Shirakawa-go

Photos taken Nov. 28, 2023

Would like to see this place in every season. Very very beautiful.

We were here on a rainy and cold day. ☺️

Booked bus tickets in advanced.

This place was way off track in our itinerary. We were in Takayama and was told to come here. Since we had a car, so we were game to be quite adventurous. Took us almost an hour though! But it was quite nice.

Shirakawa-go is a Unesco Heritage site and well preserved by the Japanese. It is actually a village in the mountains of Gifu with old thatched houses.

Warning - if you want to take good pics, COME EARLY. 9am. Once it passes the 10am mark, hordes of tour buses with loads and loads of tourists will descend upon this poor village, taking over the entire place. Just fyi, there are actual population living in this village. ( I wonder how they can take it with thousands of tourists visiting them everyday, and climbing onto their garden to take pictures...) Covid-19 two years must be a great relief for them.

Frankly, there isn't much to do here except to look and take in the sights which isn't a lot too. Just a nice quaint village with old houses. If you are tired or thirsty, there are a couple of small cafes but we were early, so none of them were opened.

We were here in Autumn (Nov). Was told perhaps it would be prettier to see during winter when it is covered in snow white.

Parking here is 500Y and entrance is free. Be prepared to spend 1 hour.

Hübsches Dorf, mit historischen Häusern, die teils bis zu 300 Jahre alt sind. Restaurants, Cafes, Gifts Shops, Tourismus-Info, Toiletten, alles vorhanden und gepflegt. Die Busfahrt von Kanazawa Station aus dauert ca. 70 Minuten. Viele Gäste bleiben einen ganzen Tag hier, ich würde sagen, das 2 Stunden mehr als ausreichend sind. Nicht alle Häuser sind historisch, worunter die Atmosphäre etwas leidet.

T'is the highlight of our trip. Truly magnificent and an amazing place to visit. It's really worth the travel. I'm glad that we were able to capture the colors of Autumn here. I'm sure this village would tell another story when visited during winter time. I envy the people who actually live here and experience waking up to these views everyday. I hope we can visit this place again.

Nice little tourist area, deserted at night so make sure you get dinner early! We had a lovely quiet time there in the morning before the crowds started to com at around 9am when the museums open

We made a three hour stop here on our way to Kanazawa by bus. It's a bit of a tourist spot and good for a one hour stop only. It has lots of toilets around the town and two small cafes if you want a coffee. We found one restaurant which was open. A very nice town with a lot of original houses and you can also go up to the observatory. When we went there was a very large number of tourists.

I was amazed at this well presented Heritage town! The houses still accommodate the locals & stay over tourists. That was us!😊
The locals are early morning risers due to the thousands of tourists that converge during the day. I observed the locals dog walking, gardening & general outdoor cleaning in the early morning hours.
If you stay overnight, you really must arise early, you will have the village streets to yourself! We had a fabulous experience!