Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Snow Country
"The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country". . . . wrote Kawabata in his masterpiece. Well, we took a bus to go to this area of Gifu Prefecture. We already went there this Summer and liked so much that we absolutely wanted to see it in winter. This is indeed snow country, and it is gorgeous under a white carpet.
The main point of this trip was to visit Shirakawago, the World Heritage Site famous for its unique thatched farmhouses called Gassho-Zukuri or joined-hands farmhouses. This had to be a Saturday because of the night light-up of these houses. There are only a few opportunities per year to enjoy the night light-up and we certainly didn't want to miss this.
The bus left Shinjuku (Tokyo) just after 8 in the morning. Smooth ride on highway — I personally appreciated it more because I didn't have to hold the wheel — to Hirayu onsen for a quick lunch. After this, onward to Shirakawago where we arrived well before night fall. 
There was indeed a lot of snow -- at least two meters!
The early arrival time enabled us to see the place by day. It truly was gorgeous. We saw a number of these huge farmhouses on our way to the other end of the village to board the shuttle bus to go up to the view point overlooking the whole village. We were not alone — when we reached the starting point, a sign was announcing a 40 minute waiting time to board the buses. Actually, it went faster than that. This is the only way to go up to overlook the village as they do not allow walking anymore. We were told that this had been a source of numerous accidents in the past because of all the people going all over the places in the snow and in the dark. This year, organized and free shuttle buses for everyone was the only option.
We were not the first ones up there. Rows of Japanese tourists were waiting camera on hand for the night to fall and the houses to be lighten. Everyone had some kind of a camera, from the top notch professional model on heavy tripod to the light phone built-in model, and everything in-between. It was an impressive sight.
We managed to find a nice little spot to enjoy the view. It was quite cold, but we were dressed and equipped properly — Akiko insisted that I place a Kairo (pokapoka) patch (you know, one of the little bags that once opened generates heat over several hours) on my toes, between the two socks that I was wearing. 
The lights came on on time (of course, we’re in Japan, aren’t we!) and with the darkness slowly setting in, the view was more and more magic. This is where an announcement mentioned that if anyone “had” to return downstairs, now was the time because in another 15 or 20 minutes, the waiting time for the shuttle buses to return to the village would be between one and one and a half hour! Akiko went to take the line for us while I shot a couple more pictures. We managed to join the line just before the crowd and didn’t have much to wait to board the bus. This gave us more time to enjoy the place, walking around these incredible houses coming from another age. This unique architectural style was developed to survive the extreme weather, always with a lot of snow that is characteristic of this region.
We were on time back to the bus which left the place right away to Takayama where we were to stay at a modern Spa Onsen Resort place. We enjoyed a nice hot spa with lots of different baths, both inside and outside.
In the morning, visit of Takayama, an old castle town, with a very well preserved old town area. Its history-filled streets with Koushimado (latticed bay windows) and linked eaves of merchants houses from the Edo period offers a special and quiet atmosphere, accented by the snow that started to fall again. We were lucky enough as the white sky was soon replaced by a sunny blue one. We had both nice and heavy snow fall, and sunshine during this weekend. 
We took the optional side trip to Furukawa, another old town near by. Here again, the old section covered with snow was a delight to visit. 
The day visit ended around 2:30 as we started our return to Tokyo.
As usual, you can click on any of the pictures to see a larger size one. You can also see all the pictures and many more HERE.
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