Japan travel: Shirakawa-go, one old village in the Japanese Alps

Shirakawa-go, Japan Alps

Before going into the pictures let me tell you that we are still into the most popular range of the Japan Alps, 

(everything about scenic views and the most beautiful forest I ever seen) known as a must-visit site among 

international tourists - especially the area including Kamikochi and Shinhotaka Ropeway/ Yarmikan.

In this remote, mountainous areas between Takayama and Kanazawa in the central Japan is where you find the 

small Shirakawa-go Village. And we arrived here after a 50 min trip by bus, from Takayama.

Shirakawa-go is situated at the foot of Mt. Haku-san on the small river called Sho-kawa. It is a beautiful 

mountain village - with rice fields and a river running right in the middle. It is best known for small, traditional 

houses build in a style known as gasshō-zukuri. It is a Unesco World Heritage in Japan and their  preservation 

over hundreds of years has been recognized worldwide.

Gassho-zukuri is a house built of wooden beams combined to form a steep thatched roof that 

resembles, as you can see in the pictures below - two hands together. And somehow resambles the houses in 

the European mountain villages.

Our host for one night here was a small minshiku named Yokichi; the food was a delight of freshness and

simplicity (fish from the river near by and vegetables from the small garden around the house)

and the public onsen bath we visited late evening just to finish our day with style - was as good 

as always during our Japan Alps tour! 

It was also the last onsen-bath for us, next morning we were to leave the village and the mountains and on the 

road again to Kyoto via Kanazawa.

We had an extremely pleasant sunny afternoon here; it was green and clean and fresh and we'll be happy to 

visit again!

all this pictures are taken from the Shirakawa Tenbodai viewing point 

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the small defender of our host

our one night minshuku host 

Bliss, pure bliss!

the Deai-bashi suspension bridge on the Sho-kawa River

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