Last Updated on November 30, 2019 by PowersToTravel
While in Takayama, Japan, we took a quick day-trip to Shirakawa-go, a small village chock full of “gassho” houses, set in the mountains west of Takayama. Gassho houses are traditional A-frames built in the mountains of Japan.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site, visitors flock to the village of Shirakawa-go to see the beautiful scenery and check out the houses. You can stay there (we didn’t), eat there (we did), go into museums (we did) and generally hang out.
We discovered that it is popular; I arranged for us to take the second local bus of the day from Takayama to Shirakawa-go, at 8:20, and when we arrived about fifty minutes later, there were few visitors wandering around. However, within a couple of hours, the place was swarming with tourists. We found a visitor’s center and museum on the other side of the river from the village itself, and found out why – so many tour buses had arrived!
We had lunch and took the 1:30 bus back to Takayama. It was a great day out. I hope you enjoy it too!
