Japan Trip Day 5: Gokayama, Shirakawa-go

Before I start ranting about what happened today, I will start with a brief information about Gokayama and Shirakawa-go since I had confusion when I was doing my research before deciding my itinerary. There are 3 gassho-zukuri villages designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Two are located in Gokayama region which is in Toyama prefecture and these are Ainokura and Suganuma. The biggest and most famous village is Ogimachi in Shirakawa-go, Gifu prefecture. In other words, Ogimachi and Shirakawa-go can be considered synonymous while Ainokura and Suganuma in Gokayama are separate places. Today I visited all three.

As usual, the day started with how irritating my sister was. Last night she said she would wake up at 530am but in the end she did not. I woke up before her again and I woke up 'later' than usual taking into consideration the usual time she takes in the bathroom. With that and how I succesfully stimulated my stomach with the yoghurt last night which made me shit 3x this morning, it was a mad rush in order not to be late for the bus ride this morning.

I told my sister to pass the money to the guide for all the transport cost when we met and she did not! I know it is just a small matter but it was embarrassing for the guide to ask about the money first. After all, it is us who 'owed' him money. I already said to give 15500 yen and still she prepared 20500 and expecting to get a change. What a lack of manner.

We boarded the 810am World Heritage Bus and the first stop was Ainokura. Ainokura has about 20+ gassho houses. We only had an hour first until the next bus to continue to Suganuma. The weather was supposed to be snowy today but as the temperature was not low enough, it was water/ice kind of rain. It was quite heavy and made me unable to really take pictures for two reasons: I was worried for my camera and the umbrella ruined the photos. We quickly went to the viewpoint. The timing was good because as we climbed down, tourists started to arrive and walking towards the viewpoint. Due to limited time, we only visited one of the gassho house which was a souvenir shop.

Ainokura from the viewpoint. Without snow, it looks kinda pathetic, doesn't it?

Suganuma was next and it is the smallest of the gassho villages with only about 9 gassho houses. The weather became very erratic here: it was slight drizzle when we arrived, then it turned sunny so we walked towards a bridge to see the village from a different side. Suddenly it was raining water/ice even more heavily than at Ainokura earlier. By the time we walked back to the bridge, everything already started to turn white because of the ice. What a sight and experience to behold but it was bad for tourists. I really did not dare to take any photos because I worried for my camera. This was also when I finally snapped at my sister. Instead of helping me to take a photo after I took hers, she busied herself with selfies. What the fucking shit! Excuse me, I am not here as her personal photographer or personal tour guide. She has not been helping and now with this, fuck it!

See how the rain dropped as snow/ice on the railings

The entrance of Suganuma village. By the time I wanted to take a photo here, an inconsiderate asshole parked his care on the left side and blocked the view.

Although Suganuma is the smallest village, we had 1.5 hours there until the next bus. Because of the crazy weather, we visited 2 souvenir shops and before having hot tea and some traditional mochi food. The next bus was so full with Shirakawa-go as its next destination. Luckily we still could board as we could open the aisle seats.

As what our tour guide shared, tourists generally skip Ainokura and Suganuma and they straight away go to Shirakawa-go. Ainokura and Suganuma feel much more untouched and enjoyable for the atmosphere while Shirakawa-go feels so touristy. It is impressive that they are able to keep the village traditional as much as possible but seeing so many tourists there right from the start already gives the meh vibes.

It was really snowing at Shirakawa-go!! Yay!! It was different from the water/ice rain earlier which visually still looked like rain drops. Meanwhile, snow still showed buoyancy in the air as it fell. It was quite heavy and we needed umbrella. All the restaurants had long queues so we went to our ryokan to drop out clothes first. It was lucky that we went to a restaurant next to the ryokan and we were the last customers allowed before they closed for lunch. Man.. otherwise I could not imagine how we would settle our lunch.

The snow was still quite heavy and with the crowd of tourists, it was impossible to take photos at all. After lunch, we went to Wada-ke House to explore the inside of a gassho-zukuri house. I usually do not enjoy visiting museum or this kind of thing but I find this walkabout is informative and an eye-opener about the history and story behind these gassho-zukuri houses. Here comes a shocker: my umbrella went missing and worse, it was an umbrella that I borrowed from the ryokan. It is the norm in Japan to leave umbrella at the stand outside shops and this was the first time I ever got mine missing. Obviously a random idiot tourists took it. May that motherfucking son of a bitch got a karma. Umbrella also want to steal.

Because of the weather, I decided that we should just visit some of the shops and then to check in to the ryokan. I am not a keychain collector but I bought one with Conan at a gassho-zukuri house. One small figurine of the gassho house that I have been eyeing since the first souvenir shop at Ainokura turns out to be a pen holder and I dislike the 'hole' in the roof. I still bought it in the end since that is the only coloured one. The rest of the gassho house figurines are just boring wooden colour.

