Takahashi : Michelin's recommendations

The countryside of Takahashi is sculpted with paddy fields which form terraces up the hillside. This small historical city, which flourished with the rice trade, painstakingly maintains its merchant and samurai houses, some of which can be visited (most notably Buke Yashiki-kan), its Zen temple, Raikyu-ji, grafted with a kare sensui or rock garden, and the noble Bitchu-Matsuyama fortress (12C, reworked in the 16C), which affords an aerial view over mountains and the river.