Wish We Had More Time in Hida Takayama!

I wrote about my wife's favorite Japanese town (see previous post on Uji) a few articles back. Now I get to write about my own favorite Japanese town, an old feudal settlement nestled within the mountainous Central Japan and blessed with world class festivals and sights within Day-Trip distance. It is a town where ancient traditions are highly treasured, where sculptors and Sake brewers still work inside their 18th Century Machiya townhouses, under the backdrop of the majestic Japan Alps. Welcome to my impression of Hida Takayama.



Takayama is an old provincial capital located almost at the dead centre of Japan -- if you draw a line halfway between the northern and southern tips of the Honshu Island, you'll strike across Takayama. This area of rugged mountain ranges has been known as Hida historically, and even today Takayama is still widely called Hida Takayama.



This is a very unique region within Japan, culturally separated from the rest of the country due to the treachery of the mountain passes through the feudal ages. Today you can get here from Tokyo or Osaka in approximately 4 hours by train. As for us, we arrived by local bus from the village of Shirakawago to the west, as part of our cross-mountain trip originating from Kanazawa.



SAN-MACHI


Of Takayama's numerous tourist attractions, the most famous is a well-preserved section of the original feudal town -- exactly three streets of it -- known as the San-Machi (Town of the Three). Flanked by the lazy Miyagawa river on one side and the Tera-machi temple district on the opposite, it has become a major destination for cultural tourists and photographers who arrive en masse for its incredible concentration of interesting sights and beautiful photo spots. Many of the building are designated National Cultural Treasures, and the city is recently putting together a proposal to be recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Even to the uninitiated tourist, it's like walking into an Edo Period artist colony, and some of the shops and studios have been around at least that long, with the craftsmanship being passed down from master to apprentice through generations.



One interesting feature of the old town was the high concentration of traditional Sake breweries, signified by these large balls of cedar branches (Sugitama) hanging under the roof. I counted at least four or five of them located within a couple blocks of each other, all taking advantage of the crisp, sweet tasting water from the surrounding snow-capped peaks.



The Sake varieties produced in this region seem to be aiming towards a drier, unrefined full-body taste ... or at least that's the impression I get from the samples in the local markets. There is also a noticeably greater variety of semi-filtered (Nigori) wines compared to what we saw in Kansai or Tokyo, which is probably nothing more than some marketing people coming up with wines to match the region's rustic image.



Some of the breweries offered Sake tasting for a nominal fee, but I had to give that a pass -- I knew that I wasn't going to buy anything and weigh down my backpack further, and I would feel bad about troubling the brewery staff. I think I must have been slowly adapting into the Japanese mode of thinking during my travels.



Outside the San-Machi district lies the modern city, which is somewhat commercialized but still pleasantly uncrowded for a leisurely stroll around town. Discerning souvenir hunters would uncover goldmines in the numerous traditional carpentry studios, some of which have been in business for a century or more. The store signage here reads "Ichii-Ittobori" ("first-rank one-chisel carving" ... my translation), a highly sought-after style of wood carving originating from this region.



A humorous testament of just how amazingly beautiful Takayama is -- the owner of the house must have had daily encounters with inquisitive foreigners mistaking his immaculately preserved house for a museum. When an entire section of the town looks so uniformly exquisite, it's easy to forget that real people carry on their daily lives inside these sliding doors of dark wooden lattices.

Aside from being famous for feudal townscape and breweries, Takayama also features an amazing number of interesting little museums for a city of this small size. We chose the following three.



TAKAYAMA JINYA


The city's biggest tourist attraction after the San-Machi, this medieval castle-like enclosure housed the local government from the 17th Century until the 1960s, which is quite amazing if you consider that the older generation used to stroll through this museum to pay their taxes just a few decades ago. A radical concept compared with the modern Prefecture Office across the river, the Jinya is a historical vestige from an era when the idea of a government office was an enormous mansion for the governor and his servants, gigantic storehouses for the annual tax collection (in the form of rice and grains), countless rooms for various official and private functions, and an artfully manicured courtyard garden.



Overlooking the central courtyard was a grand, multi-functional reception hall -- out of bounds to visitors of course. In fact we had to carry our own shoes in plastic bags through most of the rooms due to the Tatami mat flooring. The calligraphy at the far end reads "Loyalty" and "Filial Piety", ancient Confucian themes popular with the ruling class (for obvious reasons) through the feudal ages.



As popular with tourists as the Jinya was, the entire complex was so vast and spacious that we were able to find a quiet stretch of the veranda to just lie down and relax. For a long time I just sat there in front of the courtyard, doing nothing and thinking nothing. That was quite a rarity on this trip, as we had become so used to being pushed through the major sights by hordes of uniformed students on their school trips.



