Totally taken with Takayama!

Takayama has charm, it has history, it has sumptuous Hida beef and it...produces excellent sake and ji-biru.     Heaven in one, no two glasses, and all wrapped up in one compact, friendly town.  No need to walk far for the nightly tipple, but it is indeed, a delightful place to walk around if the mood takes. From the ancient merchant houses of San-machi Suji to the surrounding hills, each vista is like the post cards of old...complete with rickshaws and local citizens authentically dressed in traditional garb...because it is part of their lives.
Tradition also seeps into Takayama's very interesting and note worthy restaurants.  Hida beef aside (a close rival to the more famous wagyu beef), the numerous dining establishments in the narrow lanes also serve the area's speciality, sansai ryori, concoctions that comprise of local mountain vegetables, ferns and wild plants.  Absolutely delicious but one would be totally incapable of producing such dishes anywhere outside of the immediate vicinity of Takayama. Mind you, would one want to? After all, it is best washed down with one of the three locally produced beers from the Kori Kori no Kuni Brewery...a brand with which I was not familiar before I arrived in Takayama.  But let me tell you, I am definitely familiar with it's charms now.