April 21–23: Nagoya & Gujo Hachiman
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For this portion of the trip, my friend Joy was able to join me! Hi Joy if you’re reading this! 😁👋
I had seen this vlog and was determined to stay in the same Airbnb. There also seemed to be a lot to do in Gifu prefecture that’s more off the beaten path. These were exactly the kind of destinations I wanted to explore this time, since I’m not sure I’ll ever have this kind of time to travel around Japan again in the future.
Friday
I had some time to kill at the train station, so I stopped by a cafe (I have no idea what it was called) near the shinkansen tracks for a small snack.
I did some work at the cafe downstairs while I waited to check-in at Comfort Inn Nagoya Meiekiminami.
- Another no frills business hotel, but it was cheap and walking distance to Nagoya station.
- The default pillows are SUPER flat though — almost comically so. They had free amenities, including extra pillows, down in the lobby.
Joy and I had actually planned to meet at the park, but we somehow ended up on the same exact train, even though we got on at different stations 😆.
Nagoya station had a really interesting setup though — it was my first time seeing different trains stopping on the same side of the platform, but at different sections! Basically some trains would stop on the left half of the platform, while others on the right. This led to me missing a few of my trains because I was waiting on the wrong side 😅.
After an hour or so of travel, we finally made it to Tennogawa Park.
- I was absolutely determined to see wisteria on this trip. Wisteria, along with peonies and hydrangeas, are some of my favorite flowers. My favorite color is purple after all! 💜
- While a lot of wisteria around the world is known for growing along the sides of buildings, Japan is famous for its meticulously manicured wisteria that envelope archways and pergolas.
- It’s also just a normal neighborhood park with playgrounds and walking trails most of the time, except during wisteria season! There was a very large section entirely covered with different variates of wisteria. And the park was free to visit!
- I think we were still a few days early and they weren’t all fully bloomed, but even so, they were stunning 🥰.
- It was also very windy this day. Dust kept flying into our eyes, but it made the wisteria look like they were dancing in the wind!
- We saw quite a few photographers here taking photos. There was even someone doing a demon slayer cosplay shoot. They had a little stool to stand on so their head was closer to the wisteria — so smart 😋.
After I spent a substantial amount of time photographing and admiring the wisteria, we went back to Nagoya station to meet my friend Chelsea at Maruya-Honten for dinner.
- Eel hitsumabushi was a must-try on my list. They have instructions at the restaurant, but there’s basically three ways you can eat it: 1) Just the eel with rice 2) add toppings 3) add dashi broth.
- It did not disappoint! The eel was so tasty and had nice crispy skin. I feel like it’s hard to get comparable eel in the states 😥.
Saturday
We left bright and early for our 8am bus to Gujo Hachiman.
- You can only get to Gujo by bus or car.
- It’s kind of confusing because the website has conflicting info, but at this time, there’s only one bus run by Gifu Bus that goes from Nagoya to the Gujo Hachiman Castle Town Plaza. That’s the most convenient / central drop off point.
- However, future Jackie is here to say that it’s pretty easy to book a taxi online to go from the other, more common drop-off point to the Castle Town Plaza. More on that on a later post.
- We saw a ton of wild wisteria during the ride!
It was a beautifully sunny day in Gujo. It seems to be a rather sleepy town (perfect for me!), so things were just starting to open up by the time we arrived. Our first destination was teahouse overlooking the river, Sogi-an.
- Of course we both got matcha. Joy also got a pretty parfait!
- I loved the peony and wisteria art on the table settings 🥰.
The famous Sogi Sui Shrine is also right next to the teahouse.
Right around the corner, we got lunch at Hirajin.
- This spot is apparently pretty popular. Expect a wait.
- To me, the food was good, but not amazing. I actually had a lot of other tastier food on my second trip here!
Then we took a break and returned to our Airbnb to formally check-in. We stayed at Kinori, and I’m not exaggerating when I say this is my favorite Airbnb experience of all time!
- First of all, the house is absolutely stunning. It’s a remodeled geisha home, and the architect has worked on remodeling several buildings throughout the town. The wood + concrete pairing and all the irregular, organic shapes are sooo my style 🤩.
- There’s also a lot of beautiful art pieces all over the home. It’s like living in an art museum. That being said, a lot of these pieces are pretty delicate, so there are no kids allowed.