Located just a stone's throw from the San-Machi, the Jinya pronounced the Shogun's strategic presence in this remote region of giant timbers and rich gold and silver mines. You can see how the occupants poured centuries of ownership care into the architectural details of their 10,000 square metre property, down to each nail-less joinery in the complex arrangement of open beams.



There are other exhibits of daily life in the Edo Period, among them a set of earthen kitchen stoves, and a 19th Century toilet preserved in such good condition that they had to put a "DO NOT USE" warning beside the "Toilet" sign. Makes me wonder if they found out the hard way ...



But the most educational exhibit was the little courthouse, filled with various interesting instruments which I had no idea what they were until I saw ...



Whoa! No comments from me!

Takayama Jinya
Official Website: http://www.pref.gifu.lg.jp/pref/s27212/
Entrance: 400 yen (CAD$4) as of late 2008
Directions: Walking out the JR train station, head straight along Hirokoji Dori until you hit the Miyagawa river, then turn right before the bridge. Takayama Jinya will be on your right side after one block.



TAKAYAMA MATSURI YATAI KAIKAN


The most expensive museum in town (820 yen) isn't a typical museum of artworks and historical artefacts, but an air-conditioned storehouse for the centuries-old, lavishly decorated floats used in the semi-annual Takayama Festival parade. Each year, the 100,000 fortunate people who visit Takayama during the Spring and Autumn festivals are be able to see all this and more along the parade route free-of-charge ... except for the doubled and tripled hotel room prices (think Running-of-the-Bulls in Pamplona, Spain). Being not as fortunate, we had to settle for seeing only four of the floats within the museum's gigantic glass box.



You have to see the shimmer and the intricacies of the gold-leaf covered sculptures to believe the opulence -- and the immaculate condition -- of the floats, considering that many of them date back from the 1600s and are still in use twice a year. That's quite a demonstration of robustness and component replaceability in engineering terms, not to mention just plain looking good.



The most popular of all floats features a triplet of lifelike marionettes who can supposedly perform a wide range of complex gestures and requires 8 puppeteers to operate. The climax of the puppet show, which I've only seen in a video at the museum, has the pot-bellied monk raising his hand and an explosion of white confetti would appear magically out of a hidden compartment and rain down on the audience.



It's all interesting to a degree, but I'm just the kind of traveler who would rather be joining the festival alongside the locals -- that's why we timed our visit to Kyoto to coincide with the Aoi Matsuri. But then there are just too many interesting festivals in Japan to see in a lifetime. If I ever plan a trip to Central Japan again, I'll have a hard time deciding between the Shirakawago Light-Up Festival in January and the Takayama Festival in April and October.



SAKURAYAMA NIKKO-KAN


The ticket to the Takayama Matsuri Kaikan includes entrance to another exhibition of the wood-working mastery of Takayama's artisans, a 1/10 model of the Nikko Toshogu mausoleum complex that contained 100,000 individual pieces of miniature components and took 33 sculptors 15 years to complete. Talk about commitment! This was the crowning achievement in a lifetime of hard work for these artisans, and it's difficult not to be awestruck when we saw the grand scale of the model filling the large exhibition hall.



Just look at the intricate details of the Toshogu, where each little sculpture of the facade was modelled after the actual building with religious adherence. Of course the famous sculptures of the three monkeys and the sleeping cat are there as well. The top of the roof in this picture was about 50cm tall, to give an idea of the scaling.



The really cool thing is that all this is just a modern extension to the long history of artistic collaboration by the local artisans. Like Italian artisans employed by its European neighbours during the renaissance, the Hida artisans were employed (or drafted) for the construction of the temples and palaces in the ancient capital of Nara -- and that is a tradition dating back 1400 years.


Takayama Matsuri Yatai Kaikan and Sakurayama Nikko-kan
Official Website:http://www.hida-hachiman.org/
Entrance: 820 yen (CAD$8) as of late 2008
Directions: Walking out the JR train station, head straight along Hirokoji Dori across the Miyagawa river. Turn left after the river and go straight for three blocks, at the same time watching for a two-storey-tall stone Torii gate at one of the cross streets on the right side. The Torii marks the entrance to the Sakurayama Hachiman-gu shrine located in the same grounds as the two museums.



INTERESTING MUSEUMS WE DIDN'T VISIT

One of the most popular museums in town was the Hida Folk Village, an open-air exhibition of traditional Gassho-zukuri farmhouses complete with traditional handicraft demonstrations. But IMHO this is primarily for people who don't have time to visit Shirakawago and see the real, living village.

