どうも！こんにちはー！Welcome back to my channel and to a place you may recognize…Today we are in Takayama! Today is the start of a brand new series. I am going to take you across 5 of the biggest fastest, the Hietsuno 5 Great UNESCO festivals known out here, smack dab in the middle of Japan. Takayama Festival, Furukawa Festival, Takaoka Mikuruma-yama Festival, Seihaku Festival and the Johana Hikiyama Festival. In this series I’m going to show you real LIFE and the bright colorful festivals that have inspired so much culture and tradition across the 5 different cities here. So first off I’m on my way to visit an old friend, the guide at the exhibition hall.

Do you remember the background right here? The last time we were here I did a quick kanji quiz for you and you were really surprised by all the kanji we were able to read. If you’re curious about the different kanji characters that we learned stick around for this explanation so you can learn more about the “yatai”, the exhibition floats that they use in the Takayama Festival.

So next I want to show you a special piece of the Takayama Festival. The actual costumes used in the festival are handmade and hand dyed by a special, traditional technique that you can see back there. There’s over 150 years of tradition in the HIda-zome dyeing technique and this artisan inside has being doing this for over 30 years.

So these brown parts in the design are actually kind of like an outline. When you wash them they turn into white lines and they disappear

The final product here… see there’s no brown… but just the colors stand out.

So we’ve got dragons, phoenixes, tigers, snakes and turtles! Hida-zome or Hida Dye is a traditional dyeing technique that is used not only in these traditional festival costumes, but also in the noren (traditional curtains hanging outside of Japanese restaurants), bags and even some new products! Apparently, recently, if you google Hida Dye (hida-zome) in Japanese their masks is one of the first things that comes up in the google results. Hi love this phoenix! It has a lot of PIZAZZ to it!

So where we just visited is called Kozmic Hoop. It’s originally a family business (Fuwakazari Koubou) that makes the different kanagu, the metal fixtures that go on the yatai floats, sometimes you see them on furniture or other directions in traditional Japanese homes and architecture. But here, in addition to the traditional sense of the metal fixtures, there’s a new art called “Ori Kazari”. Its kind of like origami but made out of metal into different shapes. I thought that was really cool. There’s even some jewelry! Seeing a modern spin on this traditional art form and keeping it alive into the new generations…I thought that was really cool!

Oh my god this brings back such good memories! Last time I was here…I think the brewery I visited was right down the street there! Up here is where I rode the rickshaw and that jokester made a joke! Then he pointed out right here, the 23 different yatai floats that they have in the Takayama Festival as well as the store house where they keep the exhibition floats. Every now and then they’ll open it so you can actually see it for yourself but we already saw some at the exhibition hall.

Hey guys, good morning! Welcome to another day here in Takayama! As you can see behind me its another gorgeous day. I’m at another morning market. Last time I got to see a morning market by the river but today I’m going to check out one downtown. One quick thing before we get started, I did a poll with everyone online debating buying one of two masks. Their designs symbolize the Takayama festival here. The dragon and the phoenix design! There was a SWEEPING response to get the….TA-DA! Today you have chosen for me to wear the dragon mask! So I’m going to put this on really quickly. The same Yuhara Senko Factory that we saw yesterday has a morning shop down here by the market as well so I picked up one. 3…2…1…TA DA!!! See? The dragon and I’m Year of the Dragon so I’m stylin’! What do you think? Now we are ready to get shopping in traditional Takayama Festival style…let’s hit the streets!

Oooo this looks good! So welcome everyone! Welcome back to Sakaguchi-ya. I have been here once for a roadside snack but I’ve never come inside to eat so I’m excited to show you today. The HOBA miso set, a local specialty grilling right now on the brown HOBA leaf. With mushrooms and… (piiman… how do you say piiman? Green peppers I think?) … and tofu! So there’s no meat and there’s no pork. So if you are looking for something vegetarian friendly or just more veggie-heavy this a really good option that they have on the menu! There are some cute little side dishes as well. They’re so pretty! Rice… and miso soup!

Do you want a bite? Say AH~~~! Nope sorry, its all for me! MM! The green peppers really bring it together. OK this will sound ridiculous but this reminds me of getting a supreme pizza with my dad growing up. Peppers, onions and sausages… but there’s no sausages! There’s no meat. This miso is lightly sweet so it has the salty, savory, sweet deep Ooo-MAMI! Oooo yeah. That’s good. Say ahhhhh! It’s so soft! Like a marshmallow of dinner goodness. Oh this is so good.

So this calming, Japan-esque summer background is brought to you by Hie Shrine. It is huge, look at the torii gate over there! Well, this lens is really wide so its hard to see how huge it is until we get a little closer so UP WE GO!!!!! This huge area is where they perform a lot of festivities for the spring festival of the Takayama Festival.

OK everyone it is officially time for me to get ready to head out! One thing I can tell you about Japan is that if you pick a theme to your travels, whether it be food, certain architects, TV shows/movies or in my case local festivals the Hietsuno 5 Great UNESCO festivals… if you find a theme to plan your travels around it’ll take you down a whole different path then you might expect! I’ve been to Takayama before and saw a LOT of stuff when I was here but even this time I saw a whole different side! There’s so much to see just by switching up the theme a little bit. So for now, me and the Takayama Festival dragon are going to get on our way and get ready to see the next city! I’ll give you one hint to my next city and you can guess in a comment below. The next city got REALLY popular because of the movie Your Name. I’ll leave the hint at that. If you want to see the answer stick around click on the video next week. I’ll see you there!