NHK travel featured an episode about this lovely small ‘water’ town in Gifu prefecture. The journey to Gujo-hachiman was something that I’ve always wanted to try – hopping on to a small local train that passes by mountains and rivers to the countryside.
At the end of the year 2017, I flew to Osaka and hung there for a day or two before continuing my trip to Nagoya. Since my destinations were kind of planned, knowing I’ll be in Osaka, Nagoya, Tokyo and Kanazawa, I’ve decided to go for a side trip from Nagoya. Where else better to explore for day trips out of Nagoya? Gifu prefecture.
We took a normal shinkansen from Nagoya to Gifu in about 30 – 40 minutes. It was a normal day trip just hanging around Gifu city which was peaceful and quiet. There weren’t that many tourists in Gifu city at that time either, hence it was a little bit of a retreat because Nagoya was just so crowded most of the time.
From the train station, we walked quite a fair bit to Gifu Park (Gifu Koen). Along the way, you get to see the Gifu Castle from afar, situated magnificently at the top of the mountain. Gifu Koen was well-maintained (as like every place in Japan) with a small fountain in the middle. There are quite some places within the park that we did not walk into. Walking around the park, you get to see the view of the three storied pagoda standing among the trees on a mountainside.
From the park, walking a little further down across the bridge brings us to the Japan and China Friendship Garden, perfect when it’s spring for sure. Sadly, we were there in winter, so the trees were pretty bare. Walking down further passing by some residential houses brings us to the Nagara River. At the bank of the river, there were two teams of locals building boats for festivals.
This was pretty much all we did in Gifu city. We did not take a cable car up to Gifu castle and just took a leisure walk through the town. After the long walk from the train to the city, we decided to take a bus back to the train station instead which was a short ride. We had to board the bus from the back, take a ticket stub and pay along with the stub when we got down at the front of the bus. We had our tea-break at the train station and moved on to the next destination.
GUJO-HACHIMAN
This is by far one of my favorite places in Japan till date. The journey from Gifu city to Mino-Ota and from Mino-Ota to Gujo-Hachiman proved to be one of the most refreshing trips ever.
Going solo, from Nagoya, I took a normal shinkansen to Gifu and from Gifu, took a local train to Mino-Ota. The local train is really interesting because it’s similar to a bus, only about 2 cabins. I got to catch glimpses of how the locals travel in their daily life. The local train stops at stations similar to bus-stops where students will hop on the train and alight a few stops later for their home. Upon reaching Mino-Ota station, I went to a different platform to catch the Nagaragawa Railway to Gujo-Hachiman. You can buy a ticket at the ticketing booth where there’s a machine or staff there selling tickets.
The Nagaragawa Railway is also another really interesting train and route because it only has one cabin that goes between fields and along the mountains. Occasionally, it stops in the middle of nowhere where locals hop on or alight the train. I was the only tourist on the train. The rest of the passengers were mostly local students at that time. The trip took 80 minutes and never once was I asleep because I was mesmerized by the view along the way. It was a scenic view of mountains, rivers, fields and pastures. Even though it was early winter, the view was still amazing with some remaining autumn foliage of trees on mountains.
The travelling took quite a while and I reached Gujo-Hachiman at around 3 – 4pm. Since it was winter, it got dark quite early and I was rushing against time but taking a bus seemed to be a little confusing as I have no destination in mind and did not really understand much Japanese. Hence, I’ve decided to walk to town after getting a tourist map from the station. I was a little hungry and the first thing that I saw was Yoshinoya. Went in and got myself an energy bowl (pork belly with raw eggs on rice). At the Yoshinoya in Gujo-Hachiman, you order and eat your meal first before proceeding to the counter for payment.
After my quick meal, I walked towards town. The map wasn’t exactly helpful and when I saw the split road, I just followed instinct and randomly walked into one. It was a humanly quiet journey as I did not meet anyone along the way. However, I can hear the sound of water everywhere I go. This was quite interesting because the water never stops flowing. Everywhere you go and at every time, you hear the sound of water. This makes me wonder how living here as a local will be, listening to the sound of water even as you sleep. It might be quite therapeutic actually.
