There are many choices of snacks and a few noodle places for lunch during the day. When it comes to dinner, particularly during the peak season when there are a lot of tourists staying in Takayama to go to Shirakawa-go, dinner is really challenging. First, there are not that many restaurants to begin with. Second, the good ones are often fully-booked by the locals who would call. There was a night I came back from Shirakawa-go after the illumination, the only place to get food is the Family Mart by the train station where it was packed with tourists buying food. Anyhow, I was able to find this restaurant at around 6:30pm the second night I stayed in Takayama. I remember that I see introduction somewhere so I gave it a try.

While most of the Japanese cities start the day early, some older towns open late and their business hours are short, till 6pm. I think that’s how they lead a healthy and long-living life. On a fine Sunday morning, I took a short walk in the old town of Hida-Takayama. Most of the shops were still closed till at around 9am. It looked the same everywhere: old wooden traditional Japanese houses, not that many people on the street, no cars. Surprisingly, there was no restaurants nor shops signs. It looked quite different from my last visit.