{"id":6302,"date":"2014-10-09T06:26:42","date_gmt":"2014-10-09T13:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/?p=6302"},"modified":"2014-10-10T05:03:06","modified_gmt":"2014-10-10T12:03:06","slug":"photo-essay-takayama-autumn-festival-night-1-japanese-festival-foods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2014\/10\/photo-essay-takayama-autumn-festival-night-1-japanese-festival-foods\/","title":{"rendered":"Photo Essay: The Takayama Autumn Festival, Night 1 (And Japanese Festival Foods!)"},"content":{"rendered":"

see also: Day 2<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Takayama<\/a>, a small city\u00a0up in the Japanese Alps (as the name would suggest; yama<\/i> in Japanese means ‘mountain’), probably isn’t on the majority of visitors’\u00a0itineraries — indeed, i’d never heard of it until a couple months ago — but twice a year, April 14th and 15th for the Spring Festival, and October 9th and 10th for the Autumn Festival, the town swells with people who come to see a celebration that has been going on for four centuries.<\/p>\n

\"Takayama<\/a><\/p>\n

indeed we were going to just go from Hakone to Osaka directly but when doing initial research for this trip, i discovered the Autumn Festival was taking place while we were in the country, so why not? you have to take a slow, but scenic, train from Nagoya (the Hida train<\/a>, covered by JR Passes) that winds its way through the mountains, alongside rivers (riparian entertainments<\/a>, anyone?), but for one of the three best festivals (so they say) in the country, i say it’s a nice diversion? be sure to book your hotel early. prices will be exorbitant.<\/p>\n

the festival<\/h3>\n

what started as a thanksgiving ceremony in the late 16th or early 17th century by one of the Shinto shrines in town is now a festival<\/a> that takes place over two days, with ornate historic floats (yatai<\/em>)\u00a0that get paraded through town and marionette performances. our train arrived a little after 5 PM on the first day and i was worried we missed out on a lot already, but as it turns out, the evening ceremonies don’t start until 6 PM.<\/p>\n

\n

All sorts of helpful signs for the Takayama Festival at the main TI pic.twitter.com\/DPtEp89Rcu<\/a><\/p>\n

— Jonathan Khoo (@jonk) October 9, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n