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Written by a guest blogger who recently visited Takayama for this article.

Hida Takayama is one of my favourite old towns in Japan and its charm keeps me coming back year after year. Located in the beautiful mountains of Gifu Prefecture, Takayama is famous for its well preserved old town as well as the Takayama Festival held in both spring and autumn. It also has in my opinion some of the best gourmet food and restaurants in all of Japan.

The Takayama food scene is best known for its high-quality Hida beef which is raised from Japanese black cattle in the region, but there is lot more to Takayama than just beef as I discovered on my most recent trip. I was surprised to learn that Takayama has some great fresh fish and seafood. The fresh fish and seafood is sent daily from ports in Toyama Prefecture along the Japan Sea and can be found in sushi restaurants and izakaya (Japanese-style pubs) all around town. It is hard to imagine Takayama having some of the best fish in the country being a mountainous area surrounded by the stunning Northern Japan Alps, but Toyama is only an hour or so away so it has the best of both worlds.
The food in Takayama takes its influences from both the Kansai and Kanto regions of Japan creating unique local dishes that can't be found anywher...