Escape from Tokyo

I think that I can say that Camille's stay here in Japan was amazing for both of us. Although we had a lot of fun in Tokyo, (particularly because when she was here we did a lot of exploring and fun things that I just don't do when I'm alone), one of the true highlights of our winter vacation was our trip to Takayama. That place is quite special. As you ride the shinkansen and see less and less of Tokyo, it really feels like an escape. The landscape looks uncannily like that of France or Germany, with cute clusters of houses dotting the hills and valleys of the non-urban. Then, the clusters get much bigger and they move closer to the train as we begin to touch the border of Nagoya. From Nagoya, we took a small local train which went much slower and MUCH higher in the mountains. The green-blue rivers that greeted our choo-choo from below as we reached about halfway were probably my favorite site. They prepared us for a place that could not have been farther from Tokyo.
Takayama itself has a real train station and a very West Lafayette-like downtown. But if you walk towards the river, about 15 minutes into the city, the buildings get much smaller and older, the tourists jaunter at a slower pace, and the music (of good old Christmas classics) envelopes entire boulevards. The alley closest (and parallel) to the river also held the entrance to the Sumiyoshi Ryokan where Camille and I stayed for our entire time in Takayama. The photos should speak volumes about the charm and traditional-ness of this guesthouse. I think that we both appreciated the view from our room and the shared ofuro or constant hot-bath downstairs that we visited nightly. On the 3 nights that we ate in our room at the ryokan, we were content and stuffed with traditional Japanese dishes. Luckily we were eating on a kotatsu, a table covered by a blanket (under which an electric heater circulates warm air) which is covered with another table. This meant that we were very warm and seated on the floor, not far from our futons on the floor nearby. On the days that we managed to move away from the kotatsu, we toured an early 16th-century mercant house, the administrative mansion (one of the few left in Japan), a collection of 19th century farmhomes, many local restaurants (including authentic French, Italian, and Mexican), and the fine art museum. We also took a day trip up into the mountains to soak in natural hot springs or onsen and another to Shirakawa-go, an enchanting village whose designation as a UNESCO world heritage site is well-deserved.
It was hard to come back to Tokyo, but that little taste of the Japan's heartland eased our re-urbanization. I had been telling many of my foreign friends that Japan is NOT like Tokyo. But I'd forgotten just how much more impressive and welcoming the true Japan could be. Now that I've remembered, Tokyo seems much more bearable. I may even be beginning to like it here...