Originally Posted by
shinjukuflyer
.... It's a proper hike, and quite steep at times. I remember it took a lot longer than I thought it would, because the map they have on location is not really drawn to scale. ...
Had the same experience in Takayama. The local tourist map showed a little shortcut trail from one major area to another. As I couldn't even find it, one of the miko tending a museum entrance kindly walked me over to it. Then I found the hard way that it was MUCH longer and steeper - through an uninteresting residential area - than it appeared on the map. It turned out to take longer than just using the actual tourist route would have.
Lesson - the local tourist maps are rarely to scale or show elevation gains/losses.