Having enjoyed the amble through the Japanese countryside so much on our last journey we decide to not use the expressways and travel on the local roads. The scenery is very beautiful and we travel next to the river in between very steep hills. Our destination is Shirakawa-go. Shirakawa-go villages were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995. Our navigation system takes us up a very narrow twisting steep one lane mountain road. We are heading up for the clouds and the view down below is wonderful. We are very thankful that we haven’t met any cars as yet. 20 minutes further on we do meet a truck and much waving and gesturing we get the message that the road is closed so we have to affect a 4 point turn and retrace our route back to the highway.
Eventually we find the express way and our destination and are delighted to find that our journey is free because of the local road being closed.
Shirakawa-mura is located in the north-western part of Gifu Prefecture, and consists of 16 villages dotted along the Shogawa river and the national highway.
A Gassho farmhouse is defined as a thatched farmhouse with big pitched roofs. The name Gassho means the gesture when people bring their hands together in prayer. The shape of the roofs resemble the Gassho style. Most Gassho farmhouses have about 200 years history. There are 60 Gassho farmhouses in Shirakawago village. These houses are still used by the owner family for their daily living.
The village is very old and full of tourists – we find a nice little restaurant for lunch and then have a walk around exploring the houses that are still inhabited by descendants of the original families.
There are green houses full of tomatoes and other vegetables and fields of rice. Many houses have become gift shops but he wares are very receptive and quite a lot of sweet treats in beautiful packaging are sold and I might add that they are extremely popular. My eye is draw to the Chinese or Japanese lantern flowers in bright orange. We saw pictures of the village in winter with deep snow and channels cut out to allow access.
Our car is due to be returned this afternoon so we soldier on to Kanazawa
