutes, or catch a bus.
We caught the bus.
This is a large open-air museum. The concept is exactly like our Sarawak Cultural Village.
When you first enter this open air museum, you’ll go… wahhhh…. with the hills as the background… and a swan coming towards you (eventhough I don’t have any food to offer)… it was just beautiful. And it was great that there wasn’t any crowd at the time that we went. So taking pictures wasn’t a grumble. But then again, the harsh sun wasn’t much help, made most of my pictures over exposed 
The scene that greets you when you enter Hida No Sato
This village consists of 12 old houses, dismantled at their original sites throughout the region and rebuilt here.
Mat playing with a water gun made out of bamboo
Arai’s House
Mat looking at someone doing business
Nakayabu’s House
This is near the front door of Nakayabu’s house. Can anybody guess what is it?… it’s a toilet… for real… Don’t ask me how they shield themselves, especially if a woman were to use it.
See how they put the rocks on top of the roof? This is to prevent the roof from flying away during a storm.
Many houses are in Hida’s distinctive gassho-zukuri style. The name gassho comes from the Japanese word for ‘praying’, because the shape of the roofs was thought to resemble two hands clasped in prayer. The sharply angled roofs were designed to prevent heavy snow accumulation.
The gassho-zukuri building has become an endangered spesies. Larger gassho buildings were inhabited by wealthy families, up to 30 people under one roof. Peasant families lived in huts of the size that we now used as tool sheds.
Wakayama’s House
The Wakayama’s house was built in Shokawa Village in 1751 and moved here to become the first museum in 1959.
Gassho buildings often featured pillars crafted from stout cedar trees. The attic areas were ideal for silk cultivation.
This staircase remind you of anything? Yeah… in Cultural Village…. so who invented it first? 
Mat hard at work getting water from a well
Just a random flower shot in area
This man is making crafts, mostly slippers, from straw. This is what they use to wear in the olden days.
I just want to show you how thick the roof is:
Material that is used to make the roof
Putting Mat to hard labour again at the logger’s hut
I know I shouldn’t make fun of people’s names… but the name of this next house is pretty funny. Imagine this person going to an english speaking school…
Ohno’s House
Look who’s here… OH NO!!!
OH NO!! is coming.
OH NO!!! Watch out!!
Ok… enough of making fun of people’s names…..
Next… this bell… you “gong” it hard… then wish for something while the bell is still ringing in your ears.
Every house will have a miniature replica
This very cute oji-chan is making wooden ladles by hand!
Tools that he used
Can anyone guess what this next picture is?
It’s a Lavatory… Toilet…. pung kang…. king’s throne…
You do your no.1 and no.2 into the holes. And no, that rope is not to pull and flush the toilet. That rope is for you to pull yourself up after you do your business.
Another man showing his skills in carving:
Lastly, a picture for keepers:
We’re getting better and better taking our self portraits 
After finishing this open air museum, we walked towards the eastern section of this village. Along the way, I was just taking random photos of things that I saw, and at the same time, testing the macro of my camera … so enjoy!
Even the restaurant’s roof is made like the gassho-zukuri
There’s a Teddy Bear Eco-Village here in this village, so if you’re interested in bears, there are some 800 furry friends to enjoy. But we didn’t go in… simply…. not interested.
Then we waited for the next bus to take us back to Bandaraya Takayama.
Passed by a field of buckwheat
Even the bus driver was doing gestures. Maybe he’s trying to tell himself to go this way, or to avoid that man pushing the bicycle.
Around the city, you will see 2 characters. I have no idea what’s the story behind these two.
One, is the man with long legs:
And the other, is woman with long arms:
Mat said so the man can walk fast? Then how about the woman?
Looking for a place to eat in Japan feels abit funny. You’ll soon notice that you can’t tell whether the restaurant is open or not. From the outside, it feels so quiet, like nobody wants to eat there.
But when you enter, it’s like… whoa~… so many ppl one…
We ate at this place called Sumikyu. The people who work in this restaurant, speaks no english. Fortunately, the menu has pictures… very important!
Ordered Soba.
This set comes with “wild” vegetables.
