Japan, Day 6: Shirakawa-go

After Kyoto, we headed to Shirakawa-go, a small town famous for their old original style farm houses, called "Gassho-zukuri".  The town has become quite the tourist attraction, as many of the farmhouses allow guests to stay the night and experience an authentic country meal.  The prices are a bit higher than what we were used to seeing (we had been staying in hostels for the most part, as we were out and about most of the time and only needed a place to crash), but with a [huge] dinner and breakfast included, we definitely wanted to splurge on this experience. 

To get to Shirakawa-go, we had to go through Takayama, a town known well for their yew wood carvings, Hida beef, and old-style merchant buildings.  We wanted to spend the night in Takayama, but being on a tight schedule, we decided to schedule the bus trip to Shirakawa-go a few hours out so we had time to walk the town a bit.  We did this on the way there and on the way back.

The husband, eating ice cream (green tea and vanilla swirl) in the snow:)

View of Shirakawa-go from Shiroyama viewpoint.

Old farmhouses with their thatched roofs!

The farmhouse we stayed in, called Magoeman

Cute elderly gentleman who ran the inn with his wife.  The room was really smokey, but not so bad while sitting on the floor.

Our dinner

Part of our dinner--they kept bringing out more food!  Everything was amazingly delicious.  Seen here are a variety of pickled items, as well as vegetables and Hida beef in a dish over a flame.

Fish cooked on the fire

Our dinner-mates.  Ai and Taka (the couple next to us) spoke some English and are great new friends!

I would love to see this place again in the spring or fall.  The snow was definitely beautiful here, but looking at the photos of other seasons makes me want to visit at every time of the year.  The food was exceptional, and staying at a very traditional inn was so much fun.  I would definitely recommend Shirakawa-go to anyone looking for traditional Japanese culture and food.

I didn't get very good pictures of our meal, but my husband did.  Please check out his photos from Shirakawa-go HERE.