Takachiho Gorge - rowing sucks, the best somen noodles ever, it's Spring Festival time
Trip Diary Day 18 - 16 April 2019 - Takachiho
Takachiho Gorge
Check out Episode 14 of our Epic Family Road Trip Across Japan.
I woke to the sound of explosions echoing around the valley. It seemed too high a calibre to be hunters so I assume it was something to do with the spring festival today. It didn’t sound like fire works, but who knows? They might have some hefty fire crackers here. We heard it a couple of more times during the day.
From the stuff that happened overnight bad news file, apparently Notre Dame in Paris burned down. What a tragic cultural loss. We’ve visited Notre Dame a couple of times in the past. Most recently in 2017 but we didn’t go inside that time. We didn’t wanted drag the kids through another church. It was a beautiful old building. I hope it wasn’t too badly damaged but the videos of the fire looked horrendous.
<photo of kids outside notre dame here>
Breakfasted, shit, showered and drove to Takachiho gorge. The gorge was only a couple of hundred metres away. I suppose technically we didn’t go to the gorge. More accurately we went deeper into the valley the the gorge runs through. The gorge is the deepest part of the valley. We found some free parking near the TI (Tourist Information) then walked down to to the gorge under a couple of big bridges, modern road bridges, one steel and the other concrete, and then down to an old stone bridge, Shinbashi Bridge, that looked like it had been there since Roman times... I mean the Edo period.
We followed the path along the gorgeous gorge. It was deep with sheer basalt walls, a relic of a volcanic past. I’m not sure if the gorge was created by lava flows or the Gokase River has just carved the gorge over millennia. There were a couple of spectacular waterfalls spilling from moss covered green rocks shrouded with over hanging branches draping rim of the gorge. It was all very green. From a bridge we could see where the gorge narrowed and where the main waterfall, Manai Big Falls, plunged magnificently into the turquoise, almost jade coloured, river below. There were about a dozen row boats near the falls. The path descended to the gorge floor following the river which bubbled along small rapids and narrow chasms. We walked till we found a pond and picnic area. There was a small shrine, a couple of tourist souvenir shops, and somen noodle restaurants.
The pond was quite shallow and we could see the colourful koi and another big weird fish that looked like a small shark. They looked prehistoric. It turns out the weird fish were vestel sturgeon. All I could think of then was, could I squeeze them for caviar?
Snacking on Mitarashi Dango
The noodle shops had dango bbqs outside the shops. We had mitarashi dango, mochis on a stick, slathered with sweet walnut miso sauce - my next band's name. Dango can also come basted with a sweet soy sauce too. The dango are cooked by sticking the sticks into sand around a central small charcoal fire. This gives them a sweet smoky favour. For what is essentially just a rice dumpling they are surprisingly addictive. We love them.
Takachiho Spring Festival Parade
The hostess from the noodle restaurant was sending people over to the pond because something was about to happen. She was indicating excitedly that we should get over there. We could hear music - gongs and drums coming from the top of the ravine. We thought it had something to do with the spring festival. Like the explosions were still heard infrequently. We wandered over just in time to see a parade coming down the road to the pond. A crowd was starting to build around the pond and on the bridges across the stream into the pond. A guy was shooing people off one of the bridges so we assumed that must be the path of the parade.
The parade arrived. There were dozens of men dressed in white ceremonial robes. Some were wearing masks, and some playing flutes and drums and gongs. There were priests carrying flowers and chanting. Finally a bunch of guys carrying two large golden shrines on litters appeared. I think the fancy word for shrines on litters is palanquin. On the day of the Takachiho spring festival the portable shrines called Omikoshi are brought down and carried around the pond three times to be purified. They proceeded into the water and they carried the mikoshi around the central monument, called Onokoro Island, three times as the music played. Legend has it that Onokoro-jima (Onokoro Island) was the first island made by the gods. I know the gods have to start somewhere but I think it Onokoro is a wee bit small. I was thinking they could stretched themselves to make something a little bigger, say bus sized. Japan is made up of over 5000 islands so I guess the gods had plenty of practice eventually. The legend also says that once upon a time there was a large shrine on the island served by sacred cormorants. I would like to have seen some sacred cormorants.