The Kusakabe Mingei-kan is one of the grand merchant houses surviving from the Edo Period. It's now converted into a museum of folk handicraft and architecture.

The Hida Takayama Inro Museum is supposed to have a large collection of hand-crafted medicine cabinets. Somehow I find this really interesting ... don't ask me why.

And then there's just a plethora of totally random museums around town, focussing on anything from teddy bears to squirrels to glassware to fossils. I don't think I've ever seen such a high concentration of museums with the possible exception of Florence Italy.


TRANSPORTATION


So you wanna come to Takayama and see Hello Kitty in a Sarubobo costume? Just joking ... there are a lot more interesting sights than this.

From Tokyo or Osaka, the easiest and fastest way is to take the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Nagoya, then change to the Limited Express "Wideview Hida." The whole trip should take a little over 4 hours. This costs a substantial 13500 yen (CAD$135) from Tokyo and 9500 yen (CAD$95) from Osaka, one way. Of course it's free if you've got a JR Pass. Since Shinkansen trains depart every 15 minutes and the Wideview Hida train every hour, this gives you the freedom of hopping on the train at any time and get a reasonably good connection.

The cheaper way is to take a highway bus operated by Nohi Bus (http://www.nouhibus.co.jp/english). From Tokyo, at least 4 buses depart daily at 08:00, 09:00, 14:30 and 16:00, costing 6500 yen (CAD$65) and taking 5 1/2 hours. From Osaka Nanba, two buses depart daily at 08:10 and 16:30, costing 5500 yen (CAD$55) and taking a little more than 5 hours.

If you're interested in knowing what mode of transportation we took, we arrived by Nohi Bus from the historical village of Shirakawago (2400 yen, 50 minutes), and departed via another Nohi Bus to the hotspring town of Hirayu Onsen (1530 yen, 60 minutes). A rather unorthodox route, but it turned out to be the most economical and direct path to the destinations we're interested in.



IDEAS FOR DAY-TRIPS

The pristine national park of Kamikochi is about 1.5 hours away by bus. I'll add a photo later once I get to the stage of writing an article for Kamikochi, but this is one of Japan's premier scenic areas and is quite worth a visit.

A collection of little hotspring towns known as Oku-hida Onsengo is as little as an hour away by bus ... in fact this was our next destination upon leaving Takayama. This is a relatively convenient place to go if you're interested in a dip in Central Japan's legendary open-air baths. And if you're coming during the winter, the illuminated frozen waterfall of Hirayu Ootaki is quite famous.

There's a famous hotspring town by the name of Gero, one hour south of Takayama by JR's local train. Historically it's one of the "Three Famous Hotsprings" of Japan (the other two being Beppu and Kusatsu), but nowadays it's blighted by a whole forest of multi-storey hotspring hotels. Oku-hida Onsengo is a much better choice IMHO.

The small town of Hida Furukawa, just 20 minutes north of Takayama by JR's local train, is supposed to feature a beautiful section of the old town with colourful carps swimming in the canals along the streets. Sadly we didn't have time for a visit.


Last by not least, and I'm not going to condone this ... but Shirakawago is only 50 minutes away by bus. Though I think a first trip to the Hida region wouldn't be complete without a rustic night inside one of the giant farmhouses. If you can afford two or three nights in Central Japan, do yourself a favor and spend one night at Shirakawago or Gokayama.



HOW MANY DAYS?

With so many interesting sights within striking distance, a first-timer could easily spend four or five days in Takayama without ever getting bored. We did one night in Gokayama, one in Shirakawago, one in Takayama, and one in Oku-hida Onsengo, but all that could also be done using Takayama as a base. Personally I would have preferred having one more day for doing Takayama in depth and to visit Furukawa for a half-day, but as all independent travelers know, time is never enough ...

MY WIFE'S CORNER Enter any souvenir store in Takayama, and you'll be immediately surrounded by an army of faceless humanoid dolls with pointy arms and legs. No these aren't aliens craving for your flesh, but local doll amulets known as Sarubobo (baby monkey). Traditionally passed down from parent to children and made with red cloth to resemble the reddish face of baby monkeys, Sarubobo are now sold by clever entrepreneurs in a myriad of colours, each attributed with a different mystical power. Well ... welcome to the marketing machine of Japan. This cell-phone strap is called the Sarubobo Edition, and was bought in Takayama for around 450 yen.

