During our Golden Week trip, we also visited Takayama City, in Gifu Prefecture. Because of the large number of visitors for Golden Week, we parked at a supermarket parking lot away from the city center and walked to the old downtown area, where we saw many Showa Era shops that are still functioning. Though I didn't live in Japan in the Showa Era, it still gave me a feeling of nostalgia. We decided to have lunch at a famous ramen shop in town, but the line was long so while my wife and daughter waited in line, I walked around and took photos of some of the old style shops, including a camera shop, a sake shop, a barbershop and a bookstore.

The ramen shop where we ate also had a long history, having been started in 1946 (though it had moved to its current location maybe thirty years prior.

After lunch, we visited the Sanmachi Suji District, which is three long streets lined with traditional houses, shops, sake breweries and cafes. One of the special foods in that area is beef sashimi, which is raw beef, dressed to look like sashimi, and served on rice like nigiri sushi. We wanted to try it, but the line was too long. In fact, the whole area was so crowded that we quickly tired and made our way back to the car so we could drive back to our campsite before sundown. I would like to visit Takayama again at a less crowded time of year.