Shirakawago ......

Day 10

I had been really looking forward to this...... Ever since reading about Shirakawago and the houses, I'd been desperate to get up there and see them for myself. 

Shirakawago is a World Heritage UNESCO site and is famous for its gassho-zukuri farmhouses ... Some of which are over 250 years old and it is right up in the mountains ......

Gassho-zukuri means "constructed like hands in prayer", as the farmhouses' steep thatched roofs resemble the hands of Buddist monks pressed together in prayer. This style developed over many generations is designed to withstand the huge amounts of snow falls during winter. The roofs, made without nails, provided a large attic space used for cultivating silkworms.

The scenery here again was beautiful, but as we were going up the mountains, we went through a lot of tunnels and didn't see too much. The last tunnel we went through seemed to go on forever!! On the way back, Scott noticed a sign in the tunnel that said it was 11km long ..... I thought we would be in Calais when we came out the other side!!!

The main village is Ogimachi and is a quite a small village and really only took us about 2 hours to walk round ..... Of course, Scott still managed to find back roads and lonely paths .... Anything to avoid the tourists (I must tell him at some point that we are also tourists!!!).

A lot of the houses have been relocated to an open air museum where you can go inside and experience what they are like but most of the houses in the actual village are lived in, and all round the village you could see people just going about their daily business. It looks like a lot of people are starting to prepare for the winter as they were putting up extra wood scaffolds and protection for the trees and houses. Guess the snow will be there before long.

The houses themselves are lovely.....

There are also a lot of souvenir shops and they all sell wicker goods .... We guessed the theme here!!!  There were some fantastic shopping type basket bags and I really wanted one, but I knew it would be trouble to get home ..... Never mind!

Despite there being so many people around - they were coming in by the tour bus load - the village seemed quiet and we were rarely surrounded ... It was so peaceful and the air was lovely.

It's been a big couple of days and we are completely whacked now and we still have a good long journey home ......

We eventually made it back to the apartment where we are still trying to recover from our two huge meals.  It's been a fantastic couple of days where we have been right in the rural heart of Japan and where the limited English (both spoken and written) has been a fun challenge ... Though Scott would still like to know exactly what he did eat last night!!!!

We are having a Kyoto day tomorrow ... We are going to the Bamboo forest in Arashiyama and hopefully I'll get to Kiyomizudera for the illuminations. 

So until next time .... Oyasumi Nasai xx