Shirakawago - Guesthouse and Restaurant Review

I will repeat this again ... DON'T SETTLE FOR A DAY-TRIP if you plan to visit Shirakawago. Rest your traveler's soul under the thatched roofs for a night or two ... chat with your Minshuku host at the hearth in nothing but body language ... rejuvenate your backpack-weary shoulders in the village's open-air hotspring ... treat yourself to the affordable extravagance of a top quality Hida Beef steak. After all, you've already spent so much time and effort just to get there, especially if you've started out from Tokyo or Osaka.

Unless you have a car, you'll want to stay somewhere within the main village, known as Ogimachi to the locals. There is no westernized hotel (nor would you want one), a total of 3 Japanese Ryokans, and 20 or so Minshuku guesthouses in Ogimachi. Unfortunately none of the Ryokans are housed in a Gassho-zukuri (steep thatched roof) farmhouse, which is everyone's favorite reason for visiting Shirakawago. So for most tourists, it makes much more sense to stay in an authentic, way cheaper and much more atmospheric Minshuku.




Booking a Minshuku

For non-Japanese speakers, the easiest way to book a Minshuku within Shirakawago is to reserve through JapaneseGuesthouses.com, which deals with a few of the 20 Minshukus in the village. I think they do charge a small commission, if I'm not mistaken.

If you've got your eyes on a particular Minshuku not on their list, you could email the Tourism Association at info@shirakawa-go.gr.jp and request for the Minshuku of your choice. This is how we booked our Minshuku -- we emailed them our dates, the number of male/female/children in our group, how many rooms we needed, arrival time and transportation, and the Tourism Association made arrangements with the Minshuku and reconfirmed the booking with us.


The Association didn't ask for my credit card number in the booking process. As in most places in Japan, cancellation is based on an honour system -- if you change your plans and no longer need the room you reserved, you're responsible for informing your host so they don't waste the vacant room, not to mention the food and the effort of meticulously preparing your dinner.


Hotel Review: Minshuku Hisamatsu (Shirakawago)
Address: Gifu-ken Ono-gun Shirakawa-mura Ogimachi 585
Price: 7700 yen per person including dinner and breakfast
Website/Map: http://shirakawa-go.gr.jp/details/?m=1&i=81
How To Book: Send an email to hidatio@hidanet.ne.jp or info@shirakawa-go.gr.jp
Directions: From the Information Centre, pick up an English map and walk across the suspension bridge (Deai-bashi). Head straight towards the Myozenji temple on the other side of the main road. Hisamatsu is right next to the Myozenji. If you're looking for direction for getting to Shirakawago by PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, please refer to the Transporation section at the bottom of the previous article.



This is the Minshuku we chose based on the following criteria:
1) a UNESCO World Heritage designated Gassho-zukuri style farmhouse
2) a historical building, preferably dating from the Meiji era or before
3) serves dinner and breakfast around the square hearth (Irori)

Most Minshukus in the village would meet criteria #1 ... and you can usually tell from the exterior look of the house. Criteria #2 needed a little more research in the Tourism Association's Japanese site, but most of the Gassho-zukuri houses in the village are at least a century old anyway. Criteria #3 turned out being the toughest, since the usage of the hearth at many Minshuku has diminished to serving tea and initially greeting visitors.



Not at Minshuku Hisamatsu though. This place is as authentic as it gets, just a step short of letting you tend the fire and grill your own fish. This was dinner time, when the 87-year-old owner Kawata Hisamatsu still sat around the fire and chatted with the Japanese guests in the room. The torch of running the guesthouse has been passed to his daughter, who spoke minimal English and did a great job of keeping up the conversation with us who spoke minimal Japanese. The elderly wife of Kawata-san (whom we simply called Obaasan ... I never asked for her name) was also sitting here but just not in this picture.

It was a very memorable meal for two completely opposite reasons, one being the authentic experience of sitting around the old Irori hearth with a Japanese family, and the second being the even more authentic experience of the heavy smoke from the firewood constantly getting into our eyes. Tolerable to me, it was getting a little too authentic for my wife. This may be something you want to consider when you choose your Minshuku, as authenticity does come with a price.



The food was also memorable -- an 8-course meal very similar to our previous dinner at the neighboring village of Gokayama (see the Gokayama article for comparison), but with a notable addition. Historically Shirakawago belonged to the old feudal province of Hida, a mountainous area which produces one of Japan's favorite and most highly prized food ingredients ...



The velvety soft, marbled Hida Beef. Not as internationally famous as the Kobe, Matsuzaka or Omi (collectively known as the Three Famous Cattle Breeds), but just as celebrated within Japan and generally very difficult to find in restaurants outside of the Central region. The quality of these thin cuts of beef was nothing too spectacular (probably A3 Rank by my own estimation), but it was a much welcome change as I've had almost no red meat since leaving Kobe more than a week ago. The Japanese are much more well-known as heavy fish and pork eaters.



