Snapshots of Kanayama: Foods

Hida Kanayama is a food lover’s paradise. Not only are there fresh seasonal produce deliciously served, there are local specialties as well. Let us show you some of them.

First we introduce you to hoba miso with Hida gyu (Hida beef). Hida gyu is wonderfully marbled and sooo tender! Above we see Hida gyu on a grill plate heated by a sterno burner (which conveniently goes out when the food is about done). It is served with green onions, piman peppers, and mushrooms, with thefamous hoba miso of Hida. Here is one of the Hida gyu nigiri sushi as served in the restaurant of Karen.Having one of these sushi is heavenly! They come two on a plate, doubly heavenly.

Of course, we must have hoba sushi, a specialty of the area. Here is what it looks like. It is wrapped in a fresh green hoba leaf that grows abundantly in Kanayama. It is delicious the first day, and possibly even better the second day. In case you are wondering, a hoba leaf is a type of very large camellia leaf.

Restaurant Hizan レストランひざん offers many popular meals. Look at the lunch you can have for only 1000 yen! And on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, Hizan serves the Japanese breakfast called morning service including egg, toast, and more for the price of a cup of coffee!

 

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Snapshots of Kanayama: Hidakanayama Eki

Hidakanayama Eki is the train station for Hida Kanayama. Hidakanayama Eki opened in 1928 and has hardly changed since that time. Let us show you snaps taken of and in the train station.

At top is the front of the station. Below, you see the train tracks (two of them, running north and south), the passenger bridge to cross the tracks (there are no escalators), and the platform for the northbound train.

Now, let’s take a look in the waiting room. Here we find photo posters of Kanayama attractions created by Shiho Tokuda.

Inside Hidakanayama Eki you will find the invaluable resource, the Kanayama Tourist Information Center.

After leaving the station, turn around and you will see the welcome sign of Kanayama Town. The three photos in the center feature the Shirataki Falls, the Gifu-cho butterfly, and the Iwaya Dam. These pleasures await you in Kanayama.

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Snapshots of Kanayama: Nukumorinosato

Visiting Kanayama Series

We will show you snapshots of Kanayama Town in the Visiting Kanayama Series. We will give links to Google maps showing the locations of the places you’ll visit. Nukumorinosato is located on Route 41. This long name can be broken down into Nuku-mori-no-sato. We wonder what it means. See Pic 1.

Nukumorinosato is a Michi-no-eki, a roadside station with restaurants and gift shops. The sign says, “onsen station” because it has two onsen spas. Onsen is written  温泉, where the first character means warm and the second means spring water. There are many public baths in Japan, but only those with natural mineral water are called onsen. Not only do onsen baths do wonders for tight muscles and stressed minds, they offer health and beauty benefits as well.

Pic 2 shows the Nukumorinosato roadside shop, where on the left is the shop selling local produce and other products. Pics 3 and 4 are snaps of the outside and inside of the shop. 

Nukumorinosato is anchored by the onsen-restaurant-hotel called Karen. It is written:  かれん. Perhaps it’s a Japanese girl’s name, for  is pronounced in the Japanese fashion Ka-ren. It has a restaurant on the right, a gift shop on the left, indoor-outdoor spa for men and women in the basement, and nine Japanese and Western rooms on the second floor all of which overlook the Maze River.

Across the street is the other onsen, Yuttarikan.  Yuttarikan  湯ったり館  means place of relaxation, and the large character in front is the hiragana yu,  ゆ.  Yu means hot water, hot bath water.  Yuttarikan has a nice gift shop, and a restaurant with traditional meals for lunch and dinner.

Shopping finds

The gift shop of Karen displays many foodstuffs for home and for gifts. Very popular are gifts of miso, pickles, and of course sweets. There are four choices of boxed sweets with the Kimi no Na Wa theme, including (on the right) a box of Kataware-doki Caramels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can buy the locally made herb tea at the Nukumorinosato roadside shop or at Yuttarikan. Our favorite is a blend that contains lemon balm, lemon grass, mint, and chamomile (Yuttarikan). Among other specialty products is a bottle of hinoki essential oil which releases stress, and hinoki tissue boxes (both at the roadside shop). The Japanese cypress hinoki (Chamaecyparis obtusa) grows in Hida and is a high quality wood. There is a brand of Hida-bobo hand cream that contains collagen and smells nice (Karen). And each of you must have a Hida-bobo, the lucky charm of Hida, a hand-made red monkey boy (Karen, Yuttarikan).

