Takayama Morning Markets

NB. Photos and edits in purple added 31/07/07

Hoba miso is the famed specialty for the Hida region. We padded our way downstairs to the aroma of this cooking downstairs at breakfast (served 7.30am-8.30am sharp).

Our feast of a breakfast included a boiled egg, pickles, toasted nori sheets, and a slice of cooked salmon (a little salty as though it had been preserved). The star of this meal was the burner as always. Resting on a metal sheet was our hoba miso, a thick paste mixed with mushrooms, scallions and vegetables, cooking on a magnolia leaf.



As the paste heated and sizzled, we stirred the mushrooms around with our chopsticks until it became a sweet and sticky mass perfect for eating with mouthfuls of plain white rice. The hoba has a sweet and spicy taste, with an umami undertone.

We visited the two morning markets: Miyagawa Market and Jinya Mae Market, both filled with local farmers and producers selling fruit, vegetables, rice crackers, hoba miso, pickles and plenty of souvenirs. There wasn't much fruit on sale but plenty of daikon, angelica spears, green onions and multi-coloured cobs of dried corn.


Mini geta wooden clogs


Traditional Takayama figurines


Fern shoots


Woven straw slippers


Hoba miso paste


Boiled sweets


Warabi fiddlehead fern shoots


Fresh strawberries


Figurine carvings


Coloured corn cobs


Pickled shoots


Paku ferns


Hello Kitty and Pokemon iced senbei rice crackers


The friendly man selling fresh Japanese marshmallows


Owara tamaten (they were very eggy and rich)


How owara tamaten is made


Dried chillies and lavendar


Dried fruits


Steamed buns


Paper penguin lanterns


Mitarashi dango (mochi rice dumplings grilled with a sweet soy syrup)


Japanese printed fabrics


Mochi rice dumplings


Tsukemono pickles


Japanese wild yams


Japanese hacky sacks / juggling balls

Filled with dried beans and made with fabric scraps, these have traditionally been practical but pretty toys for children.


All kinds of fabric, including Hello Kitty, Snoopy and Thomas the Tank Engine


Rickshaw