Weegiewife, just READING your itinerary tired me out!

OK, after 50+ biz/pleasure trips to Japan, I will now admit that I haven't been to Takayama. Japan guide says that the star attraction is an open air house museum (Hida folk museum), but I hve already been to two other such places: Boso no Mura near Narita and Nihon Minka En near Tokyo. Am I really missing something spectacular?

I would rate the Hida folk museum as a secondary attraction of Takayama. The most interesting things for me were
- Old parts of town (and the sake brewery, whose fine product I am now enjoying)
- Takayama Jinya
- Cosy, small-town feeling

Also - You can get the bus from Takayama to Shirakawa-go.... another two hours to see a collection of Japanese Gasho-zukuri houses in the environment in which they were originally built...

For my money, Takayama is a great place to see on a more relaxed itinerary - preferably combined with a visit to Shirakawa-go and perhaps Kanazawa and a hot spring trip.... It isn't so much a "sight" to see as a place to experience (slowly). But if you only have 10 days in Japan, then you don't have so much opportunity to take it easy.

BTW Richard - One more place to see in the Kanto area, if you enjoy the architecture museums is the "Edo-Tokyo Tatemono-en"
http://www.tatemonoen.jp/

Day 2 alone would have been a 4 day trip for me :p

Even if I would've survived walking this much on one day, I would not have been able to walk for the next three.

It is like LapLap said - what is it about these places that made you feel like they were the "real Japan"? Looks more like the Epcot version of Japan to me (old and romanticized) than contemporary Japan. History and culture are always a part of the background of a country - necessary to understand the present. But it is the present that is more interesting to me.

By the way - I saw a picture of the Toshogu in Nikko in a Japanese guidebook I have - and it reminded me of the China exhibit at Epcot. Robn

I guess that's where we differ. Certain cities interest me, but I also want to get out into tye countryside and see the sights. If I've only seen the city, I don't feel like I know the country. When visiting London, I made sure to get out to York, the Cotswolds, etc. In Paris, it's off to the Loire Valley and Mount St. Michel.

You raise an interesting point that really has no answer - what constitutes a tourist trap? I would suggest that Nikko is still quite original and unspoiled, but yes it's heavily travelled. What well-known location in guidebooks isn't? Kamakura isn't exactly an unknown backwater, nor is Nara, Kyoto, Ginza, Shinjuku, Akihabara, on and on and on. I found the little single track clicky-clack train between the Shinkansen station (starts with U, can't recall the name) and Nikko town to be lovely, between the farming and the groves of trees and the small clumps of houses I really got a sense of the countyside to balance out the concrete of Tokyo.

When you take the N'EX from Narita to Tokyo don't you find the contrast between the beginning of the journey and the end fascinating? It's all Japan.

OK - we really don't disagree at all. I think understanding what goes on outside the cities in a country is as important - sometimes more important - than understanding what goes on in the cities. Because agriculture - and the influence of agricultural interests - frequently has a huge effect on a country's politics. That was certainly true in Japan for a long time - I've read that there are family farms on the outskirts of Tokyo (due to favorable tax laws?) - which is a real testament to the influence of agricultural interests there. And it may still be true today - haven't read anything about it lately.

We've traveled a lot "in the country" in western Europe - simply because it's easy to rent a car and take off and explore. Didn't sound that easy to do in Japan. My husband is the driver - and I think he could handle the "wrong side" driving (we've done that before). But I am the navigator - and I didn't think I could possibly navigate in a country where I can't even read the characters on the road signs.

We have a decent amount of time for this trip (which is our first - I haven't seen anything in Japan yet :) ) - and perhaps if there is a reasonable opportunity to take a driver for a day - a driver who might speak a little English - my husband speaks a little Japanese - we will be able to explore outside the cities more. I know there are some gardens outside the cities that I want to see - and that would be a good excuse for a trip into the countryside - but I will have to see how things go. My husband and I have had a tiring year. We want to relax a bit - and I don't want to put too much pressure on us (we have to do this, that or the other thing).

By the way - I didn't mean to imply that the places you mentioned were "tourist traps" (I don't know whether or not they are - but I didn't mean to imply it). Only that they are remnants of an older Japan which - for the most part - probably doesn't exist anymore. Perhaps my reference to Epcot threw you off. As a long time resident of Florida - I go to Epcot once in a while - and I like it. I think the Japanese pavilion in particular is a nice little "sliver" of Japan. Everything from a branch of Takashimaya to a traditional Japanese garden (where one of my late mother's best bonsai will be exhibited during the flower festival this spring). If you take a garden tour at Epcot - you will even learn about the differences between traditional Japanese gardens and traditional Chinese gardens (they have both at Epcot - they look similar - but they're very different).