Medical needs

Just in case you need a hospital (as we did), rest assured that the Kanayama Hospital is conveniently located next to Yuttarikan. The service is excellent, even if you have no Japanese insurance. The intake nurse communicated with us via a smart phone which translated her words into English text. Payment (reasonable enough) is by cash only. We had the doctor’s prescription filled at the adjacent Asahi Pharmacy bearing the icon of a green cross.

All in all, Nukumorinosato is a convenient place to shop, eat, and stay — and have your medical needs met.

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The Four Waterfalls

There are four lovely waterfalls near Kanayama town that can be hiked in about an hour and a half for the round-trip. The trail begins at the Hakusan Jinja and it follows the rushing stream, of course heading into the valley. There is a parking area just before the first waterfall, so we left the car here while we hiked the rest of the way. It is a distance of 1.3km on the trail from the first waterfall to the fourth, but it is longer than that since we have to descend on stairs or a sloping trail down to the pool at the bottom of each fall, and then up again.

The four waterfalls of Kanayama are mentioned in a legend about a princess and a golden rooster. This story is excerpted from the post at Okunomichi.

The Princess and the Golden Rooster: A Legend

Once upon a time:  A golden rooster lived in Kyoto during the Heian period. It crowed every New Year’s Day during the four centuries of peace. Then, in the year 1093, war broke out and the golden rooster flew away.

The Princess Kogane-Hime, a devout Buddhist who missed the rooster, faced Hiei-zan. She heard a message:  Go to a mountain of waterfalls. So she traveled far and long and finally reached Hida-Kanayama at the end of the year.

She could hear the voice of the rooster, but search as she did, she could not see it. She went from one waterfall to another: The Shirataki and the Ni-no-taki, and finally a third waterfall. She stood under the water to purify herself. Suddenly, she heard the golden rooster.

The falls she stood under became known as Keimei-taki of Yokotani Gorge.

Although the rooster refused to return to Kyoto, Kogane-Hime gathered some herbs for her ailing mother and went back to Kyoto in time to save her mother. The princess became known for her compassion and was regarded as the goddess of children.

The Four Waterfalls

First Waterfall:  白滝  Shirataki (White Falls)

The top of the first waterfall as seen on the hike to the second.

 

Second Waterfall:  二見滝  Futami Taki (Double Falls)

 

Third Waterfall:  紅葉滝  Momiji Taki (Maple Falls)

 

300m to the fourth waterfall.

 

Fourth Waterfall:  鶏鳴滝  Keimei Taki (Rooster Falls)

 

 

 

 

 

A Hidden World

Each waterfall is contained in a little valley of its own. The curtain of rushing white water, the pool at the bottom, the rivulets, and the green trees and grasses — all form a private sanctuary far away from daily life. We can really relax, meditate, and appreciate being one with Nature. We return to our regular lives feeling happy and refreshed.

 

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Summer Solstice Spotlight. June 22, 2017

The day after summer solstice dawned bright and clear. We eagerly went to Senkoku-ishi for the noon spotlight in the upper grotto. There were so many people present that it was hard to get a good shot. We’ll show you some of our snapshots.

 

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Summer Solstice. June 21, 2017

Summer solstice day, June 21, 2017, was drizzly all day. There was no hope of seeing a spotlight. However, we went to the megaliths anyway. And we were glad we did.

The megaliths were dark and glistening with rain. They were absolutely magnificent!

Looking down into the upper grotto, the signboard is seen but it is quite dark inside.

So let’s run in the drizzle instead!

Children amongst the boulders, little ones and the giants.

We found a carpet of wet leaves — and an astonishing type of plant!

 

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