Central Japan Day 3 - Shirakawa-gō

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02 June 2008

After leaving Kenroku-en, our tour coach took us up a winding road that eventually led to Shirakawa-gō (白川郷, "White River Old-District"), one of the historical villages and UNESCO World Heritage sites. The village is supposed to be famous for the straw thatched roof architectural style called gasshō-zukuri. The roof is slanted at a steep angle to withstand the heavy snowfall during winter. These country houses mostly have padi or vegetable plots right beside them that complete the serenity of the scene.

Shirakawa-gō was also featured in a murder-mystery anime, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (ひぐらしのなく頃に, When Cicadas Cry), that once was suspended for a few weeks due to a teenager actually stabbing her father with a murder weapon featured in it. Somehow many of the sights on this trip have something to do with dying...

First glimpse of one of the houses from the bus


A row of houses that are used as souvenir shops near the tourist bus area that is across the river from the main village


Our guide told us that the toilet was built at the cost of 3 million (my guess is USD) as they had to pump water from the mountains


A sturdy looking suspension bridge connects the tourist bus parking lots to the actual village across the river. It may be sturdy but it still sways.


Are these bears? It turns out they're racoon dogs called Tanuki


The houses may be old-architectural in style but the road they are beside is as modern as can be complete with cars


By looking at the colour of the roof one can tell which parts were recently thatched


An example of a panorama of this town, the straw thatched roofs houses are interleaved with more modern houses


A temple (probably Buddhist) with its bell


The actual temple building with its reflection on a padi field



Padi fields in every back yard


Panorama that includes a stretch of straw thatched roof houses


Re-thatching in progress, it looks like hard work


Close-up of roof texture


Some of these are shops, others are actual homes


Water from the mountain is so cold, it is used to cool drinks


They have drain fish (long kang hie) here too... just that they are Koi...


BBQ rice cakes, tastes sweet with the char-grilled flavour



Somehow the serenity and the mountains makes me feel like becoming a farmer here, maybe someone should open a research lab here


A Shinto shrine on our way back across the bridge


Back across the bridge, although the river is a trickle, the banks give away its possible size


Moving off

Much to our dismay, all we had in this scenic spot was a mere 30 minutes. For some strange reason we were hurrying to Takayama so that some of the others in the tour could go to a 100 YEN shop -- something I found to be rather nonsensical. Reluctantly we left Shirakawa-gō. I probably will not be here again. However all is not lost as Takayama is an excellent old town to be covered on foot. While the others were visiting a 100 YEN shop, the group of us went off on foot to the oldest building in the town, Hida-Kokubunji Temple. But that is for the next post...

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