We finally went to the morning market on this day. We arrived at 11:30am and many stalls were packing up. There wasn’t so much to buy so all I got was a local doll indigenous to this area, very cute! There was another market but it was too late so it was pointless. We went back to the hostel to pack up. Getting to Shirakawa-go was a little confusing. We were going north on Route 41 and was supposed to turn left on Route 471. I saw a small sign saying 471 so we turned but it started bringing us south so we had to do a circle. We saw another road labeled 471 and took that road.
It cut to the left and brought us back to 41 eventually. And as they say, 3rd time lucky we found the proper road. Little did I know, this route took us high, high into the mountain ranges on a twisty, turny, narrow road. We had gone so far in that we had thought we had past it for a moment but we got told at the top where there was a man ticketing people to enter a nature walk to keep going down. On the way down we saw a lovely waterfall right next to the road but with no room for a car to stop so we felt special. Unfortunately, there was an accident between a car and scooter. It looked like everyone was fine, no serious damage to either vehicle so they were lucky. I startled the cop as I glided by because my engine was on idle and he couldn’t hear the engine. Soon after that, we arrived at the viewpoint to Shirakawa-go without even realizing it. The only reason we knew is because of the sudden it bustle of tourists taking pictures.
This is definitely a great site to see but I do think it’s a little out of the way and I was hoping the huts were still manufacturing silk but it was just a museum showing the tools they used. It was the most interesting to see the roofing though. They’d use thick bundles of straw thatched together and cut the ends to make it flush. Each roof would be 50cm thick. They even replaced the roof every season.
To do that, they’d need hundreds of people working together to complete this massive task as the frames were large enough to house up to 20 families on the base floors with the top floors for the silk worms and equipment. Very interesting but also very busy. We saw some more gassho villages while going north that didn’t have modern houses between them. I recommend seeing those ones instead.
It’s a Unesco World Heritage Site so you can look it up.
Now we were on a quest to find our 5
th campsite, and back in the tent. No more picturesque mountains, mist covered rivers, mesmerizing sound of running water or feeling at one with nature. Back to the real Japan that tourists seem to associate Japan as. We did manage to find a terrific campsite on a widened part of the river that’s secluded and surrounded by rice farms. Once again, thank you docomo for your help! The wireless
internet we use that can be accessed anywhere there’s a phone signal.
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