Takayama Sanmachi old town and morning market

Takayama grew rich as a mountain town of timber, carpenters and sake, and Sanmachi is the part that kept its Edo-period face: three parallel lanes of dark wooden merchant houses with lattice fronts and low eaves. A ball of cedar hung over a doorway marks a brewery, still pressing and selling. Along the Miyagawa river, farmers set up stalls each morning with pickles, miso and mountain vegetables, a market tradition that long predates tourism here.

Day options run from Nagoya in 9 hours or from Kanazawa in 8, with the coach carrying you through the Hida mountains. The morning centres on the market, then a guided walk through the old streets, where a brewery tasting, Hida beef snacks or a look into a merchant house usually fill the gaps. The combo adds Shirakawa-go, the UNESCO-listed village of steep thatched gassho farmhouses, in the same 9-hour day, which is how most visitors fit both places in.

Arrive hungry. The market winds down toward midday, and the lanes are at their quietest early, before tour coaches park. Winter brings heavy snow and a very different, hushed town; spring and autumn bring the Takayama Festival with its towering decorated floats, and much bigger crowds. The walking is flat and slow. Good souvenirs are small: a sarubobo charm doll, a bottle from one of the breweries, or a bag of the local pickles.