Takayama 2

The next destination was to be Hida Folk Village. This had been high on my list but I had thought it would be too difficult to get to.  However it turned out to be easier than i expected - just a simple bus trip and the bus stop was opposite the entrance.

En route I passed this shrine full of the little cats that I had seen earlier in the day.

There is also manhole covers along the way!

The folk village entrance. The colour looks good...

Once you have got over the impact of the village lying behind a lovely pond full of starving fish....you are faced with a few essentials of everyday life - a wooden cart and some bamboo baskets.

You could sit in the pre-arranged spot and have your photo taken as a souvenir of your visit...the picture was printed in a small wooden booth obscured by a long noren curtain.

I couldn't resist having a go at trying to capture this heron on camera.

 Wonder what it is like in Spring, full of rhodies and of course cherries if you get the timing right I suppose!

...and more colour of course!

The village was a reconstruction but many of the houses were around this area. Only one or two were referred to as coming from a long way away. The properties all looked like they had always been there. Most were illustrating the variety of skills and crafts that were carried out by the Hida people as they lived of the side of a mountain.




Many of the photos need no explanation - so I won't bother you with more words!

The sashiko was used to strengthen garments and to add warmth. I could imagine some crass American wanting to know where to get a machine that did that stuff!!

Typical clothes of the villagers - best kimono and work clothes.

Note the exceedingly sloped rooves....and just look at the detail too. The moss growing on the thatch adds a good bit of colour which would be very welcome in the winter time

Persimmon fruits - poor examples in my opinion!

A lovely old basket pram...I wonder who was transported in this!

Two measuring stones ...see below!

There was a fabulous part of the wood where there were the remains of many great trees. Lovely twisty shapes and many worn smooth in places.

Another angle of the pool followed by the wheelwright's house with it's circular style roof

This was a reconstruction of a circular rice paddy field...the sower started in the centre at the pole and worked outwards ...if I remember correctly he used  a roe  to make sure all circles were eqally distributed within the space.

Last look at the wonderfuly rich landscape before its time to get the bus back to the station.

 The large radishes growing in lines of raised land in between the paddy fields.

I opted to get of the bus before we go to the station as I still had a littl tim left before the train....not quite as much as I thought, but after putting on a spurt, I got there with 10 minutes to spare. Just as wll as there wasn't another train back to nagoya for a coupl of hours....and everywhere was about to shut for the day!

Very big cabbages!

So I made it home safe again but had to get packed and organised for the morning as it was time to move on again. So goodbye to Nagoya  - it made aen excellent base for enjoying the wider area.