Iwana trout seasoned with sea salt, slow-grilled at the hearth right before dinner was served. This was quite average, to be honest.



This was always my favorite dish wherever I went in Central Japan. A tempura dish made with the local organic vegetables and wild indigenous plants, including the intensely fragrant Yama-udo leaves shown at the centre. Best dish of the meal by a mile.



Cold Hiya-yakko tofu, fiddlehead ferns in sesame marinade, and ... what's that brown orb on the far right? It tasted starchy and sweet, and I thought it was some kind of exotic root vegetable found locally. But as the hostess explained, it was a mini potato grown from the strip of farmland in front of their house.

And that's not all -- we were also served the Koshi-hikari rice the hostess herself planted and harvested, from the same ancestral fields passed down from generation to generation. It's quite amazing to see these ancient traditions still being honored, even in the 21st Century in the middle of a first-world country.



Another great thing about staying in Shirakawago is that ... for a mere 500 yen (CAD$5) more, you get the option of upgrading your vacation into a hotspring trip! There is a modernized hotspring Ryokan called Shirakawago-no-Yu near the end of the village, normally charging 700 yen for a dip in their open-air hotspring. You don't need to pay full price if you're staying at a Minshuku though, since your host can get you discounted tickets for 500 yen.

I can't speak for the ladies' side, but in the men's section there was an indoor pool with massaging jets, and a much more attractive but smallish open-air pool overlooking the the Shokawa river shown above ... and the busy two-lane bridge crossing the river. I thought I wasn't a new-comer to Japanese hotsprings, but it still felt a little weird with cars zooming across less than 100 metres away while I sat barenaked in the pool. Just part of the cultural experience I guess.



Though Shirakawago gets invaded by coachloads of international and domestic tourists daily, the evening sees the village returning to its serene, charming past. This was the ultimate escape for city dwellers -- rustic, pastoral, but surprisingly cold. We took an after-dinner stroll around the village, but had to hurry back before the warmth from the hotspring wore off completely . This was in late May, but the nighttime temperature still dropped to single digits Celcius.



Luckily I had the good sense to pick up a bottle of the locally brewed Nigori-zake, a semi-filtered (ie. with residues of the fermented rice suspended in the Sake) rice wine with a very strong flavor. It was available from the local general store for less than 500 yen (CAD$5), which was an unheard-of low price compared to what I usually pay in Vancouver. My wife found it too weird for her tastebuds though, and I ended up having to finish the entire bottle.



This is how modern villagers get through their cold winter nights -- a portable, somewhat foul-smelling kerosene heater inside each bedroom. Even though we're not supposed to run the unvented heater for more than an hour at a time due to the risk of carbon dioxide poisoning, we probably used it for half the night.



The Minshuku was a full-house that night, and each group of guests was assigned to a room partition within the large communal space. As you can see there's a two-feet gap between the room divider and the ceiling, much to the inconvenience of both the ourselves and the Swiss-Japanese couple in the next partition. You can imagine the difficulty for both rooms in muffling the jokes and the pillow talk down to a manageable noise level.



We woke up to the crisp, near-freezing air -- a perfect morning for travelers to gather around the Irori hearth to share stories while warming up the hands and the feet. The hostess had to keep busy as she tended the fire, boiled water for our tea, and cooked breakfast for everyone but herself. It was an atmosphere fitting to everyone's idea of a classic morning in rural Japan.



The breakfast was simple again -- no meat, no fish -- just like the previous morning at Gokayama. The Minshuku's home-grown rice was served again, this time accompanied by the aroma of an unmistakably Central Japanese dish, arguably the most famous dish in the Hida region ...



Hoba Miso ... or soybean paste grilled in a magnolia leaf, with the added toppings of Enoki mushrooms, tofu and scallions this morning. As expected the Miso was rich and flavorous, but it wasn't overwhelmingly salty and was just right for its traditional role as a condiment for the rice. This combination and Miso and rice gave us the perfect fuel as we continued on our trip to Hida Takayama.

This evening was certainly one of our most memorable stays in Japan, yet it's not something I would recommend to everyone without reservation ... the smoky dining room and the thin walls that didn't reach the ceiling were a bit of a shock to my wife, but quite interesting to me. So I guess it depends on what kind of traveler you are, and how highly you value material comfort.




Food Review: SHIRAOGI (Shirakawago)
Address: Gifu-ken Ono-gun Shirakawa-mura Ogimachi 155
Hours: 09:00-17:00 except Thursdays
Website/Map: From Yahoo Japan
Directions: Starting from the Information Centre, walk across the bridge and head straight. You should see a large parking space on your left side after crossing the main road. Shiraogi is one of the few houses right on that square.


