Day 10: Shirakawa-go

Shirakawa-go lies in the remote mountains that stretch from Gifu to Toyama Prefecture. Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995, the village is famous for its traditional gassho-zukuri farmhouses, some of which are more than 250 years old.

Gassho-zukuri means “constructed like hands in prayer”, as the farmhouses' steep thatched roofs resemble the hands of Buddhist monks pressed together in prayer. The architectural style developed over many generations and is designed to withstand the large amounts of heavy snow that fall in the region during winter. The roofs, built without nails, provided a large attic space used for raising silkworms.

While walking around the village, we noticed some commotion around one of the houses. Every roof needs to be re-thatched every few years, and the entire community works on this complex task, while the kids were playing barefoot in the melting snow.

I had heard so much about this place and seen so many amazing pictures that I asked Yasuko if we could include it in our trip to Japan. Unfortunately, I didn't take into account that the village is really at its best either when it is covered with snow, in the middle of winter, or when the rice paddies are lush and green, in the middle of summer. I would definitely not recommend visiting the area in the spring, as we did.

At the end of our walk around the village, we climbed a steep road that leads to a very popular viewpoint. From there, we slowly walked back to the car and drove to the town of Takayama, where we had planned to spend the night.