Today we transferred by bullet train back to Kanazawa, then by bus to Shirakawa-go, a UNESCO site just over an hour away. It is Sunday, so there are a LOT of day trippers in the village, the bus is full and the village when we arrived was standstill traffic. It took about 20 mins to get from one side to the bus station… a bit of a zoo.
We disembarked and went to our accomodation. Three different Gassho (traditional thatched roof) dwellings for our group, and we had a complicated pack last night as our cases were sent on to Takayama, the next stop. We had to pack for the day in the village, the night and the cycling the next day – which would incidentally be our hardest day on the roads. Hard to know what to pack for layers, as it was 2C in Shirakawa-go this morning, but 17C later on. Most of us packed many layers.
After lunch perched on a rock wall (lunch pre-purchased during the layover at Kanazawa; for me sushi, green bean sesame salad and grapes; many of the Brits went to the bakery for sandwiches) in fairly warm sunshine we were set free on the village to explore. Many of us started with the hike to the observatory, where there were finally some fall colours on view.
The village has maintained many of its’ traditions, which used to be the case for many of the mountain villages in the region. These were preserved because of the villages’ remoteness and difficulty of access; they are in a mountain valley (reminscent of Bhutan). Some of them were flooded out when a dam was built, and some structures have been transported to the heritage museum locally and to other places, and others are still underwater (there are apparently diving excursions to visit them). Shirakawa-go is a popular Japanese tourist destination in the fall so the vast majority of those milling about were internal visitors, but certainly many other languages were heard as it is well known.
Picture below; village with fall colours above it. The A shaped structures are the original gassho houses, which are still lived in for the most part and passed on generation to generation. They are “prayer hand” construction, looking like two hands together in prayer, and interestingly the walls lean outwards rather than going straight up.
this one illustrates the building technique of leaning walls outwards
village view from the observatory:
As you can see, it is a small village perched in a narrow valley in the mountains. We felt pretty fortunate getting to stay in the village itself as accomodations are pretty sparse and completely booked. The masses left about 4 p.m. though so it was peaceful after that!
fall colours are finally appearing
above the village
Interesting plant seen on my walk: European spindletree
This village was also known for its “cloudy sake” making, and at the end of the museum tour I was offered a taste. It’s drunk with miso paste in between, and is tasty but quite powerful!
The picture below shows the second floor of the gassho house; they were quite roomy for houses of the time, albeit this was even more spacious, belonging to the head family of the time.
These are the silkworm coccoon collectors that were used; they fed on mulberry leaves until pupating, then the cocoons were used for spinning. This started in the 16th century; other village income sidelines were making gunpowder using nitre from the larval fertilizer, and paper making (washi).
Throughout the village were neat waterways, and in some there were farmed trout. This shows someone drying fish near their house.
The heritage museum was huge, and as well as great information provided some really pretty views. The day was fairly hot, but as always the sun went down about 3 p.m. and it quickly chilled down.
outside the sake exhibition
an earlier one level gassho. The fall colours above of course aren’t adequately captured.
The museum was really well done, and much quieter than the village.
It showcased some traditional, but much later designed, Edo period houses
every house had a buddhist shrine
typical bedroom area
After checking in to the gassho, where the Imperial Emperor stays apparently when visiting the village! a few of us walked over to the local public baths, which were lovely. Home is a futon on the floor, shared toilet for 7, and separations of screens only for privacy between rooms (which allowed for walking around three sides of the futon, but nothing much else). Here’s hoping nobody snores tonight! As usual, the special dietary folk are sequestered together and dinner was served at 6 p.m. – absolutely delicious and sooo much food….
We are all used now to wearing a kimono to dinner, and taking our shoes off at the door. Mannu, our van driver is opposite. He’s a qualified engineer from Kerala, India who worked three years as an engineer in Japan and decided the workaholic Japanese work lifestyle wasn’t for him. Now he works for different tour companies seasonally, and spends three months of the year back with his family in Kerala. He has two sisters in Nova Scotia as well; lovely guy, always smiling!
After dinner we all retired to our “chambers” and I plugged in the two pairs of earplugs when going to sleep although didn’t stop the coughing from next door being heard. Fortunately she stopped fairly quickly and as I was awake between 1 and 3 a.m. I can attest there were no snorers in our group! We each had a hot water thermos and a kerosene heater in case of need, but the blankets were very sizeable and I didn’t need it. There are a lot of stink bugs around right now and one crawled over the head of the next door neighbour at one point so we did hear about that! There was also a very well fed spider in the loo with a red abdomen and black thorax, quite pretty.
Our accomodation. The accomodation hosts spoke little English, but we had the tour leader and Mannu with us so had no problems communicating.
No mileage today! No internet either due to the mountains, hence this post is a day late.
Today’s highlight; the historical preservation of the lovely village