The shrines looked heavy, and even though there were around eight guys carrying each of the the litters it looked like some of the guys were really struggling and they could collapse at any moment. After the three laps of Onokoro island, it was only a couple of metres across, they carried the mikoshi out of the water and back up the hill about 40 metres and it was done.
All the guys in the white ceremonial robes dispersed. Most went to get noodles and a beer. They were wearing interesting woven rope sandals. Some were wearing thongs - flip flops. It was hard work carrying the mikoshi down into gorge. Most of the bearers were hot and sweaty and probably needed that beer.
There were cops and TV crews there too. We were lucky to be in the right place at the right time. There was a photographer lugging around a large format camera. The type of camera that has to be on a tripod and the photographer has to cover himself with a black cloth to take the photo. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone using a large format camera before.
A Haiku
Takachiho Gorge
Sheer cliffs and water so blue
Gongs and drums echo
Rowing the Takachiho Gorge
After all the excitement we followed bus loads of tourists down to the row boats. Yeah, our timing was shit. There’s nothing like joining a queue behind a couple of bus loads of tourists to rent a row boat. Row boat hire was 2000 yen for half an hour. We thought we’d be waiting for ages seeing as there were so many in the queue but in the end it didn’t take long.
We watched others leave shore on the row boats. Nobody had a clue. Friends laughed and shouted instructions and encouragement from the shore. Then it is was our turn.
The kids had little red life jackets. Michelle and I had 2 blue little ones. They were the type that just hang around your neck like a necklace and a strap is clipped around your waist. They’re shaped like a horseshoe. Not the bulky vest type. We boarded. I nearly tipped the boat over because I am… big. I’ve lost 4 kg on this trip but still a big boy.
I was stuck with the job of rowing. Michelle and brandy were up front and Georgia down back. Michelle complained she wouldn’t be able to take photos. I could give 2 shits by then because rowing was hard work and I was rowing like I was looking for a place on the Olympic rowing team. I’m sure the boat could drift faster than I could row though. Maybe I was going backwards?
Forget tranquil drifting around a peaceful lake. It was like dodgem cars. Plus we kept running into the walls of the canyon trying to avoid the waterfall cascading about 40 metres down from above. It is a beautiful waterfall and drifting into the spray would be refreshing but I’m pretty sure the kids wouldn’t have been impressed. Not to mention soaking a couple of expensive cameras.
Half an hour of chaos and hard work. Lots of swearing from me, but some beautiful scenery. And peaceful, if only those other rowers would stop bumping into us. It is a gorgeous river and canyon though. The waterfall was spectacular. It was also a great experience - swearing not withstanding. But half an hour couldn’t come soon enough and we struggled back to the dock, handed over the life jackets and went back up the stairs to the car park. And a vending machine with water. I was thirstier than a thirsty thing.
A Haiku
Row row row your boat
Dodgem boats, waterfall spray
Please don't sink today
Nagashi Somen Chiho-no-ie - best somen noodles ever
We went back to the somen noodle restaurant - Nagashi Somen Chiho-no-ie - for lunch. Somen noodles are thin white wheat based noodles. Somen is often served cold with a dipping sauce called tsuyu - a sauce made from bonito and flavoured with ginger or onions. The sauce was quite delicious. This restaurant serves the somen nagashi style - literally flowing noodles. And flow they do. Each of the long tables in the restaurant have long bamboo half pipes down the length of the tables. Cold water flows down the bamboo, like a rainwater drain. The serving staff then drop bunches of noodles at the top of the pipe and the noodles float down the bamboo pipe. You’re supposed to pick them up with your chopsticks and dip them in the sauce and eat. It was a lot of fun. The noodles can whiz by so everybody jumps up to grab the noodles. The kids, ours and some other families in the restaurant, were all laughing excitedly and yelling “catch it, catch it” in a variety of languages. It didn’t matter if you missed your noodles. They plopped into a bucket at the end of the table and then the waitress would ladle them out into your bowl.
We had a lunch set that included a grilled fish, onigiri and pickles for 1500 yen each. I also had a local beer - Kyushu Craft Hyuganatsu for 600 yen. The beer is made from hyuganatsu, which is a local citrus fruit. Just when you think you’ve seen all the citrus varieties they hit you with a new one. The beer was summery and refreshing. The okanjo, or bill, came to a total 3600 JPY ($45AUD). The best noodles I’ve had so far. Definitely the most fun we’ve all had eating noodles.