Walking around, you see canals around and the water streaming down. Everywhere, the water is clean, and you see fishes swimming in it too! After a while, somehow I made it to the town and walked into the tourist information. It was getting dark and it gets even more quiet. I didn’t go to the Hachiman castle or shrine, but mainly hang around in town, looking at the olden streets and admiring the architecture as well as walking past the Sogi Sui Shrine to see the source of water.
At 6pm, the place town became dark. Shops are closing and seems to be time to get moving. I had a little bit of a hard time navigating my way back to the train station because the place was dark and occasionally needed help from the light on my phone. I had to ask for direction from a brightly lighted hardware store I came across. The employee kindly directed me to the train station and I made my way there. At that time, everything seemed to be closed and I got a little anxious because I thought I might have missed my last train.
The train staff behind the small counter was on the phone and ready to close up. I asked him about the train and because of the language barrier, he got out of the counter and kindly explained to me while pointing on the board that there are trains that are still operating but will only arrive here in an hour. I asked how I should buy the train ticket and he mentioned that I can pay on the train. If I were to arrive at the station a bit later, I would have missed the staff and thought the train station is closed. Phew.
In 10 minutes, I was the only person left in the train station, waiting for the train anxiously. It was insanely cold but occasionally, people alight from the incoming train and walk in to the station and close the door manually. 20 minutes before the train arrived, a bunch of middle or high school boys alighted from a train and they were hanging around in the train station. The train finally arrived, and I hopped on the train, anxiety gone. The trip back seemed a bit faster and I was surprised to see people like students hopping on the train to town. Well, to be fair, it’s probably only 8pm but I wasn’t too used to countryside darkness, so it was a little daunting for me. Upon reaching Mino-Ota, I just need to go to the front of the train and pay the train conductor before getting down.
I know this doesn’t help much as a travel guide, but I strongly encourage everyone who’s reading this to make a trip to Gujo-Hachiman if you need to break away from the crowd and your hectic life by travelling to the peaceful town and listen to the soothing sound of water. Something different from the mainstream tourist attraction place and city life. A healing getaway.
TAKAYAMA
I’ve always wanted to visit Takayama because of the historic district. I love Japan’s old town and when you search for it, Takayama is always recommended. I didn’t know that Takayama was in Gifu prefecture until I wrote this post and did a little research. Hence, this is also the reason why I didn’t travel to Takayama from Nagoya but rather, travelled to Takayama from Kanazawa.
I did a day trip from Kanazawa to Takayama and of course did some research and found out that most people did an in between stop-over to the famous Shirakawago in winter. I thought since I’m there and it’s winter, why not? I have this thing against buying things online especially tickets because I don’t like to be bound by it. I like to travel free and decide where to go the night before. Knowing that if I’m going to two places and fighting for daylight, I need to leave early. I woke up at 6+ am just for this and took a bus from the hostel to Kanazawa station for a hot bowl of soba for breakfast before going to the bus station to purchase a ticket.
Of course, things don’t usually go as planned, especially if it’s a last minute one. Bus tickets to Shirakawago were sold out. I was a little disappointed but wasn’t too surprised because I’ve been told before that this is a popular trip. Then again, this means there will be lots of tourists there. Pass. Just kidding, I would love to visit another time if I have the chance. So, instead of the original plan of taking a bus to Shirakawago and catching a bus from Shirakawago to Takayama, I took a train to Toyama and changed to the Hida train to Takayama. The trip was quite a nice one, looking at snowy mountains and snowy fields. It wasn’t as quiet as Gujo-Hachiman, because Takayama seemed to be a touristy place and Kanazawa-Takayama route was surprisingly a popular one.
I bought a JR pass just for this trip, but it did not cover all the way to Takayama. Quite a number of tourists had that problem. That’s the problem and confusion about JR passes. But on the bright side, Japan is a lovely country that doesn’t fine you if you don’t pay the right amount. You just have to adjust your fare when you arrive at your destination.
Everywhere I go in Takayama, I bumped into tourists. It’s not a bad thing because you just need to follow the crowd and you’ll never get lost. The downside is that taking nice photo shots of places you want will be a problem. One Piece’s Luffy welcomed me to Takayama. I love how Japan uses anime characters in everyday life to make it less boring. I randomly walked around the town as usual and came across a temple. It was snowing, and the ground was filled with snow. Walking past houses and stores, you see owners shoveling snow as well. I was too hungry and went into one of the stores in the touristy old town place for a bowl of noodles. It didn’t leave much impression but was good enough to ease my hunger. I continued on and bumped into this nice little place for some desserts. Caramel custard and matcha? What a weird combination of east and west.
