Our first day was spent in Shirakawa village. Early the second morning we took two of the bicycles provided by our inn and lead ourselves on a tour of Takayama. First stop on the list was the easily found Miyagawa Morning Market. There are two famous morning markets in Takayama, the Miyakawa Morning Market and the Jinya-mae Morning Market. We were at the former. If you enjoy browsing local crafts, specialty foods, and fresh produce then the morning markets are definitely worth a stroll through. I personally got the most enjoyment out of watching the vendors preparing and announcing their goods. There was definitely a correlation between a shop’s popularity and the liveliness of the vendor.
The yellow cubes that we’re holding looked like miniature french toast, but it turned out to be fluffy eggwhites mixed with sugar and fried. The man and his wife who were selling them had their act down well. The wife would greet customers warmly, take orders, repeat the orders to her husband who was frying up the treats and he’d shout back the order in a cheery voice. It was both a tasty and fun experience.
From Andrew
I love how historically rich Takayama is. They are famous wood craftsmen and this was evident at the morning market. From the shop facades to the trinkets being hawked, I felt immersed in a genuine cultural experience.
Photo back-story: The severe looking woman in photos 5 and 6 of this post watched me and my camera quite zealously. Both her shop and her were so ripe with character that I desperately wanted to take a good shot, but it was impossible to frame and adjust settings without her laser-beam stare locking on. It was a bit unnerving actually. As you can see, in the end I decided to take a few photos with her gazing into the lens and hope for the best. I’m not overly ecstatic about the way I toned the final results, but they still made the cut over the other 70 shots from the market which weren’t posted.
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