Shirakawa-go

Duchess, I see this is your first post on the Asia board. I also considered a trip to those two places (ultimately decided to put those off til next trip) and I foudn info on this board. Have you searched on here for shirakawago (with and without hyphen)? mrwunrfl went there last spring, and others have posted on it also, so if you have not already done so, search in the search box above and see what comes up.

KimJapan has posted about Shirakawago.

Below is a link to info about Gifu prefecture. Click on the words "World Heritage". The picture of the gassho-zukuri in the snow is what you might expect to see in December.

http://www.kankou-gifu.or.jp/en/

Yes, I have posted about Shirakawa-go I just love it. You can get all of my posts by clicking on my name in this one if you want. You can also find quite a bit of information online...google shirakawago and shirakawa-go and shirakawa go and lots and lots will come up.

To me it's worth spending 2 days and 2 nights there...you can make soba in the folk museum (by reservation only), see the gassho buildings, relax in a traditional Japanese hinoki (cyprus) tub, eat country style local food.

The other thing about Shirakawa-go in December is that there are far fewer bus connections than in the summer so you might find that 2 nights is the only way you can visit there at all...you'd have to check, though to be sure. The harshest winter month is typically February (but it's just a trend, not a guarantee), but in December there will almost certainly be snow. In big storms, the snow removal is nothing like you might be used to in the states....it doesn't really get underway until the storm is over, and highways often close for the duration of the storm...so IF it snowed during your stay, you may find yourself having a longer stay than you had intended. The snow is gorgeous, though...for some reason with the gassho houses and yukizuri (ropes and poles tied to trees to prevent snow damage) it's magical.

Hi emd, mrwunrfl & KimJapan,

Thanks for all your info and responses!! Really appreciate them!!

Guys,I'm really very very sorry if I wasn't clear enough in my message.

Emd, I've searched here on the Asia Board for Shirakawago before posting my message. The info here has been helpful to a certain extent but I am looking for more detailed info, especially Shirakawago in winter (december) & what we can do there.

mrwunrfl, thanks for the link. We've been there before. In fact, it was this site & the picture of the gassho-zukuri in the snow that decided Gifu for us when we were considering Japan as a destination.

KimJapan, I've read your postings on Shirakawa-go. I noticed that you always recommend Shirakawago as an option for a taste of countryside flavour besides the cities. I got really excited when I read them because I'm dying to go there!!

My friends & I have been surfing on both Takayama & Shirakawago the past few days and we found those sites on Takayama are quite informative and we've more or less settled our itinerary on that place. In fact, after reading all the posted messages on Takayama here, I realised that Rickshaw Inn sounds good and we've already placed a reservation for a room there, and waiting for their reply now.

It's Shirakawago that we are having a bit of problem.

You see, we are a party of 3 and one of us feels that there's nothing much to do in Shirakawago,& not wise to set aside 2 days & nights for it. She feels that Ogimachi Village can be done in an hour or so. If you do one gassho-zukuri, you've done the whole village. Is that true??

A lot of the sites we've been to touch on only the basics of the place & many of the pics posted are taken either in summer or spring. We've been trying to search for more info of Shirakawago in winter, especially in December. I've read in some place that heavy snowfall comes in Jan/Feb. What about December?? Is it as bad?? We've been to Lake Shitkotsu (Hokkaido) in dec 2002 and this friend of mine already found it very cold.

I'm thinking of Magoemon Ryokan in Ogimachi for the first night to get a feel of staying in a ?gassho-zukuri?.

However, it's the 2nd day that I am totally clueless about. What can we do there?? I'm considering out of the village, to Hirase region for one of the hot springs, but besides that, what else to do?? Will the sights be closed in Winter(Dec)??

I'm really trying very hard to gather as much as I could on Shirakawago in Dec so that

Hi emd, mrwunrfl & KimJapan,

Thanks for all your info and responses!! Really appreciate them!!

Guys,I'm really very very sorry if I wasn't clear enough in my message.

Emd, I've searched here on the Asia Board for Shirakawago before posting my message. The info here has been helpful to a certain extent but I am looking for more detailed info, especially Shirakawago in winter (december) & what we can do there.

mrwunrfl, thanks for the link. We've been there before. In fact, it was this site & the picture of the gassho-zukuri in the snow that decided Gifu for us when we were considering Japan as a destination.

KimJapan, I've read your postings on Shirakawa-go. I noticed that you always recommend Shirakawago as an option for a taste of countryside flavour besides the cities. I got really excited when I read them because I'm dying to go there!!

My friends & I have been surfing on both Takayama & Shirakawago the past few days and we found those sites on Takayama are quite informative and we've more or less settled our itinerary on that place. In fact, after reading all the posted messages on Takayama here, I realised that Rickshaw Inn sounds good and we've already placed a reservation for a room there, and waiting for their reply now.

It's Shirakawago that we are having a bit of problem.

You see, we are a party of 3 and one of us feels that there's nothing much to do in Shirakawago,& not wise to set aside 2 days & nights for it. She feels that Ogimachi Village can be done in an hour or so. If you do one gassho-zukuri, you've done the whole village. Is that true??

