A Day Trip to Shirakawa-go

I would say that I had a privilege to be able to went here with Indonesian Student Association (PPI Kyoto Shiga). It’s not easy (and not cheap) to go to Shirakawa-go from Kyoto. If I went through the conventional way, it would be: buy a round-trip Thunderbird train ticket from Kyoto St. to Kanazawa St. worth 13,400yen and book a round-trip bus from Kanazawa St. to Shirakawa-go worth around 3,700yen. In total 17,100yen for a day trip from Kyoto to Shirakawa-go. Meanwhile, my bus round-trip with PPI only cost 6,200yen and that’s already include a lunch box. Now probably you understand why I didn’t want to miss this, despite all the odds.

The trip with a bus from Kyoto to Shirakawa-go took 5 hours. The bus stopped at 2-3 rest areas, and we stuck in a traffic jam a little bit before we managed to reach the village. When we arrived, the first thing in my mind was: Shirakawa-go looks like what I have imagined. A remote village with a gassho-zukuri architecture and piles of snow around. Okay. I didn’t know what to explore, so I just went for a walk with Rizky and friends. While walking around, I realised that other than the famous unique houses, Shirakawa-go actually has a beautiful landscape as well. I found a spot that shows a clean-turquoise color river with snows on the riverbanks, framing it beautifully. I also noticed the magical snowy pine trees lining up on the side of the hill, near to the place where we played snowball. The landscape of Shirakawa-go that day looks black and white mostly, with a touch of colours in several spots. Somehow it made me feel like I am living in a painting.

The only sightseeing place that I entered was the Wada House. This house is the biggest gassho-zukuri house in Shirakawa-go that once belonged to Wada family, traders of raw silk. I can say it was quite something to enter the gassho-zukuri house and experience it by myself. My favourite part of the house is the loft window which can also be functioned as a door when snows covering the house to the roof.

I was actually wanted to go to the observatory deck to take aerial picture of the village. But, considering there are too many people lining up to take the bus to the deck, I decided to not go and continue strolling around the village instead. If you have plenty of time, I would suggest not to skip the deck because the scenery is beautiful. 

Anyway.. for anyone who looking for a snow in Japan, I would recommend Shirakawa-go. As mainstream as it may sounds, Shirakawa-go do provide a beautiful landscape and it is easily accessible from main cities of Japan (Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka). As for me, Shirakawa-go released my happy-inner child, showed me a great view, and recovered my dull mood. And for that, I am forever grateful.