Just because things/activities don't exist anymore except as artifacts doesn't mean that they weren't/aren't worthwhile (even though contemporary culture is of more interest to me). I've spent time seeing many cultural artifacts over the years - and have regretted very little of the time I spent (especially when it comes to things like tombs in Egypt which have since been closed to tourists due to "pollution" from the breath of too many people). I've read that even interest in a traditional Japanese activity like bonsai is waning in Japan as people in Japan - like many people in many other countries - have less and less time to engage in traditional leisure activities in a 24/7 21st century world.

So I guess all I was responding to was the statement about the alleged "real Japan" (the artifacts of the past) versus - I suppose - "non-real Japan" (the culture of the present). You really can't begin to understand a country unless you know both - which is a tall order for the occasional tourist. I know I won't have time to learn much in a first trip that only lasts 2 1/2 weeks - but I intend to try to learn a little (without killing myself - I think I will enjoy traditional Japanese baths very much ;) ). Robyn

deleted

This place looks neat, didn't even know it existed. How does it compare to the Meiji Mura in Inuyama-Nagoya?

Meiji Mura is larger and it has more "trophy" buildings than the Edo-Tokyo Tatemono en.

There is some overlap - for example, you can see a traditional sento (bath house) and an old-fashioned police station and a photographers' studio etc. in both museums.

Meiji Mura focuses on the Meiji period (late 19th century / early 20th century) and is not tied to one location (it features buildings from anywhere and everywhere). On the other hand, the Edo-Tokyo Tatemono En covers all periods and features only buildings which were actually in Tokyo, so it's a different "cut" into Japanese architectural history.

If you have spent time walking around Tokyo and wondering at some of the incongruous old buildings that are left standing between ferro-concrete apartment blocks... and making up stories in your mind as you imagine the people who spent their lives and built their careers in those buildings... then the Edo Tokyo Tatemono En is a "must see." It has enriched my understanding of this city.

The museum is holidng a special event ("kimono day") on March 25/26 - that might be a good day to go to see it. I imagine that it should be very lively and the Koganei park cherry blossoms might be out too. (So the park might be crowded).

BTW - One of the houses in the Edo Tokyo Tatemono En is the residence of a Japanese architect (Mr. Maekawa) who was one of Japan's foremost modernist architects. Among the buildings that he designed was the (then controversial) Tokio Marine Headquarters Building in Marunouchi.

There is an excellent exhibition of Maekawa's work at the Tokyo Station gallery right now. (Lots of architects models and photos of Maekawa with LeCorbusier and cine film, which Maekawa took of various buildings). I was really delighted to visit that exhibition because I had already walked around his house in the Tatemono En ... I felt as though I already "knew" him in some small way.

The Maekawa exhibition closed on March 6th, and the gallery won't reopen until 2011 when they've finished moving the whole station back a few feet closer to the Marubiru. Maekawa also designed a number of the modern Ueno museums.

Hi Pickles - sorry for the bum information about the Maekawa exhibition. You're right that it has closed.

But I just walked past the Tokyo Station Gallery - and it is showing an exhibition of photographs and drawings of Tokyo station over the past 100years - and that exhibition will be open until April 9th 2006. (FREE OF CHARGE!).

Well worth visiting I think... I plan to go soon.

(I have not had time to examine the details yet - but I have a drawing of the renewed station in front of me now. I cannot see a noticeable movement in the position of the station - but I can see that they plan to make a pedestrian square in front of the station.... and the artist has sneakily drawn the tall cylindrical air vents in a green colour... which makes me think that the powers that be are aware that those airvents are are eyesores ... but they won't be getting rid of them).

Went to the Tatemono en today. Pretty interesting buildings from another era. I liked a couple of the sprawling farmhouses and the Mitsui house which used to be in Nishiazabu. It was built in 1952, but it was a collection of much older buildings "glued" together to make one big rambling Japanese mansion. The 1920's "modern" houses were also pretty cool. I can see how Frank Lloyd Wright was influenced by them.

Speaking of Frank Lloyd Wright - we went to an exhibit yesterday at Shiseido about Art Deco and Shiseido. Among other things - we learned that the former head of the company had Frank Lloyd Wright design a house for him (which was actually built - unusual for a Frank Lloyd Wright design). The model/pictures of the house were interesting. Robyn