Old town was just way too crowded, and it started snowing heavily that I couldn’t take a decent photo. Nonetheless, it was quite a nice place to do window shopping. I came across some interesting stores e.g. Shoyu store, craft store and sake store.
Well, this is not the end of my Takayama trip. In 2017, I’m still crazy about the movie Kimi No Na Wa (Your Name), though it was aired a year before. There were landmark references that were used in the move and as a fan, I would love to visit and see these places. Two of these references were around the area. One is the train tracks at Hida-Furukawa station and another is the Hida-Sannogu Hie Shrine in Takayama.
Most tourists are more interested in the touristy parts of the town, and I left the middle of action looking for Hie Shrine. It proved to be a tedious footwork because it was snowing, cold and I don’t follow maps that well. I reached this place and thought Hie Shrine might be located on top of the steps/hill and decided to climb that. It was painful because the steps were uneven, steep and slippery. Climbing to half the top got me thinking how the locals do it. Reaching to a temple looking place, I stopped and realized that this might not be the right place. Nonetheless, no regrets because the view I saw was amazing.
I took a quick break and went back down and continued walking further (looking at the map) and gauging the entrance to the Hie shrine. It was my lifetime worth of exercise in this Japan trip, all the mountain climbing, no matter how short they are. Anyway, another 15 mins walk, I’ve arrived at my destination. Walking up to Hie Shrine alone with the falling snow. Snow was falling down randomly from the trees and I tried not to get hit by it. I took a video of the journey walking up, the revealing moment. The time has finally come and TA-DA! Hie Shrine. Of course, it doesn’t look orange like the anime because it’s covered in snow.
It was nothing much, but as an otaku or fan of something, this means a lot. I hanged there for a while and only encountered 3 people. After exploring the shrine a little, I walked down the long flight of stairs down to the bottom of the mountain. Who knew there was an easier way to access the shrine. Nevertheless, it was quite the experience. Time to leave Takayama since I’ve already seen the places that I need. This becomes a problem. I was thinking of walking back to the train station, but it seemed like I walked too far in and it was too cold to walk all the way back.
Halfway through, I realized that I got further away from town and was at the residential and school area. Having frostbites (which I didn’t know I was suffering from back then), I came across a bus stop where a few locals were waiting for a bus and decided to join them. Confused as hell if that bus was to the train station, I decided to trust my instinct and waited at the bus station. True enough, the bus was heading to the train station and all went well. Until I got anxious which stopped alight. I probably alighted one stop before or at the right stop, but saw some people dragging luggage and walking to one direction. Following them, I’ve reached my destination.
As I mentioned earlier, the JR pass I have does not cover Kanazawa. A staff member told me and another guy with the same problem that we will have to buy a train ticket to Inotani station to change for the train to Toyama and Kanazawa. There we go, taking a train to Inotani station, a station deep in the mountains. It was dark and cold, and we were figuring out which side to hop on the train. Well, we were not alone at the very least because there were other tourists just like us. Not long later, the train arrived, and I boarded and continued to Toyama. Similarly, like Gujo-Hachiman, we paid the train conductor before alighting at our station.
Even though it is quite a touristy place, Takayama is definitely worth going. I feel that if you are travelling around Japan, you wouldn’t want to miss Takayama. The historic town is something that you should see (though I know there are many other places with similar feel that’s not touristy). However, if you are against or not too keen to visit touristy places, you should give this a miss, or go some other time besides winter. Most people visit there in winter because many went to Shirakawago and this was part of the route. It’s also famous for their hot springs. Autumn might be a nice time to go! Nonetheless, no regrets.
GIFU SUMMARY
I always feel that Gifu prefecture is underrated as it is not as popular as the main cities like Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. It is a beautiful prefecture with lots of historical flavours in different parts of the cities that one should take time to slowly uncover the beauty of Gifu.
If you have already tried the typical Tokyo – Kyoto – Osaka route which I did as a first timer in Japan, it’s time to explore out of these places. Why not try Gifu prefecture? It’s not too far from the main cities too. I know you’ll love Gifu as much as I do.
Monochronos 