October 8 - 10, 2018
We’re missing a few days here, but we did go to Fukuoka October 2 - 6 and then stopped thru Hiroshima October 6 - 8, but we didn't take many photos so there are no posts for those places. Fukuoka had great food and shopping and Hiroshima was a great historical city to visit. Leaving Fukuoka we actually got stuck for 5-6 hours in the train station because all trains were stopped due to the typhoon. We were basically standing in the only train that would leave to go north with tons of other people also waiting for the train to leave.
After Hiroshima we headed to Takayama the the annual Autumn Festival. Arriving later in the evening the city was super quiet and seemed like it was dead. We checked into the hostel we were staying at and found this tiny curry place called Jakson Curry nearby. It was so good we ate there twice.
Here’s a photo of the front.
The next morning we headed out to the festival and the city was totally alive compared to the night before. This festival has been going on for hundreds of years and these hand made wooded floats are paraded around town. During the day they are displayed for everyone to view. Atop each float there is a place for puppets to be controlled by the people inside the float. The puppet shows themselves are very elaborate and pretty insane to watch. Still can’t figure out how they control them.
And of course … there’s food everywhere!
At night there is a parade route and the floats are walked thru the city for everyone to see.