Just across from Nagashi Somen was a shop selling ice creams. They advertised them as 25 percent full cream milk and 12.5 percent fat. Now I don’t know how much fat and full cream milk usual ice cream has but they had me at 12.5 percent. We got chocolate. It was creamy and rich. Japan does excellent ice cream, whether it is soy sauce flavoured, green tea or chocolate loaded with fat.
The kids bought fish food for 100 yen and fed the fish. Seriously, it was to feed the fish. Not to sprinkle on ice creams. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if Japan has little fishy sprinkles for ice cream. You can get chocolate coated dried fish in some places after all.
It was about a kay back to the car, the last couple of hundred metres up steps. Why did I park at the top? Because it was free. Free parking trumps hiking every time.
Amanoiwato Shrine closed? Plenty of open vending machines though
Amanoiwato-jinja is a shrine in a village, about 15 minutes away from the main part of Takachiho, on the Iwato River. The Iwato river forks off the Gokase River near Takachiho. The Gokase River is the river that flows through Takachiho Gorge. We arrived at Amanoiwato at 4.55 and was going to close at 5. So we bought tickets and flew through in 3 minutes. Not really, we decided we would come back the next day.
On the way back to Takachiho we found some red torii gates snaking up a hill. There was no indication of what it was or where the path went but we stopped and took photos. I suspect there was a Shinto shrine at the top of the hill but the path was overgrown a little further up the trail so we didn’t bother going very far. Later I found the shrine on Google maps. The shrine is called Kazuranesakoinaka.
It was very rural with lots of farms between the villages. Much of the land was terraced on the slopes either side of the valley. At one crossroad there was a Family Mart. Even in rural Japan you’re not far from a konbini. There were also many iconic Japanese vending machines by the road. It is quite funny driving by vending machines at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere.
Marathon-tei
Back in Takachiho we found a restaurant near the supermarket called Marathon-tei. It was a lovely little shop run by lovely old couple serving udon and rice dishes. The restaurant was marathon themed. I wondered if there was a local marathon or the old couple were former marathoners. There were photos of various runners and races and memorabilia adorning the walls.
We had a couple of rice bowl sets. Pork katsu and chicken & egg. 1000 and 920 yen. The kids had kid sized udon. Brandon had a plain broth for 200 yen, Georgia udon with beef for 450 yen. I ordered a shochu for 300. The old man asked which one and then said to me omakase? Hai, I said, yes please, your choice. The lady brought it to me and asked, with signs and motions, who was the driver. I said me. She crossed her index fingers into a X and said no drive. No wonder. I didn’t realise the shochu was a spirit. Shochu is a spirit distilled from rice. It is very nice but really strong. Japan has a .03 blood alcohol limit for driving. One beer would almost put you over the limit. Sniffing the shochu might send you to jail for 10 years. I only had a a couple of sips. Michelle did too. The meal with drinks only cost 2800 yen ($35AUD). And people think Japan is expensive. Marathon-tei was a lovely local restaurant run by a sweet lovely couple. I wish I could suggest you visit but unfortunately it has closed since we visited. You’ll have to find your own noodles. The supermarket is next door.
Maeda Confectionary
Just around the corner from our B&B we’d seen a patisserie, so of course we had to give it a try on the way home. I thought it was called Gateau de Saison, un cadeau du temps delicieux. Apparently my French is as shit as my Japanese. That translates as “Seasonal cake, a delicious gift time”. Or something. Google translate is too literal sometimes. I took a photo of Japanese sticker on the bag just in case. I should get that translated. It was a lovely little pastry shop. Is everything in Takachiho lovely? Apparently I think so. We bought cake, madeleines, and a pot of creme caramel pudding. 1420 yen ($17AUD). I think the pastry shop is actually called Maeda Confectionary.
We were home by 6.45 pm. The earliest night we had had so far. Lovely.
Epic Family Road Trip Japan on Youtube
Check out Episode 14 of our Epic Family Road Trip Across Japan.
Map of all the places we visited in Takachiho including the vending machine
Many of the pictures on this page are by Michelle. Essentially the good ones. Michelle retains full copyright and they can not be reproduced without permission. For licensing and using the photos contact Michelle at Michelle Newnan Photography
