Photo: KimonBerlin (CC BY-SA 2.0)
A self-guided audio walking tour of Hida no Sato, the open-air museum of houses and work buildings moved from villages across the Hida region, a short bus or taxi ride from central Takayama. It starts at Goami Pond, a reservoir built in 1931 that still waters the rice paddies, on the site of the castle town below Matsukura Castle, destroyed in 1585, whose merchants became the roots of Takayama's merchant culture. Round the pond it visits the Former Tomita House, a way station on the road to Toyama, the Yoshizane House, moved after the Tsunogawa earthquake of 1858, the helmet-roofed Michigami House, the Takumi Shrine of the master craftsmen of Hida, and the Hozumi, Maeda and Nishioka houses. It goes on past the warabi-flour mill and its work huts to the Tanaka House, with its stone-weighted board roof, and the Taguchi House of 1809, built for village headmen. It ends with the Ono House, the four-storey Wakayama House of 1797, whose rescue from the Miboro Dam led to the founding of the museum, the Tateho Shrine Hall and Stage, and the Nakayabu and Arai houses.
16 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 29 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 2 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Goami Pond, Former Tomita House, Former Yoshizane House, Former Michigami House, Takumi Shrine.
Former Hozumi House, Former Maeda House, Former Nishioka House, Warabi-flour Mill and the Work Huts, Former Tanaka House.
Former Taguchi House, Former Ono House, Former Wakayama House, Tateho Shrine Hall and Stage, Former Nakayabu House, Former Arai House.
The reservoir of 1931 at the heart of Hida no Sato, once also used to cut ice, on the site of the castle town below Matsukura Castle.
A house from Tsunogawa, built before 1858 and moved by its family after the Tsunogawa earthquake of that year.
The shrine of the takumi, Hida's master craftsmen, up a steep flight of stone steps, assembled from buildings gathered across the region.
An Important Cultural Property of Japan, built in 1809 in Kanayama for a family of village headmen.
The four-storey gassho-zukuri house of 1797 whose rescue from the Miboro Dam began Hida no Sato.
A raised worship hall with a stage below it, built from the worship halls of three village shrines.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 16 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 16 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Hida Folk Village — the Farmhouses of Hida no Sato, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
16 narration points, including Goami Pond, Former Tomita House, Former Yoshizane House, Former Michigami House and Takumi Shrine. That is about 38 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~1–2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 16 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.