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Photo: Ngresonance, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
An attractive open-air museum assembled from real buildings that effectively recreates an entire traditional mountain village. Artisans continue to work in many buildings; you can buy their crafts and even try your own hand at a number of activities. The architectural highlights are the traditional thatched-roof gasshō-zukuri houses, built with roofs like hands in prayer to withstand the heavy snowfalls in this region. More whimsically, there is a giant maneki-neko cat outside, standing over 4 m tall.
Hida Folk Village, Hida no Sato is an open-air museum of close to 30 old farmhouses illustrating the traditional architectural styles of the mountainous regions of Japan. Of particular interest are the thatched and shingled roofs, such as the gasshō-zukuri-styled buildings. Many of the buildings were brought from their original sites to preserve them. The village is picturesquely situated on a hillside overlooking the Takayama Valley and surrounding a large pond. It is in the city of Takayama, Gifu Prefecture, Japan, about 2.5 km (1.6 mi) southwest of the train station.
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高山陣屋
This is a beautifully preserved government building from the time of the shogun and still used as local government building until 1969. Many rooms at the beginning of the visit are basically empty tatami rooms with some indication of what the original use was. In the rice storage area there are interesting displays and information (mostly in Japanese) about how local government worked in the Edo era. The two storage buildings alone, the biggest such original buildings still present in Japan, are worth the visit.
さんまち
It is a very pretty section of Takayama's old city. Consisting of three narrow lanes packed with wooden buildings housing sake breweries and little boutiques, some of the larger merchant houses are now open as museums. The area, though it is definitely worth a visit, is quite touristy now and you will find many tourists around browsing the lanes flanked by tourist-oriented shops. The area is a 10-minute walk to the east of the station.
昭和館
A popular culture museum with exhibits from the mid-Showa Period (1950-60s). Various streets and shops display Showa-era memorabilia. You can explore the toy shop, appliance store, restaurant, doctor's office, movie theatre, and barber shop. There are also electric collections of battledores, war relics, plastic anime and manga masks, cameras, movie posters and children's toys.
飛騨高山まちの博物館 Hida-Takayama-machi no Hakubutsukan
The museum is in 17th-century warehouses once owned by the Yajima family who ran a timber business and the Nagata family who owned the best sake breweries in Takayama. There are 14 exhibition rooms dedicated to individual themes ranging from the Takayama Festival and traditional houses to the city’s history and local artists.
東山遊歩道
A 3.5-km-long hiking trail through Takayama's temples and shrines, past some of its more rural neighborhoods, and through Shiroyama Park, the former site of Takayama Castle. The course starts and ends at the Hida Takayama Museum of History and Art.
Kusakabe Heritage House, 日下部民芸館
The Kusakabe house is a restored old merchant's home built in 1879. The home is filled with artifacts and crafts from that time period.