Sun, Jul 22: Takayama

We walked around Takayama. 

Visited the Karakuri Museum (Museum of Puppetry and mechanical toys),

Two school girls gave Mary and Paul their writings from one of the mechanical dolls that wrote.

The Nikko Museum with miniature buildings.

 

Saw many beautiful floats in the Festival Exhibition Hall, stored until the Takayama Festival.  Some floats had life size mechanical dolls, manipulated by several people from inside the floats.    

We went a little ways out of town...

to the Hida Folk Museum.  This preserved old buildings and residences, to give a glimpse of life in the 1700’s.  There was a large group of school children on a field trip to the museum.

We saw, among other things, a merchant’s house and the Wakayamas’ house, representative of houses in the 1700’s.  

The fire was always lit, because the smoke protects the house from harmful insects, keeps the ropes tight, and gives the house moderate moisture.

We also saw a Kurumada (meaning round) rice field.  Rice is planted in a concentric circle around a pole, which stands for the gods.  The rice is dedicated to the gods, and thus no manure or dirty water may be used.  This is one of only two left in Japan.

And we caught glimpses of the Sukyo Mahikari temple through the trees.

The grounds were lovely with interesting and secluded walkways through the forests.

But what made the experience truly special was small lake that dominated the center of the grounds.  

It was stunning with picturesque structures around it, swans swimming the water  and dozens of hydrangea bushes in full bloom.  It was magnificent.