"Great Food" and "Convenient Locations" rarely mix -- that's why you can usually find a plethora of uninspired, mediocre eateries at all train stations and bus terminals. But there are always exceptions, such is the inexpensive and excellent Shiraogi, a place I'll always remember for one of the best beef dishes ever.

As far as location goes, Shiraogi is situated at the most unlikely place for even decent food -- right in front of Shirakawago's tourist coach parking. I would venture to guess that 90% of the clientelle are one-time customers who would never visit Shirakawago again in this lifetime, meaning that the incentive to serve quality
food is near zero. Anyway that's what I would expect if this was Tokyo's Shinjuku or Osaka's Umeda.

Even the ordering method was deceivingly cafeteria-ish. Customers are expected to pick out their meals outside the front entrance from a vending machine, pay the machine and take the resulting ticket to the waitress -- just like at your neighborhood Ramen chain. In fact, every little sign was hinting that it might just be the wrong place for lunch ... until we had our first bite.



Simple Teishoku set lunches such as "Mountain Vegetables Soba" start from 780 yen (CAD$8), and go up to 2100 yen (CAD$21) for an mouth-watering Hida Beef steak grilled in Hoba Miso. We ordered two Central Japanese specialties, one being the Hida Beef in Hoba Miso, and another being the Nagoya specialty of Miso Katsu.



Did I forget to mention that this was one of the most memorable beef dishes ever? Just look at the incredible marbling on the beef! It was practically no different from the Matsuzaka or Kobe Beef that we've tried before in terms of its melt-in-the-mouth softness and intense flavors, at a very reasonable price -- roughly 80 grams of top quality Wagyu beef for 2100 yen. And that's not all, as this very traditional dish arrived spiced up with the local region's number one favorite seasoning ...



Again it was the dense, richly aromatic Miso paste grilled on top of a dried Hoba leaf. The price may have something to do with it, but I really thought the Hoba Miso here was better than what we had for breakfast at our Minshuku. It was the perfect balance to the oiliness of the steak as it disintegrated in the mouth.

My only complaint was that ... this heavenly goodness arrived in only 80 grams! If you ask me to choose between a Kobe Beef steak and this Hida Beef Hoba-Miso-Yaki, I would probably choose THIS over the Kobe steak, given the same amount of beef.



I think my wife ordered the Miso Katsu because she was already missing the excellent Tonkatsu at Kyoto's Katsukura after only three days. That makes the tiny unheralded Shiraogi even more amazing, for the Tonkatsu here didn't disappoint even when compared to the successful Kyoto chain. In my opinion it wasn't as unbelievably
tender as Katsukura's, but the thick, sweet Miso sauce brought an entirely different character to the dish. I thought deep fried dishes usually goes better with acidity than with sugar, but this combination of Haccho-Miso and what must have been a copious amount of sugar went very well with the Tonkatsu.



It was an excellent meal overall, which completely belied the rather ordinary appearance of the little eatery. If we ever get the chance to visit Shirakawago again, there's absolutely no need to second guess and look for a different lunch spot ... I doubt if we'd find a better deal anywhere else in the village.

Bill for Two Persons

Hida Beef Hoba Teishoku	2100 yen
Miso Katsu Teishoku	1200 yen
TOTAL	3300 yen (CAD$33)

MY WIFE'S CORNER One of Shirakawago's claims to fame is the astounding amount of snow accumulation during the winter months, which was the major contributing factor to the development of the Gassho-zukuri architecture. This pendant is called the "Yukiyakonko Edition", with Kitty carrying a lamp, dressed in a yellow straw raincoat and hidden inside a "snow lantern" (yukitoro), one of the region's favorite outdoor decorations after a heavy snowfall.

The Photographer's Paradise of Shirakawago

This is, very simply, one of the most aesthetically striking places in all of Japan.

You don't need to be a photographer to appreciate Shirakawago, though its incredible beauty has attracted domestic and foreign photographers in droves. If you're a casual tourist wanting to snap a few pretty photos for your desktop, I guarantee you won't go home disappointed. And even without a camera, this is the most romantic place to just breath in the rustic atmosphere, and let it forever imprint in your mind.



To the Japanese, the name Shirakawago conjures the image of an immortal hamlet, the glow of a the ancestral hearth, the warmth of family bonding from a bygone age and, in general, paradise on earth. Though the recent arrival of mass tourism has shifted the focus of the village from its age-old subsistent farming roots to modern commercialism, the traditional townscape has stayed remarkably unchanged, due mostly to the local government's commitment to uphold the UNESCO World Heritage standards. To this day you still won't find any luxury Ryokans in the village, let alone a multi-storey hotel. After all, the biggest selling point here is the unique experience of spending a night under the giant thatched roof of a Gassho-zukuri farmhouse.