A lot of the sites we've been to touch on only the basics of the place & many of the pics posted are taken either in summer or spring. We've been trying to search for more info of Shirakawago in winter, especially in December. I've read in some place that heavy snowfall comes in Jan/Feb. What about December?? Is it as bad?? We've been to Lake Shitkotsu (Hokkaido) in dec 2002 and this friend of mine already found it very cold.

I'm thinking of Magoemon Ryokan in Ogimachi for the first night to get a feel of staying in a ?gassho-zukuri?.

However, it's the 2nd day that I am totally clueless about. What can we do there?? I'm considering out of the village, to Hirase region for one of the hot springs, but besides that, what else to do?? Will the sights be closed in Winter(Dec)??

I'm really trying very hard to gather as much as I could on Shirakawago in Dec so that I could pitch the 2-day stay to my friend again!!

Really hope you guys could help!!

Many thanks in advance!!

Duchess

Sorry for the incomplete message above. I pressed the POST MY REPLY button by accident.

How much time do you have in total to travel, where else are you going, and where are you coming from? Are you only visiting Gifu prefecture? Are you interested in onsen...Gero onsen is in Gifu and has a reputation for being quite nice.

I don't think that "if you've done one gassho zukuri you've done them all" but maybe that's just me. Shirakawa-go CAN be done in a day, but certainly not in an hour. If you go for a day (that is IF you can even get a morning bus in and an evening bus out) then you will be able to see the museum, look around the village, have soba for lunch (but not make it, and making soba is really a nice experience). You will miss the hinoki bath and the irori dinner (when looking for a minshuku to stay at in Shirakawa-go, it is crucial that you know for sure that they do have both an irori - open hearth fire for cooking and heating - and a hinoki bath...there are lots of minshuku but not even half of them have both irori and hinoki bath). It's possilbe that some of the ski areas will be open already nearby, but not guaranteed.

Shirakawa-go is such a different place than the cities, including Takayama. In winter, it will be quiet, I'm sure, which would be a real plus for any visitors. My husband, daughter and I have been to Shirakawa-go 3 times for just a day...it's 1/12 hours by car from our home...and every time we've wished we could spend the night there.

The weather will likely be cold, but not really any colder than Takayama will be. December is a really variable month...sometimes it snows, sometimes not. Sometimes it's cold, sometimes it's not. If your friend is sensitive to cold, then layered clothing and gloves are a must, as well as long soaks in hot tubs.

Because one of you isn't so interested in Shirakawa-go, why not spend one night there to get the gassho zukuri minshuku experience. A place called Nodaniya I've heard is nice. Magoemon is one of the japaneseguesthouses.com's places, and shows nice pictures...I don't know anyone who has stayed there. There are lots of places...here's a few more to look at..these are Japanese pages, but you can still see the pictures. They all cost about the same...around 8000 yen per person per night including breakfast and dinner. There will probably be an extra charge for heat in December.
http://www13.ocn.ne.jp/~haku3so/index0.html

http://www.shirakawa-go.gr.jp/yado/rihei/rihei.htm

http://www.shirakawa-go.gr.jp/yado/gensaku/gensaku.htm

http://www11.ocn.ne.jp/~tada/index.htm

Sites aren't generally closed in winter, but some may take one day off a week or only open by appointment. You could check with the Shirakawa-go tourist info office about that...I'm pretty sure you can e-mail them in English.

Hi Kim,

Thanks for the advice.

We are from Singapore and we'll be in Japan from 10 to 16 Dec.

Our initial itinerary:

10 Dec -- Gifu City
11 Dec -- Takayama
12 Dec -- Takayama
13 Dec -- Shirakawa-go
14 Dec -- Nagoya City
15 Dec -- Nagoya City

But now we are considering cancelling Gifu City, push Takayama up to 10 & 11 Dec, and have 2 days - 12 & 13 Dec in Shirakawa-go, before heading off to Nagoya City.

We've been to an onsen before. We did it for the first time when we visited Hokkaido back in Dec 2002. Also, I just visited the Oedo-Onsen Monogatari onsen resort in Tokyo few months back in June. So, a side trip to an onsen specifically is not a must. But still, wouldn't mind getting a soak in one of the onsens available in that region.

We will definitely try to set off early from Takayama to try to reach Shirakawa-go as early as possible. Now just to comfirm, Shirakawa-go is the name of the region and Ogimachi Village is in it, right?? Out of Ogimachi Village, there are still places & sights to see, right??

We will spend the first day in Ogimachi Village, seeing and doing whatever is there. On the second day, I'm thinking of venturing out of the village to Hirase,( which I think is in Shirakawa-go), for one of the onsen hotels. From the various sites I've visited, I found Mihoro Lake, Mihoro Dam, Hakusan, Amo 3 falls, etc interesting and wouldn't mind visiting them. Have you done any of them??

As I'm really at a total loss on what we should do for day 2, any suggestion / idea will be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks for the accommodation links. I'm glad that we've more options available now.

Thanks also for the tip on hinoki bath and the irori dinner. We'll definitely not miss out on these two experiences. Will get a minshuku that provides these 2.

