Takayama and Shirakawa go Japan Scenic Tour from Kanazawa

This is the busiest street out of the old town area and is lined with emotional streets, souvenir stores, and restaurants. The scenery of narrow alleys lined with stores of Japanese houses is also an excellent photo spot.

The Takayama Jinya is the only building from the Tokugawa Shogunate period that still remains. The crest of the Tokugawa family's three-leaf hollyhock greets visitors from the entrance of the camp, creating a mood reminiscent of the Edo period. Inside the building, historical materials from the period are on display, and the “Obaishu (court house),” which is familiar to fans of period dramas, is still there.

In 1995, Shirakawa-go and the Gokayama Gassho-Zukuri Villages were registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with Gokayama in Toyama Prefecture. The landscape of the mountain village, which looks like something out of an old Japanese folk tale, is truly an original Japanese landscape. Visitors can also learn about life in a gassho-zukuri village through the gassho-zukuri houses that are open for tours, the local museum, and the exhibition hall.

Located on a hill overlooking the entire gassho-zukuri village, this is a superb spot from which to view the entire landscape of Shirakawa-go. The fresh greenery in spring, the deep green of summer, the autumn leaves in fall, and the snowy landscape in winter all offer different attractions in each season.

The largest gassho-zukuri house in Shirakawa-go, with a history of over 300 years, is designated as a National Important Cultural Property because of the well-preserved surrounding environment, including the garden, hedges, surrounding fields, and waterways. As the name “Wada Family” suggests, the house is still used as a residence, and the first and second floors are open to the public, allowing visitors to catch a glimpse of how people have lived in the gassho-zukuri style since that time.