What's so special about this steep thatched roof? The Japanese consider it a national treasure, one of the best examples of human ingenuity against the forces of nature. Located at the northern edge of the Japan Alps, this region sees the moist air from the Sea of Japan coast turned into metres upon metres of heavy snowfall every
winter. As a simple matter of survival, the ancient people invented a unique architectural plan to guard against the cold, the wood-rotting moisture, and most importantly the real possibility of the roof collapsing under the snow.



Back in those days Shirakawago lived in its own isolated world, cut off from the outside civilization for months at a time by the snowy mountains. Even though the Kaga Prefecture to the northwest produced the best earthen roof tiles in the feudal ages, the locals came up with their own solution -- a one-metre-thick thatched roof with superb insulation and waterproofing capability.



Underneath the roof stood the gigantic cedar pillars and beams harvested from the nearby mountains, held together by nothing but hand-woven ropes. An open hearth was strategically placed at the centre of the house, not only to serve as a heating source, but also to fumigate the ropes under the roof to give them water- and
insect-repellant qualities. The solution is as architecturally functional as it is visually impressive.



Even today most villagers still live inside their own Gassho-zukuri farmhouses, many dating from the era of the Tokugawa Shoguns a couple centuries ago. A few of the best-preserved houses belonging to the wealthiest families have been converted into museums, but most have survived into the 21st Century as fully functional homes to local working families, albeit taking on the extra function as shops or Minshuku guesthouses.



Sons and daughters continue to hand-plant this year's rice seedlings in the same ancestral fields that their great grandfather cultivated, often drawing the camera flashes of their curious guests. The indigenous strain of rice continues to serve as the staple food it has been for centuries, and the excess continues to be fermented into the strange-tasting Doburoku wine (unfiltered wine with rice chunks in it ... way too strong for my tastebuds). There still exists a very pronounced communal side to Shirakawago when you look past the tourism. The Japanese in general are a very cooperative people with a strong sense of the community, which doesn't get much more evident than in Shirakawago.



Example? A brand new roof generally lasts only about 30 years, which means that a few of the 100-or-so thatched roofs will need to be rethatched every spring. We're talking about ripping out a 10 x 12 x 1 metres chunk of compacted thatch, and replacing it with fresh, loose straws that first needs to be tied into bunches
and secured onto the house frame -- a task too big for even the biggest family in the village.



If you're lucky enough to arrive in early April of any given year, you can see the entire village coming out to rethatch a few of the oldest, leakiest roofs. Literally dozens of villagers can be seen standing on the roof together to secure the thatch under the command of the experienced elders. And if you can speak Japanese,
you can even apply to become a volunteer in the roofing effort and experience the communal spirit yourself.



Can't make it in early April? No worries, as there are many other wonderfully picturesque occasions throughout the year. We arrived during the rice planting season in late May, when domestic photographers and painters turned up to capture the reflection of the village upon the artificially flooded rice fields. Villagers and
their kids came out in full farming gear, rubber boots and all, and hand planted each seedling that will produce the one annual crop in the coming Autumn. This is the one crop of rice that will feed the entire family -- and the guests if the family is running a Minshuku guesthouse -- for the whole year.



Staying at a Minshuku is a MUST for anyone wishing for the full Shirakawago experience, even if you understand not a word of Japanese. Your host family will take in your luggage while you go out for sightseeing, serve you tea and snacks when you come back to rest your weary legs, sell you discounted tickets to the local hotspring,
fluff up your feather-filled futon for a sound night of sleep on the Tatami mat, and cook you a multi-course dinner and breakfast using their freshest local organic ingredients ... while you lounge around their little square hearth. I've got so many pictures from the Minshuku that I'll need to separate it out into the next article. Do yourself a favor -- don't settle for a day trip and cheat yourself out of one of the most authentically Japanese experiences.

What is there to do after settling into your Minshuku? Shirakawago has an impressive number of attractions given its relatively small size, which takes no more than 8 minutes of walking from one end of the village to the other. Befitting its UNESCO World Heritage status, the major sights here are all designated as Important Cultural Property of some sort.



GASSHO-ZUKURI MINKA-EN


By far the best exhibits are the excellent collection of farmhouses within the open-air museum of Gassho-zukuri Minka-en, located on the other side of the Shogawa River.