We checked in to the ryokan at about 330pm and I was surprised that our bags were already in our room and we were not even asked to settle the payment first. My backpack is not waterproof and thanks to the water, ice, and snow, I am quite emo that my passport and money are wet. Perhaps it is a sign to invest in a better travel bag.

The ryokan owner provided a free tour around the village with his van at 4pm and it was nice to see the village when most of the tourists already left. We were shown the iconic spots such as the 3 houses but the snow was very heavy that we did not stop to take photos. We also went to the viewpoint and despite it already closed at 4pm, we were allowed for a 5 minute entry. We are very lucky that it has been snowing quite heavily today so at least we can see the village covered with snow from the view point. It is not as amazing as those pictures online but at least there is snow. It has not been snowing that much this year and if it is not snowing today, we will just see the boring view without snow. So yeah, it is a give and take: I have not been taking photos for the whole day because of the snow but at least now I get to see the village covered in snow. The lesson learnt here is to visit here again next time in late January when it is already the middle of the winter. December is quite risky especially during the warmer years such as this year.

From Shirakawa-go viewpoint. When you include humans in the photos, the humans will look so big while the village appears small the background.

We returned to ryokan and while waiting for dinner, we took photos of the room since our room supposedly has the best view among the rooms in the ryokan. As the snowdrop started to stop, we decided to explore the village on foot. We attempted to walk towards to the 3 houses shown earlier but it was too dark that I decided to go U-turn mid-way. After all the tourists leaves (the last bus leaves at around 5pm), the village returns to its original traditional state. The souvenir shops and restaurants already close and in general there is little light. The supermarket was still opened so at least we still could buy water before we returned to ryokan for dinner.

View from our room

This is how little light there was in the evening

I was blown away with the service from this ryokan. They called the room to inform that dinner was ready. Wow.. I don't drink alcohol but because it has been snowing and because dinner was looking fantastic, I decided to get a bottle of sake. I am not too particular about food as I easily forget them like how I cannot remember the last ryokan meal I had in May 2018 so I cannot compare. All I can say is I enjoyed the generous serving of the Hida beef and the ryokan is not exaggerating when they told us not to overeat for lunch since the dinner will be quite filling. Meals were served by the daughters of the ryokan's owner and it was nice that they tried to engage in conversation with us. They thought my sister and I were a couple o_0 hahaha.. Before we started with dinner, they also offered to take a photo. Haha.. I think they know people nowadays like to take photos with food.

This is just the first plate

Just to show the serving size of the beef

Appreciate the personalisation although I am not a Singaporean haha..

After that we went to shower. There is only one room in this ryokan that has attached bathroom and toilet and we do not get this room. So we get vouchers to use in the onsen nearby. The onsen is just across the road about 3-5 minutes walk but since it was snowing again, the ryokan drove us and picked us from the onsen. I gave the normal slippers to my sister and I put on the Japanese slippers so it was lucky that I did not embarrass myself and falling over on it. Haha.. The onsen itself is clean and pleasant although the outdoor onsen is not as unobstructed as the one in Kawaguchiko so I could not really enjoy the evening breeze.

The onsen has a souvenir shop and I am thinking about getting small handkerchief with sarubobo as souvenir. Since I am already going to a far away place that people normally do not visit, I prefer to get something unique. Food is not an option now as I will still be travelling and I do not want to transfer cities with 2 pieces of luggage. This handkerchief is good because it is compact but the price (440 yen) is a deterrent. I think my colleagues may not appreciate it as much as food. Sigh.. let's think about it if I am going to buy it tomorrow.

I was pretty worried for today in anticipation of the snow and sub-zero temperature. I have been reserving my 2 sets of ski base layers for Shirakawago and ski resort so today was the first time I wore them. I think they have been good investments as I was not really bothered with the cold today. Perhaps the water/ice/snow drop which had me opening umbrella was more bothersome than the wind and actual temperature. Today was the first time I wore 3 layers for the bottom (heat tech + ski base layer + windproof pants) and they were good enough to prevent me from feeling the wetness from the rain. Luckily my choice of clothes were warm enough today. I wore 4 layers for the top (heat tech + ski base layer + fleece jacket + ultra light down) but I did not feel as 'suffocated' as 2 days ago when I wore 4 layers but with 2 fleeces. Ultra light down as the most outer layer is also better than fleece as ultra light down gives a nicer bubbly shape vs fleece reflects the fat layers on my body. Hahaha...

The snow shoes that I bought from Decathlon is also a godsend since water does not go through from the sole or from the surface. The issue is with the way I put on my pants as it enabled water to get into the shoes from the ankle. Despite that, the lining inside the shoes did something magical to the water as I did not feel the inside of the shoes wet or drenched.

So that is a fantastic day at Shirakawa-go. It would be perfect without all the stupidity from my sister but overall I am thankful for the snow scenery and this ryokan. I think I will write a separate post about this ryokan to share how awesome staying here has been.