- Interior aside, the hosts were AMAZING. During check-in, they serve you tea + a pastry. Then they will give you a paper map of Gujo and personally walk through all the eats and sights. They make sure to ask what you’re looking to eat or do, and tailor their recommendations accordingly. Hospitality at its finest!
- A funny fact they shared — like I previously mentioned, cities/towns typically have their own mascot. The tall character on the right in the bottom right of the map is the mascot for Gujo Hachiman. In Japanese, the number 8 is pronounced hachi. Ergo, they literally made an 8-man character to represent Hachiman 🤣.
- I really can’t say enough about how much I loved staying here. Obviously I liked it enough to come back a second time, but Dan and I are determined to come back even more times in the future!!
The hosts at Kinori called and made a reservation that day at Takara Gallery Workroom. You can buy screen printed goods here and even make your own, which is what we did!
- The staff here were so friendly and nice. One spoke really good English and talked through the history and significance of screen printing in Gujo.
- Joy screen printed a bag, while I did a tenugui (hand towel).
Gujo is famous for its clear, high quality water and numerous waterways throughout the city. There’s always the sound of running water below or next to the streets.
- Igawa Lane in particular was really interesting — it had these giant fish in the waterways!
- The water is so clean that locals come and rinse their laundry, dishes, and vegetables in the stream.
Afterwards, we did a lot of walking around and exploring the town.
- There were hardly any people out on the streets. It was pretty refreshing after the crowds of Kyoto, but I feel like the town could use more business!
- The central part of Gujo isn’t that big. There’s plenty of preserved traditional homes, cute cafes / restaurants, and shops though.
- I got this very cute mini tanuki figurine for Dan from an old lady’s ceramic shop. Something I noticed in Japan is that when they fetch a new unopened item, they’ll usually open it and let you inspect it to make sure it’s in acceptable condition before you purchase it! So thoughtful ☺️.
- There was definitely a craft theme around town. There was a shop where you could order custom geta shoes, a DIY tile shop, custom embroidery shop, and DIY beaded jewelry shop.
- We were pretty interested in the preserved town areas — Kajiya machi and Shokunin machi. We thought there were supposed to be shops, but it was mostly just houses to look at.
- We grabbed a beer at Kobokobo. It’s a local brewery with beer to go or a small Japanese style beer garden.
Before heading back to the Airbnb, we got dinner at Shinbashi-Tei.
- This restaurant was super empty, but the food and service were good!
- I tried a local specialty — miso flavored beef on a this giant leaf? I kept accidentally stabbing the leaf with my chopsticks and getting sauce in the open flame cooking my meat 😐.
- The restaurant is hanging off of the side of the cliff, which is a little precarious the more I look at it, but it looks really cool in pictures! Especially at night when the sign is lit up.
We retired early to our Airbnb to relax and enjoy the beautiful home.
- They did a great job with all the lighting to make it feel warm and inviting at night, but it was a bit of a hassle trying to find all the different switches to turn them off 🤣. Old house problems, but totally worth it for the ambiance.
- They had bottles of beer from Kobokobo in the fridge available for purchase — Joy and I split one 😋.
- They also gave us a small scavenger hunt to encourage us to explore all the art in the home!
- We even got to enjoy an herbal bath in the beautiful bath.
- I will say that the rooms are not very soundproof, which I guess is to be expected of an old home.
Sunday
After waking up early to enjoy the Airbnb, I took one last stroll around town while Joy grabbed breakfast.
Our hosts called a taxi for us to the Gujo Hachiman IC bus stop.
- The taxi driver forgot that we had luggage in the back and started to drive away after we got off, so we frantically had to get his attention before he sped up 😅.
And then it was off to Shirakawa-go!
Final Thoughts
There were so many pretty pictures in this post that I had a hard time choosing the featured image 😅.
The hosts at Kinori and the staff at Takara both asked how we had heard about Gujo Hachiman. They were really excited when I told them I had watched Sundai’s vlog, since they’ve gotten many other visitors through similar means.
It really feels like they’ve put in a lot of effort to ready the town for more tourism. All the locals we encountered were so welcoming, and I really hope they get more visitors.
I ended up loving Gujo so much that I came back again in May with Dan, so look forward to even more Gujo pictures!
