Tahara City Beaches

On Sunday we went to two of the Beaches in Tahara city, just a bit over an hour away from my apartment. We used the Tahara sightseeing guide for basic information, unfortunately the phone number on the website directed us to city hall and not the beaches, but English signs were frequent and made it easy to navigate.
We started at the Pacific Long Beachand then drove up to the Katahama coastline beach. I am amazed that such a beautiful place is so close to my apartment.(Navi Phone Number 0531-23-3516 to city hall)

Takayama

Saturday morning my Mom and I traveled to Takayama city for a quick tour of the most popular attractions.

We started at the Takayama morning markets which have stands selling a mix of food, flowers, and random Japanese items. (Navi Phone number for parking 0577-35-5540 or 0577-33-4713) The stand in the photo below was selling rice paper inflatables in the shape of animals, globes, etc. I purchased some mushrooms that I plan to use in veggie sandwiches and Japanese omelets and some spice blends for topping rice.
Next we moved on to Hida Folk Village an outdoor museum with thatched roof houses mostly from the 18th and 19th century. (Navi Phone Number 0577-33-4714 or 0577-34-4711) The houses are similar to those I was able to see last Summer in Shirakawago, but the smell from the fires burning inside the buildings which don't have chimneys was much stronger than I remember. In some of the buildings it was so strong I couldn't even convince myself it was worth entering because my eyes would start watering from the smoke at the door.Out final stop of the afternoon was Donosora Ruins, 8000 year old remnants of a settlement. Unfortunately the information was all in Japanese so to me it was nothing more than circles of rocks in the grass.

Tejikara Fire Festival

While in Gifu last Saturday I decided that it made sense to visit the Tejikara Fire Festival, logistically it sounded correct, but in reality our route was a triangle.This festival was loud!! Neither M nor I had any desire to get as close as would have been required to get any photos. I found the photo below here. We ended up spending most of our time walking away from the fireworks through the food stalls making a dinner out of it.

Tajimi Pottery Festival

Last Saturday after visiting Eohio-ji Temple we moved on to the Tajimi Pottery Festival. It was strikingly similar to the Seto pottery festival that I attended last Fall. I wasn't in the market for any pottery but the prices were so good that ended up buying some small flower shaped dishes and miniature cake stand.

Yoshino

I've only got one season to see cherry blossoms so I absolutely had to visit the top location in Japan for flower viewing, Mt Yoshino. Lucky for me it's within a few hours, by car, of Nagoya. The trees were nice, but the view and atmosphere would have been great even without them.

Okkawa Float Festival

Last Saturday was the Okkawa Float Festival, which came recommended by the Nagoya International Center. When we arrived the floats were parked.
The floats were impressive from far away, but more impressive closeup because of the details.
After the floats had safely maneuvered the dangerous hilly stretches of the route lots of locals joined in to help pull the floats, but it was evident that the real work was being done by the professionals at the back.

Asahi Brewery Nagoya Tour

Last Saturday after visiting the Tokugawa museum M and I moved on to the Asahi Nagoya Brewery. The brewery is located near the JR Chuo line near the Shin Moriyama station which is a much more industrial area than I am accustomed to seeing in Nagoya. As soon as we exited the station I was happy to see a billboard with a walking route directing us to the brewery. M and I were the only people in our tour which was conducted in English! The brewery itself didn't look too much different from the breweries that I have toured at home. The most interesting part was the area where they explained how all of the brewing bi-products are reused, for example the grains the remain after brewing are fed to livestock and plastic bottles are recycled to make the uniforms worn by the tour guides.Not surprisingly the highlight of the tour was the free samples, we tasted the Asahi Super Dry and the Asahi Black. The taps in the tasting room included two spouts one for getting the beer into the glass and the other for topping it off with foam. There were signs (like the one above) throughout the room explaining how to recreate this pour at home.

Nabano No Sato

Before Winter Vacation I got a recommendation from Y, the fabulous HR women in charge of the ICT program, to visit Nabano No Sato this winter but didn't get around to it until this past weekend when I also received a second recommendation from A. Nabano No Sato is a park in Mei prefecture about 35km from my apartment. From December through March 8th the park is illuminated and from early March it is filled with flowering spring trees. Having waited until last weekend to go ended up working out perfect. It wasn't cold and the light display and flowering trees are happening simultaneously. I think that many people had the same idea because it felt crowded.The scene by day.The same scene at nightThis light tunnel was attracting the largest crowds, the line wrapped nearly 1/2 way even before dusk.
This light swirl runs through a pond and is choreographed to music at intervals throughout the night.

Inuyama Castle

Yesterday M and I went to Inuyama Castle, which is located about 40 minutes from my apartment by car. The approach to the castle was along a river lined with cherry trees which are expected to be in full bloom sometime mid next month.

Inuyama Castle was smaller than any of the castles that I have visited, but given its status as, arguably, the oldest castle in Japan and a National Treasure the small size was easy to overlook.
On our way back to the car we wandered through a shrine and spotted a few trees already in bloom.