Takayama - Japanese Tradition and Beef

Yesterday, in an attempt to discover the Japan of old, I ventured to Takayama, a town in central Japan in a region called the Hida-District. Admitadly my motives for travelling to there did in fact h ave a culinary aspect to them. Hida is one of the regions in Japan famous for high-grade beef, made famous by Kobe, but not exclusively produced there as I discovered to my delight yesterday.

But before we go into that, Takayama offered a side of Japan I had not seen before; beautifully preserved traditional Japanese buildings, both urban and rural in style. The center of Takayama contained an area of urban "Tatami" style shops and houses with straw mats, sliding doors and low tables.
A rural village just outside the town showed original "gassho-zukuri" houses typical of the region, identifable by their triangular thatched roofs.


Anyway, let's talk beef, or as they say here "Wagyu".
How can i put this? If I were a man with an addictive personality, my vice wouldn't be gambling, alcohol or women, but Japanese Beef. You know when you let a put a piece of chocolate in your mouth and let it slowly melt; this is similar to the experience of eating Japanese high-grade beef. Cutting it is like a knife through butter; it's so juicy and tender, it just melts in your mouth. The secret of it's intricate web of fat marbling, which can make it look almost white, is a combination of the type of cow, in this case the Japanese Black cow, and the cow's diet. Let's just say you haven't really tasted beef until you've tasted this stuff. Japan takes beef to another level.