in Shirakawa, Gifu
Shirakawago is a small village located in the Ono region of Gifu. Shirakawago is famous for its gassho-zukuri houses, which are wooden houses that have thick, thatched roofs. The village is classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, containing more than 100 gassho style houses. Because the village is surrounded by mountains, its isolation from the rest of the region led the village to develop its own unique culture and traditions, including the thatched roof of the gassho houses, which is supposed to protect against the heavy snowfall the area experiences each year. The roofs on the houses need to be replaced every few decades, so the village comes together and works to support one another in the process.
My experience
We visited Shirakawago as part of a last minute trip on New Year's day. We left before dawn and took the first shinkansen from Tokyo to Nagoya. Our first sunrise of 2024 was on the shinkansen, which was actually quite pretty since the route from Tokyo to Nagoya goes right by the coast of Shizuoka. We arrived in Nagoya around 7:30 in the morning and took the highway bus to Shirakawago. We had to book tickets in advance and the bus was completely booked out! It was mainly tourists, since Shirakawago is a popular tourist attraction and many Japanese families usually stay home and celebrate with family during the new year. The bus ride was about 2.5 hours with one short rest stop in the middle for a bathroom break.
We arrived in Shirakawago around 10:30, and it was snowing when we arrived! There was maybe around 15-20 centimeters of snow on the ground, but there was no snow on the footpaths and the road, only in the open fields. In February, the area can experience up to 2 meters of snow! I saw some people wearing sneakers which surprised me! We came fully prepared with snow boots, which I'm so thankful that we did, because it was quite slippery in some areas and it was nice to be able to walk in the snow without worrying. I was also shocked at how many people there were in the village during this time! Probably over 80% of the people were foreign tourists, so the area was a lot more crowded than I thought it'd be for New Years. There were even some omiyage and restaurant stops open during New Year's day, probably to cater to the influx of visitors.
We spent all our day in Ogimachi, which is the largest and most well-known area of Shirakawago. You can see the entire village in maybe 4 - 5 hours, so the area is perfect for a day trip! I believe they also offer some lodging accommodations inside the houses and there are couple of ryokans/hotels near by you can stay the night in, but you definitely need to make reservations well ahead of time if you want to stay inside one of the gassho houses! It's especially popular during winter as the town hosts a special light up every Sunday for one month starting in January. This year the event is completely reservation-based so you either need to stay overnight in Shirakawago, reserve a parking space in advance, or reserve a highway bus ticket or tour bus ticket.
We walked around the main area of the town for a bit before making our way to Deai bridge, which is a 107-meter long suspension bridge that connects the main area with the Gasshozukuri Minkaen Outdoor Museum. The view from the bridge is absolutely stunning, although it is quite scary feeling the concrete bridge move! It was also incredibly crowded when we went, so that made it even more terrifying as the holes between the ropes are quite big so you need to be careful not to drop anything!
After walking across the bridge, we visited the outdoor museum. The museum consists of gassho style houses from the Kazura district, where residents were looking to sell and relocate the houses outside of their village. The old unwanted houses were then relocated to the museum. There are 25 structures in the museum, including farmhouses, storehouses, and sheds. You can actually go inside the structures in the museum, and the entire area takes maybe around an hour to walk around. There is a beautiful mini pond with carp inside as well.
After visiting the museum, we walked up to the Ogimachi Castle Observation Deck and the Shiroyama Tenshukaku Observation Deck. The walk up the hill is a little steep and takes around 20 minutes to reach the top. The observation decks are free and this is where you can see a beautiful view of the Ogimachi village! This was probably my favorite part of the trip as the houses in valley looked so pretty against the snowy backdrop. I can see why some people say Shirakawago looks like it came out of a fairytale!
We spent maybe around 30 minutes at the observation deck enjoying the view and walking around before heading back down to the bus stop. While we were waiting for the bus stop, we could feel the magnitude 7 earthquake happening in Ishikawa. Everyone ran outside as soon as we got the earthquake warning on our phones. It was quite scary but I didn't feel the earthquake that much and luckily no one was hurt where we were. My heart goes out to the families in Ishikawa and the Western coast of Japan that were impacted by this tragic event though. We were very fortunate and thankful that our bus and shinkansen home also weren't delayed, so we were able to make it back to Tokyo by 10:00 at night. Overall it was a very eventful day, but Shirakawago is a very beautiful and unique village and I'm so happy we were able to visit this winter!
Official Site
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