Travel Checklist: Local Foods in Hida-Takayama, Part 1

Submitted to the November 2011 J. Festa “Dining in Japan,” hosted at Japingu. Part 2 is here. In September, a friend and I traveled to Takayama, about 3 hours from Kanazawa. Located in Gifu near the border of Nagano, the old towns of Hida (飛騨) and Takayama (高山)are a food tourist’s paradise. Since the town…

Apple “Hunting” in Kurouchi Orchard Fruit Park, Hida-Takayama

This article is featured in the J. Festa October 2011 edition: “Entertainment in Japan,” hosted at japingu. The second three-day weekend of “Silver Week,” the week in mid-September with both the national holidays of the Autumnal Equinox (shûbun no hi, 秋分の日) and Respect for the Aged Day (keirô no hi, 敬老の日), found me and a…