Shirakawago

Shirakawago is an old mountain village in the Japanese Alps which has had the majority of houses maintained in their original form. The locals still farm, but tourism is probably a bigger industry. Chihiro and I caught a bus leaving Shizuoka at 5.30am. Luckily we could get some sleep on the way, but as we got into the mountains there was more and more beautiful scenery to take in. The amount of snow was incredible. It had built up to over 3 metres thick in places. Luckily the roads were kept free by snow ploughs, and there was no ice on the roads. One rest-stop on the way had an igloo on one side of the toilet block and a "Doraemon" statue on the other. It was exciting just being in the snow, which I hadn't seen this much of since I was a kid. We reached the village at 11, and because of the long trip time we could only spend a few hours there before catching the bus back. Though it was enough time to go for a walk, visit a few of the old houses, and try some of the local food. The houses are about 300 years old, and are held together entirely with bindings of straw and "neso". They are re-thatched every 50 years or so in a traditional communal effort of about 200 people working on a single house at once. Because the village was so remote, everything that the village used was made there, and inside some of the buildings were displays of all the equipment for growing silk-worms, spinning various threads, making cloth, candles, farming equipment, medicine, all sorts of food, et cetera. The amount of knowledge and skill needed to make and use all this equipment is quite amazing. My imagination of the town as it was 200 years ago was cut abruptly short as we passed the temple bell-tower which had a brand new snow-cutter parked under it! As we walked around the edge of the village it started snowing, much to our delight! It got heavier and heavier, and I couldn't believe how big the flakes were. The jacket I got for Christmas kept me warm and dry though. It has a staggering number of features, which I kept discovering as the day went on. My fingers and toes started to get numb about the time we had to leave, so although it was great to visit, I'm glad I don't live in a place as cold as that!