By the way, any idea what we can do or shouldn't miss in Nagoya City??

Regards.

Any particular reason you're going to Nagoya? Are you flying out of there? I ask because we found it the most uninteresting of any city in japan.

I know, it might have just been us having a bad 2 days, but we found very little to do there. It is a modern port city.

We visited the aquarium (nice), the riverfront theme park & ferris wheel (even our kids were unimpressed!), the castle (okay exhibits, but the castle was rebuilt after the war, and is out of concrete, with elevators even!) Shopping around the station was okay, restaurants okay.

I don't know...maybe someone else has some interesting ideas for Nagoya. If not, I'd spend only one day/night if you are flying out of there.

Shirakawa-go is the name of the small area around Ogimachi. Nearby, IF you have your own car, is Gokayama (another World Heritage site) with more gassho houses, and lots of ski areas and smallish onsen. It's countryside...really countryside...so very beautiful and a stark contrast to cities.

Nagoya isn't special in much of anything, save for Noritake china. We do go there a few times a year to stay in a nice hotel and shop and eat, and we tend to use Nagoya's international airport over Kansai or Narita. There is a nice acquarium and waterfront area, a castle, a TV tower, and tons of shopping. I don't know if you'd actually find it any different than any other Japanese city...have you considered Kanazawa...bigger than Takayama, smaller than Nagoya. If you are flying in and out of Nagoya, that's no problem. There is a train/bus combo to get you to the airport, or for just the tiniest bit more money, a door to door airport limo service that is just excellent...being in Kanazawa until about 6 hours before your flight is easily doable. I don't know...for tourist stuff I find Kanazawa more appealing than Nagoya.

I might do an itinerary like this:
10 Dec -- Nagoya/Gifu City (depends on arrival time)
11 Dec -- Takayama
12 Dec -- Takayama
13 Dec -- Shirakawa-go (you can get a bus to Kanazawa 3 times a day in winter)
14 Dec -- Kanazawa
15 Dec -- Kanazawa/Nagoya (depends on departure time)

I never actually made it to Shirakawago. I stayed in Takayama on June 5. The next morning, Saturday the 6th, I decided to go to Shirakawago. Went to Takayama and the tourist info lady there called three or four places in S-go but they were all booked that night. The were also closed the next night, Sunday night. Dec 12 is a Sunday night.

I'll bet there will be somewhere to stay with a reservation. There are many, many minshuku...they are all about the same price, but only some of them are gassho with irori and hinoki bath.

http://www.shirakawa-go.gr.jp/yado/minsyukuichiran.htm I actually used this page to book for friends and for ourselves last year - but we never got to go since we moved instead. It's only a partial list, and it's all in Japanese. You could try calling the number at the bottom of the page - it's the reservation center's number.

Icuy: we have no particular reason to visit Nagoya, except we are flying in and out of there. So, we figured we'd walk around, doing abit of shopping and looking around, seeing the city life before heading home.

We are planning 2 days of city tour because that friend of mine who has a low threshold of cold figured city with all the skyscrapers around wouldn't be as cold as places out in the open country like Shirakawa-go.

For me, I'm relatively easy because I've been to Tokyo & Osaka several times and don't really hold much expectation for Nagoya City. I've surfed abit on it and realised that there's nothing there that catches my fancy either.

I'm more of a nature person, give me countryside over city anytime. Having lived in Singapore all my life, can one wonders why I'm sick & tired of city?

For this trip, I'm going more for Takayama & Shirakawa-go. Wouldn't mind if I didn't see any city. But when travelling with companions, compromises have to be reached at times. Since my friend wants a couple of days in the city, I'll flow along.

Kim: Thanks for suggesting Kanazawa. It sounds good. I'll let my friends know and we'll search for more info on it. We've got a positive reply from Rickshaw Inn re. our reservation for 10 & 11 Dec. In the event we decide to do Kanazawa, most probably it'll have to be on 14, and we'll do our last day in Nagoya city then. I'll let you know.

Thanks for the accommodation link for minshuku in Shirakawa-go too!!

mrwunrfl: Thanks for alerting me to the potential problem with accommodation in Shirakawa-go. We'll try to settle our itinerary asap and place a reservation soon to secure our lodgings there.

Guys, you've been a great help!! Please keep any suggestions or ideas regarding Takayama, Shirakawa-go, Kanazawa & Nagoya or any other interesting places coming!! They are most welcome!!

Many thanks!!

Regards,
Duchess.

Hi guys,

I'm starting another thread on Kanazawa. Would appreciate if you could help me.

Thanks!!

Duchess

I personally think one day is enough for Shirakawa-go. It is a very small village. It's a good idea to spend a night at one of the minshukus. I haven't been to Takayama. Between Kanazawa and Shirakawa-go, I think you should spend two nights in Kanazawa instead of in Shirakawa-go.

Hi guys,

I'm back on this thread again.

I'm still planning the itinerary for my Gifu trip. Have been searching to no avail for info on transport or means to get to Mihoro Lake & Mihoro Dam in Shirakawa-go. I've emailed some sites but so far have not received any response.

Could someone direct me some URLs where I can get my enquiries answered??

Thanks!