Takayama

Hey, Suvi.

This is Julian Alan Philippe from the Summit in Takayama.

When I was working in the bike industry in Vancouver, um, over the last 15 years, uh, I noticed a trend coming out from the big manufacturers- Started to, uh, open up concept stores and brand stores, uh, around local dealers.

And later on, the big S decided to, uh, start selling bikes online with the option to ship to their dealers.

Oh, right.

We moved from Tokyo to Takayama, which is a beautiful hill town, city, lots of old wooden houses and wonderful.

Is it?

There's a type of beef here actually called Hida or Hida beef, which is, if you, if you're a meat eater, is just unbelievable.

So it's a fantastic place if you need easy access to a lot of places in Japan.

Now, recently, you might recall that I went to a place called Takayama.

I also went to a place called Matsumoto, uh, in Nagano.

Takayama is in Gifu.

Now, access to these places, usually for people based in Tokyo or in Osaka, it's a little bit of a trek, okay? And from Nagoya, not only is it fast, but it's also relatively cheap.

You can get the Hida Express, I think it was called the Hida Express, which I took the other day.

I'm actually planning on going again in autumn, because apparently all this stuff goes orange and red, you know, the beautiful Japanese autumn colors.

So I think I might go again, and I think it was only about 5,000 or 6,000 yen each way.

Let's start with Japan.

If you're looking for a combination of fall scenery and traditional culture, consider Takayama, Japan, for the Takayama Autumn Festival.

It's held every year, October ninth and tenth.

This is one of Japan's greatest traditional festivals, with these incredible ornate floats moving through the historic streets of Takayama.

And at night, the floats are illuminated by lanterns.

That's a wonderful fallcation because you're not just visiting Japan, you're experiencing Japan during a cultural moment that only happens at that particular time of the year.

It's John here in Nagoya, Japan and I'm going to start off the episode with another cup of coffee.

Today's blend is premium blend from a place in Takayama.

I went there myself actually a few weeks ago and there's a coffee shop there called Sataya.

I highly recommend visiting if you ever go there.

But not many people stop off in the region.

We have, uh, popular cities like Takayama or Shirakawa-go in the northern part of the central region, or the Kanazawa, it's a coastal, um, it's, uh, facing the coastal line.

And I'm actually based in the southern part of central Japan.

Okay.

Anyway, before we start, let's have a sip of coffee because you know me, I've got to fill up my caffeine receptors.

And today's coffee is this beautiful Indonesian Mandirin, which is from a place called Takayama.

Anyway, I'll put a picture up here and you can see it for yourself.

Ah, this is another darkish one.

It's not too dark.

It's about a medium dark roast.

And the beautiful thing about this place that I found in Takayama, I put a few photos up of this by the way on my X feed and also on my Instagram.

There's this little coffee shop there.

Please sign Don Frye.

Please sign Takayama.

Please sign Minoru Suzuki.

All those, I think, were probably dependent upon how some of these do.

So hopefully that happens.

But imagine a LJN-style Don Frye.

And imagine if the Takayama, like they could actually punch each

other.

We're gonna do it in rounds next time.

Takiya, Takayama Mania is always very sad.

Mm-hmm.

They had a moment of silence for Toru Kogure.

You don't know that.

You wasn't there.

Takayama, Takayama was wearing, wearing red.

Uh-