And of course, the dessert. Ordered the dessert of the day. Ice cream made of buckwheat. Very interesting. I can’t describe it.
After a good lunch, we decided to cover the rest of Takayama. Walked to Shiroyama Park.
We have no idea who this fella is, at Ninomaru Park
On Ninomaru Park, you can get some views of Takayama. I said some, because the view was blocked with alot of trees and bushes.
On the map, a place called the Takayama Castle Ruins caught our eyes. The name sounds very historic right? So we were curious. So climbed up and up the hill, for about 30 minutes, … up and up alot of steps….. through the forest, passed by interesting fountain names like cloud water etc….
… and up and up more steps…
And voila….
… only to realize, it was such an anticlimax, for Mathias.
Ahem…. excuse me…. where’s the castle ruins. Don’t see any castle ruins.
Picture below is what USED to be the castle. But now… just a plain plain…. to comtemplate…. that you’ve climbed all the way up…. to see a plain….
Noticed that I only said it was an anti-climax for Mat? Because that wasn’t my anti-climax.
My anticlimax wasn’t only because there’s not castle ruins left….
I suddenly have to do NO.2!!!!!!!
AAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Taking 30 minutes to climb up to the top, I think I only took like 5 minutes to run down like a mad woman to the nearest toilet….. shi fu sai….
Ya… it really sound as dramatic as it happened. Imagine the horror~!… ok… don’t need to imagine.
Next stop…. I wanted to go to this confectionery shop, Bunrindo, to buy some “Rakugan” back to Oz.
“The crispy crunch and deep aroma of Barley Rakugan and the full flavoured aromatic Sesame Rakugan with a hint of salt are both very popular items. Rakugan lasts a long time making it a perfect gift for travelers that live a long way away.”
After reading that, of course very tempting to buy the biscuits back right?
Looked for this shop half dead, cause the map isn’t very clear.
Was soooo excited…. took a sample to try….We both looked at each other at the same time … gave the same facial expression (this is hillarious recalling this)…
(duck face) …..’ ‘ ‘ (3 lines on the forehead)…. *doink* (sound effect for extra dramafication)…
Tasted exactly like the biscuits we have back home in Kuching. The white flat disc shaped size-of-a-plate biscuit. I think the name is Bai Gao (white cake). It felt funny to be buying this familiar tasting biscuit all the way from Japan, where as I can get it cheaply from Kuching. One box of this costs around AUD10… that’s like RM30… where as I can get it for RM5 in Kuching.
Disappointed with another anti climax… we treated ourselves to some afternoon tea. I had green tea ice cream, and Mat had coffee green tea ice cream float.
Hida beef sausage roll:
With lots of time to spare for the afternoon, we had nothing else to do, we decided to walk the whole of Takayama (crazy right?). Actually we could have gone to another place which was planned in our itinerary, but because of time mismanagement, we decided not to go.
So we walked to the other part of town, where there were no tourist attractions. These are the photos I took along the way.
Went to a random restaurant for dinner. And had Yakisoba.
I didn’t really like it, because it doesn’t really taste like chow mien…it’s ok lah… but Mat lovesssss it. It tastes like the noodles in his favourite bun… so he was sort of in heaven.
The gyoza is good.
A very empty road at 8.30pm.
And of course… a visit to the convenience store.
This is what a typical convenience store will sell, especially the food section. If you don’t know what to eat, or you’re on a tight budget, the convenience store has a lot to offer. They can even heat up the food for you if you don’t have a microwave at home.
Mat looking for his yakisoba roll
Mat loves the alcohol free beers.
That’s all for today folks.
Oyasumi.
ahhh, so wonderful to see all these lovely photos and to read your vivid accounts.
had a good laugh when u mentioned having to do a no. 2, hahahah.
Imagine the horror that was running through my head!
eh this museum reminded me of the sarawak museum u took us to visit last time! those green tea ice cream sgt laaaaaa delicious looking…
i gave ur blog to my frens who wanna visit japan d hahahaha
Yah… kan…. really reminded me of the Sarawak Cultural Village as well… like the staircase… but I think SCV more interactive.
yeah, i had that kind of torture before … the no. 2 factor, i mean. never want to go through that again.