After Nagoya, I wanted to visit something even less known, even less touristy. So I looked at the map… and saw that a railway foes from Nagoya to Toyama. What if, I just picked some random cities/villages to visit in this valley. I opened booking, and saw that there were almost no cheap options outside the big cities. But there was one accommodation in Hida-Kanayama. I have never heard of this city before but I thought it would be really cool to visit an unknown town in the Hida region. And I have to say, it was a good choice!
I woke up, grabbed a quick snack and then headed towards the train station. There was no direct train to my destination, so I first headed towards Unuma – norther part of Nagoya. As I arrived at the transfer station I got hungry. And since I missed the connecting train, I had an hour to kill. Again, I opened Google Maps and… there were almost no restaurants. Still, I clicked the “Open now” filter and there was only one restaurant left. Not much of a choice, but it had a good rating so I headed towards the Korean restaurant. It was just 5 minutes away and it was raining outside. The entrance to the restaurant was not very obvious – it looked like an apartment with a not so obvious sign next to it. But my basic knowledge of Japanese confirmed that this was indeed the right place. I entered, and it felt almost like I entered someone’s home – a small kitchen, a counter and two tables. Pictures everywhere on the walls. It had that old Asian home vibe. And was a single person – an old grandma running the shop all alone.
She greeted me and told me I can sit at the counter. As per usual, she did not speak a word of Japanese. Even so, we conversed a little bit since I was the only customer inside the store. As per her recommendation, I ordered a bibimbap in a hot stone bowl. The dish came out sizzling from the heat of the stone bowl. I have never had this kind of bibimbap before so I let her show me how the dish is eaten. The weather outside was getting worse and worse though. It was raining really heavily. After I told here where I am going she got a little bit worried about me getting there safe. She even offered me a bigger umbrella to take with me (for free!). She was just really hospitable overall. And the food was also really good. All of the vegetables were grown in her garden – when I arrived she was just cleaning some of them. And it tasted like proper Korean home cooking. I left with a full stomach towards Hida-Kanayama.
The rain had luckily stopped. And the train arrived without delay. The ride to Hida-Kanayama was very scenic – full of bridges, tunnels and along the river. And next to the river there were a bunch of old, many abandoned, houses. This mix of old and new almost fascinated me about Japan. On one hand you have the Shinkansen and cities like Tokyo and Osaka, but on the other hand abandoned ghost towns. A mix of tradition and technology.
When I arrived in Hida-Kanayama it was starting to get dark. I went for a short stroll around the town and after that straight to an izakaya – where my accommodation was. Once I arrived the place was already full of locals enjoying drinks and food. First I checked-in and took a shower, but after that I joined them. The discussion was once again full of curiosity on their part – I was probably the only foreigner in this town. Where are you from, what food I should try and so on. I could tell that some of them were already a bit tipsy as one of the guys kept recommending me some dish, while others were discouraging me from ordering it. In the end, I ordered fried sardines marinated in some kind of a sour sauce. An interesting, unusual flavor, but I really liked it. I coupled that with fried tofu, again, in some kind of a soup. I also ordered a lemon sour – a drink that combines shochu (Japanese distilled alcohol beverage), a bit of lemon and soda. It is really refreshing!
The next day I decided to just stroll around the town. I visited the nearby waterfalls and took some really nice pictures. I also took many pictures of the yellow and green rice fields – what an eye candy! And in the evening I stopped in a small restaurant in the neighbor town.
Hida-Kanayama was one of my favorite towns that I have visited in Japan and in the future I will be looking for more places like this.
