By chance, I arrived in Takayama during their two day spring festival. The town has a well preserved district – which was my reason for visiting – that allowed you to see how people lived many years ago. Thus the festival was a pleasant surprise and unexpected bonus. This also meant finding accommodations was challenging, as everything reasonably priced was already booked and anything close to the city center was overpriced. Without many choices, I ended up spending the night in a love hotel in the next small town.
A love hotel is basically a short-stay hotel where Japanese men take women to engage in sexual activities. The women could be their wives (although unlikely), girlfriends, mistresses or escorts. Aside from the smoke-tingled furniture, framed lights over the bed and a massaging apparatus, the room looked disappointingly normal. I was expecting disco lights, love cushions or other weird kinky stuff. Heck, I couldn’t even find a decent x-rated film to watch on television (not that I’m into that kinda thing – I was just doing research).
The spring festival was very enjoyable, as throngs crowded the narrow streets to watch locals dressed in traditional attire sing, dance and play instruments. Some kids were dressed in dragon costumes, and danced in front of shop owners – perhaps for prosperity. There were also a dozen 200 year old floats with intricate detailing and designed. Each one has a well-documented history are only presented to the public twice a year for the spring and fall festivals, so they were a big deal.
I meandered the streets, enjoying the festival, sampling the local cuisine and store sweets and soaked the positive energy. Another bonus that complimented the good vibe was seeing cherry blossom trees, which were no longer in bloom in other cities.
