After a while you tire of the easy destinations — the usual spots with their inevitable touristic clutter. So you decide on somewhere different — somewhere that's far from the madding crowds and far, too, from the yet more madding megaphone-toting tour guides.

And so you may decide the trip just has to be to Takayama — in the middle of the mountains in the middle of winter.

Located in the Hida range of the Japan Alps in Gifu Prefecture, Takayama is the most unaffectedly charming of all Japan's historical towns. The former remoteness of this spot played a big role in preserving its old character, and it lacks the contrived come-hither-tourist reconstructed air of such spots as Tsumago and Magome on the other side of the Hida Mountains.