Shirakawa-go

Yesterday's trip was really fun.  I was actually happy to see snow!  Granted, I didn't have to drive in it or deal with it in any way except to watch my step and enjoy the scenery for a day.

As I said yesterday, Shirakawa-go was in former times, a relatively isolated farming village.  In the modern era, the town has turned to tourism to stay alive, and preserve its unique houses.

If you'd like to see how these houses' roofs are re-thatched, watch this video.  It's in Japanese, and the work starts at 2:05.

Meanwhile,  here are my pictures.

First we went to a viewpoint to look down on the town.  Here you can see that the mountains that surround the town would do a good job of isolating it before any tunnels were constructed.

And here are some shots of  the town.

Notice that the houses are all lined up the same way.  This is so when strong winds come through the valley, they can go through the houses, not against them.  The roofs are held together with lots of sturdy rope, so they can sway a bit but not get knocked over.

Here's the bridge into the town (for tourists, anyway!)

I wonder if he's thinking he'd be warmer with some clothes on?

Here you can see how thick the thatching can be.

It seems every Japanese town has a manhole cover design.

Here's a close-up of the thatch.

We got to see the inside of one of the houses.  This section became a visitor center.

The top floor is surprisingly bright when the sun is out.  But I suspect it gets dark early, when the sun sets behind the mountains.

Here's the view from the top floor:

In the past, these families would have also raised silk worms upstairs.

















After that, it's time for some food!  I was still a little under the weather, so I ordered "sansaidon" or "mountain veggies over rice".  You can see that it came steaming hot!

The ride back was uneventful.  I was happy to not have to worry about trains or driving, and dozed a bit.  It's really hard to take pictures from the expressway -- there's often a barrier on either side of the road.  My guess is they are to either keep precipitation, drifting snow and critters out or to keep noise in.  Sometimes they are clear and you can see the surrounding area, but photographs don't turn out well.  This route did have a lot of tunnels.