Takayama

Where to shoot

• Sanmachi Suji — three lanes of Edo-period merchant houses and sake breweries marked by hanging cedar balls.
• Miyagawa Morning Market — a daily riverside market of pickles, miso, mountain vegetables and crafts that winds down by noon.
• Takayama Jinya — the last surviving shogunate regional government office in Japan, in use from 1692 to 1868.
• Hida Folk Village — an open-air museum of thatched gassho-zukuri farmhouses set around a pond on the western hills.
• Sanmachi Suji — a beautifully preserved district of Edo-period wooden houses and sake breweries, quietest in the early morning.
• Miyagawa Morning Market — a riverside market of produce, crafts and snacks set against the old townscape.
• Shirakawa-go — a nearby UNESCO village of thatched gassho-zukuri farmhouses, dramatic when blanketed in snow.
• Higashiyama Walking Course — a temple-lined hillside path on the town's edge offering elevated views over the rooftops.

When to go

Mid-October brings the Hachiman Matsuri (October 9-10) and the start of autumn color, and April has the Sanno Matsuri (April 14-15); outside festival dates, aim for the old town before 9am, when the lanes are empty and the markets are just setting up.

What to eat

Eat Hida beef grilled on a hoba magnolia leaf with miso (hoba miso), a bowl of Takayama ramen in its thin soy broth with curly noodles, and mitarashi dango, which here are glazed with plain soy sauce rather than the sweet syrup used elsewhere in Japan.

Where to stay

Stay between JR Takayama Station and the Miyagawa River, ideally in a ryokan near Sanmachi, so the morning markets and the empty old-town lanes are a five-minute walk away at 7am.