Was very attracted to this place after watching the following video. So, this was on the top of the list of places to visit for this winter trip.
This Unesco World Heritage site was nested within the remote mountains. A very small historic village which was well-known for its well-preserved gassho-style houses (i.e roof that looked like hands in prayer). It probably take about an hour to walk around this village. But, sightseeing wise, the 2hrs that I had was definitely not enough to really enjoy looking, eating and shopping in this place.
The weather was lovely when we arrived in mid-day. It wasn't snowing and was not too sunny. The mountains were shrouded in fog and, thus, making it a beautiful backdrop. Was excited to see the thick snow all around (seems even thicker than the time in Nikko). Some of the houses or objects The beautiful sight was made up of thick snow on the ground and the thatched roofs of the preserved houses. There were a few houses which welcomed visitors at a nominal fee. Inside the houses
Cross this bridge to get to the village where most vehicles were out-of-bound.
Gassho Houses - roof looks like hands in prayer
"foamy" snow on the roof. In anticipation of really heavy snow piling up, ladders were placed at the exterior for home owners to climb into their houses.
Soba - One of Shirakawa's famous delicacies
I read that it'll be kinda troublesome to get to Shirakawa-go from Tokyo. Have to travel by train for abt 4 hrs to Takayama, then change to a bus, which will take close to an hour, to Shirakawa. To save some hassle, we joined a 2D1N local tour which departed from Tokyo. The advantage of the tour package was that it allowed us to visit a few places in that region (include Takayama & Kanazawa) within a short time frame. And, most importantly, we didn't have to plan the route which was so unfamiliar to us. The only drawback about the tour was that we couldn't roam as long as we liked to in this quaint village. Though this place wasn't that huge, we would love to have more than 2 hrs to stroll, eat & browse at leisure pace.
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