Getting to the village

New Year’s Day! The first day of the year consisted of us making our way up to the picturesque Shirakawa-go village!

The Shirakawa-go village, declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995, is home to the traditional gassho-zukuri farmhouses that you’ve probably seen on postcards. What’s cool about these houses is the way they’re able to withstand the heavy snowfall during the winter season. The snow will pile up and you end up seeing a sea of white on the roof of all the village houses. It really makes you feel like you’re in a winter wonderland.

We took the Nohi bus, which was included as a benefit in our Takayama-Hokuriku JR pass. To get to the village, you can take the bus from either Takayama or Kanazawa. My initial concerns with the bus ride was the fact that we weren’t able to reserve our seats for the bus ride home, meaning if we didn’t get on a bus at the right time, we’d probably be stranded in the village. Coupled with the fact that it was New Year’s day, I assumed the buses wouldn’t be as frequent too. We decided to make a mental note to leave by 4.50pm ish. My worries would then be quashed by the sheer level of service the Japanese bus conductors offer, which I will get to in a bit.

 

Right here we have the Shirakawa-go bus station. When we first got off and went in to ask the information counter on places of interest, I immediately saw a sign that said:

“To accommodate the number of tourists, there will be extra buses making their way to the Shirakawa-go bus stop…” or something along those lines. 

I couldn’t really imagine having to work extra hard on New Year’s day, as it was such an important day for the locals to take the day off to visit the temples for their New Year prayers. But the fact that they took into consideration the influx of tourists to the village, was really commendable.

We went to the counter, and rented some snow boots for about (¥)800 per pair. The lady at the counter gave us a map, then told us the path we should take to explore the entire village. The snow was pretty crazy early in the morning so we decided to put our bags in a locker. (which you have to pay for but I can’t remember how much)

We decided to head to the observation deck first. Starting from 9am, a shuttle bus comes every 20 minutes to ferry tourists from the base stop up to the observation deck where you can see all the houses in all its pretty white glory. The fee is (¥)200. You can actually walk to the observatory in 20 mins from the bus terminal but that’s not allowed during winter.

 

Shiroyama Viewpoint

 

Yeah so the morning wasn’t exactly the best time for viewing. The snow was really heavy and we could barely get the scenery on camera. At night, the houses are lit up. As I don’t have a photo of what Shirakawa-go looks like at night, here is a photo I shamelessly stole from Google as reference.

 

We lined up to take a group photo with the scenery in the background, but again there wasn’t much to be ‘scene’ due to the weather.

 

The snow really began to pile up as we waited for the shuttle bus to bring us back down.

 

 

 

 

While we were waiting for the bus, Brandon decided to attempt to evolve into a human snowman by standing absolutely still, crossing his arms to collect the snowfall with his big puffy body.

 

 

 

 

The shuttle bus came, so we helped Brandon dust off his excess snow. Much to the amusement of an old Japanese couple in front of us, we continued dusting Brandon even when there wasn’t anymore snow because we just wanted to hit him.

Then, it was time to walk around the village!

 

After a bit of walking and souvenir shopping, we were really hungry. We couldn’t really find much food around the village (possibly due to New Year’s Day) so we settled for some croquettes. Eating hot croquettes on a snowy day just makes the experience so much better.

We continued walking and eventually came to one of the big village houses, the Wada House!

Wada House

 

The Wada House, built in 1800 is the largest gassho style house in Shirakawa-go. It is home to the Wada family, who were involved in the explosives and raw silk trade. The house contains many of the traditional artifacts and items used in their everyday life. On the first floor you’ll see plenty of old artifacts and on the second floor you’ll see things related to the silkworm trade. The view from the second floor is great too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We took a look outside and we finally saw a really pretty view. The snowfall had subsided and we could actually get stuff on camera now!

 

 

Seeing this, we brisked through the other artifacts in the house and headed outside!

 

 

 

Everywhere we looked, we saw a mixture of the white snow together with the trees in their winter state. Just being able to see/feel the stark contrast of nature in the village compared to back home in Malaysia was surreal. It was a lot to take in and pictures really don’t do the place justice.

 

 

These farmhouses were designed to withstand the harsh conditions of winter. I never expected a straw house could be so sturdy.

 

 

We came across a shrine. Kenneth and I went in to check it out while Brandon and Derek stayed out because they wanted to play with snow.

 

 

 

When we were finished with the shrine, we went outside and we were greeted with a bit of sun!

 

 

 

We continued to pamper our eyes with the beautiful scenery, as we noticed a queue for a snack shop. They sold Hida beef buns and I was feeling hungry, so I decided to queue up to buy one. The beef aroma grew stronger as I approached the counter. I could resist no more as I took out my wallet and proceeded to purchase..

 

So as you can see, in my right hand, I hold an ice-cream. The ice-cream was made with Hida milk, which I grew fond of after trying out the delicacies in Takayama. What you might not be able to see was the matcha powder that was dusted onto the ice-cream. It tasted really good and I ate it simultaneously with my Hida beef bun, which also tasted very nice. I’m an advocate for eating ice-cream during winter time. If you don’t eat ice-cream during the winter you’re not enjoying winter right.

 

 

We saw this random pond as I was busy gobbling my ice-cream. The fish were swimming really slowly, probably due to the winter season.

 

 

 

As the snow on the ground was melting, the road became a bit more difficult to walk on. The snow boots we rented were a lifesaver for stepping into deep snow and having a solid grip on the road. We saw people wearing regular sport shoes slipping occasionally. At least I know I did.

Normally I would bring a pet to a park. I found out that day you can bring your pet to a snowy village too.

 

 

As usual, the dogs drew squeals of delight from other tourists, mainly girls, who couldn’t resist going up close and saying hi.

 

Suspension Bridge

 

This is a very long bridge suspended over the river. It was challenging to walk across due to the frozen snow on the bridge making the path slippery. Coupled with the insane number of people who cross the bridge to get over to the other side of the village, one would ask why bother? Well…

 

 

 

…and if that’s not enough, when you make it pass the bridge, you get a pretty good vantage point of the village and the mountains.

 

 

 

 

Funny enough, crossing over to the other side led us to the supposed ‘entrance’ of the Shirakawa-go village. Whereas we started from inside the village.

 

 

 

The sky was getting dark again, so we decided to head back to our starting point, but before we left, we had to stop by the village onsen!

Shirakawa-go no yu

Yeah, no photos allowed in an onsen. We don’t take nudes either.

But it was a pretty good onsen as it was open air. We got to see the snowfall as we soaked our tired bodies in the water! Only event I could remember here was when Kenneth almost got scolded as he dipped his towel into the onsen water, much to the chagrin of this angry looking Japanese dude.

The onsen was a fitting end to an eventful day at what I consider one of the best places I’ve ever visited.

 

And that’s it!

 

Closing thoughts for this place:

I can’t praise Shirakawa-go enough. It definitely lived up to the hype of a prime tourist destination spot for the winter season. We didn’t visit all the gassho houses due to time constraints (and also varied interests amongst ourselves) but the views and scenery left us more than satisfied. My only regret was we didn’t get to spend the night due to amateur planning on my part, but I’ll be going again next year during Autumn so maybe I’ll get a chance to snap photos of Shirakawa-go at night!

 

Kyoto is up next!

 

Maybe if I stop procrastinating I might actually finish my Japan blogs before December.