It was possibly the coldest morning of our whole trip, at -10°C and our little car was completely frozen up. The doors wouldn’t open, and the windows were covered in thick frost. The previous cars we rented in Hokkaido and Tohoku came with snow and ice tools, but the Tokyo office provided no such thing. With cold fingers we used credit cards to slowly scrape the ice away, and very slowly the car warmed up.

We were headed to one of the most picturesque villages in all of Japan, the gassho-zukuri filled town of Shirakawago. It was about an hours journey from Takayama to Shirakawago, and it was a very easy drive on expressways almost the whole time. We were some of the first people in the car park, and arrived before any tour buses could as it was before 9am, so it was nice to have the place almost to ourselves. It was lovely to be back in the snowy countryside, after the clear streets of Takayama.

From the numerous photos and videos I have seen from Shirakawago my expectations were high, and although the gassho-zukuri buildings are beautiful, it didn’t quite live up to those high expectations. In hindsight, it was stunning, especially with the snowy hats on each roof top. I think what was less exciting for me was that there were many standard buildings in between the gassho-zukuri, and artefacts of day-to-day life that were left about which took away from the historic look of the place. I would definitely still say to visit, and I’d love to go back in different seasons to see how the place looks.

There were also a few shrines in the village which looked nice in the snow, and we took a leisurely stroll through the village before the crowds descended. One view I definitely wanted to get was of the whole village from the nearby mountain-side, which meant a sharp incline on an icy road to get there. It was worth it! The roofs looked really lovely from the viewpoint, but it was incredibly busy up there as you could drive directly to the view point, and many tour buses had done so. It was a bit of a shuffle to get shots of the whole place, but doable, I do wonder how busy it gets on the weekends as this was a Thursday!

Once we had finished at the view point we returned to the village, but it had become quite busy, and so we decided it was time to go. In total we were at Shirakawago for around three hours, and hadn’t decided on our next stop – the choice was between Ainokura (another gassho-zukuri in Toyama prefecture) or Hida Folk Village back in Takayama. We chose to head back towards our hotel and go to Hida Fold Village, which was an excellent choice. We were greeted by the most enormous snowman I have ever seen, that the week before was a snowy Totoro!

It was another hours drive back to Takayama, the Village is outside of the main town of Takayama on the side of a mountain. The parking fee was low, only 300¥ and entrance was only 700¥ per person. There were few people at the village that day, a few pairs of people and one American family, the site is quite large so it was easy to have time alone. The Folk Village is a very interesting set up, it houses over 30 traditionally build Japanese homes that have been relocated from across Japan to this site.

The buildings were varied, there were more gassho-zukuri houses, as well as other traditional styles, such as homes tiled with split cedar tiles, farming homes and homes of traditional craftsmen. There was information in both English and Japanese, and you were able to enter the buildings which had been set up to appear as they were hundreds of years ago. Of course you do need to take off your shoes to enter, as it was a freezing day we didn’t opt to take off our big snow boots, but still enjoyed the experience.

The best part of the whole day came right at the end when we entered a building and found an artisan sat inside, working hard at his craft behind sliding doors. At first we didn’t realise the building was occupied, and enjoyed looking at the carvings on display, and wishing we could purchase them. The artisan opened his sliding doors as we went past, and I enjoyed speaking with him about his craft – Ichii-Ittōbori – carving with yew wood. He said he has been doing his craft for fourty years, and he was certainly a master. We purchased a ten year old daruma carving which had aged beautifully, you can see the back of the daruma in the photo below! I’d love to go back to the village to see more of his work, and perhaps purcahse some more pieces.

We spent two hours at the Folk Village, which was enough time to visit all the buildings that were open in winter (some routes were closed due to snow). We headed back to the hotel for a rest and some snacks, before walking around the old parts of Takayama for some retail therapy.

Takayama, which is within the Hida region, is famous for their Hida-gyuu, their marbled beef, and so for our only meal out on our trip we chose to treat ourselves to this famous wagyu. After searching on Google maps and reading copious reviews we chose the nearby Suzuya for dinner, which was said to be an authentic reasturant with friendly staff. This was certainly true, the staff were amazing, from the older ladies who were carrying bowls that were on fire, to the waitor who chatted with us and took photos for us too. The menu is small, and we chose the Ami-yaki (the firely bowls on the table) which involved cooking our own delectible meat and vegetables. I am definitely going back this August to try this again.

The Hida region is a stunnig part of Japan and I am planning my return already, my one learning point was to stay somewhere a little less moudly haha.