Inside the museum stands some of the best specimens of rural Japanese architecture, the star attraction being the preservation of the entire desserted village of Kazura, just 20 km to the north before its valley was flooded and turned into a hydro-electricity project. When the villagers launched a final exodus around 1967, several of the most impressive houses were saved by a massive conservation effort and relocated to their current location here in Shirakawago. There is a subtitled interview documentary playing inside one of these houses, in which the surviving villagers recounted their daily life in Kazura as school-aged children and ended up in tears. Very universally human and well worth the 15 minutes.



The interiors are exceptionally well preserved, sporting fully functional hearths and various hand-crafted household items, many dating from the era of the Shoguns. The ground floor typically consists of the communal living spaces, an unfloored kitchen, and even horse stables for the more affluent families. Detailed exhibitions of the traditional industries of silkworm farming and gunpowder production are given in the upper floors. And the best part was ... authentic 70-degree-steep ladders provide access all the way to the top floor in some of the sturdier houses, which afford a great view over what remains of the Kazura village.



Besides farmhouse residences there are also storage sheds, Shinto shrines, grain stores, water-powered mills, and even functional toilets ... all built in Gassho-zukuri style with the signature thatched roofs. And as expected a couple have been converted into noodle stands and souvenir shops, but that's just the commercial side that pays for the cost of preserving the complex. Entrance cost 500 yen (CAD$5), a bargain IMHO if you compare it to the other two open-air farmhouse museums at Takayama and Gero.

Official Site (in Japanese): http://www.geocities.jp/psgifu/



THE RESIDENCES OF WADA-KE, NAGASE-KE AND KANDA-KE


These were the residences of the wealthiest clans in the village, now all converted (at least partially) into museums and openly displayed to the public. You can visit all three if you have the time, but any one of them will give you a good idea of rural life in this mountainous region as it used to be a few centuries back.

Out of the three, Wada-ke boasts the largest and most luxurious Gassho-zukuri house in the village, which remains continually inhabited to this day. But since the top floors are the living spaces of the Wada family, only the bottom two floors are open to tourists. Nagase-ke is slightly smaller, but lets you climb all the way to the fourth floor. Kanda-ke comes from an offshoot of the Wada family, is the smallest house of the three, but allows access to the top floors. Tough choices ... and we ended up going to the Wada-ke.



You can tell from the heirloom collection of antique lacquerware in the communal space that the Wada must have been one of the most prominent families in the region. In fact, since the 16th Century the head of the family had always served as the village chief, passing down the hereditary name of Wada Yaemon from father to eldest son. As expected the details of the house reached a level of lavishness beyond any other building in the village ... but was it worth the 300 yen? Probably, but it definitely wasn't as much of a bargain as the Gassho-zukuri Minka-en.

Links:
Wada-ke - http://www.shirakawa-go.gr.jp/details/?i=68
Nagase-ke - http://www.shirakawa-go.gr.jp/details/?i=69
Kanda-ke - http://kandahouse.web.fc2.com


THE VIEWING PLATFORM


This is everyone's favorite photo spot, the one attraction nobody would miss. Formerly the site of the local warlord's castle stronghold, the elevated platform now provides a majestic vantage point over the entire village.

If you're in reasonable physical shape, consider taking the scenic uphill walk to the platform, which should take less than 40 minutes from the Information Centre. Alternatively, you could pay 200 yen (CAD$2) and hop on the shuttle bus, which departs every half hour until 16:00 or so.


OTHER NOTABLE SIGHTS

The two major places of worship in the village, one Buddhist and one Shinto, are open to visitors. The 200-year-old Buddhist temple of Myozenji is the tallest thatched roof building in the village, with 5 storeys of towering splendor now housing a modest folk museum that charges 300 yen (CAD$3) for entrance. The Shinto shrine of Shirakawa Hachiman Jinja is even older, but it's not a Gassho-zukuri structure and therefore looks just just like any other dilapidating shrine anywhere else in Japan. Right next to the shrine stands the little museum known as Doburoku-Matsuri no Yakata, which will show you every little details of the village's major annual festival for another 300 yen.

There's a little hotspring at the far end of the village, costing 700 yen (CAD$7) to day-trippers, but you can buy a discounted ticket for 500 yen from your host if you're staying at a Minshuku. I'll write a review in the next article.


WHEN TO VISIT

Shirakawago holds a number of quirky little festivals throughout the year, the most internationally popular being the "Light-Up Festival" held over several weekends in January and February. Spotlights are brought in to illuminate the snow-covered thatched roofs in an attempt to create a romantic winter wonderland atmosphere ...
except for the coachloads of tourists and photographers snapping pictures everywhere.


Rethatching of the roofs, with the participation of the entire village, takes place in early April. The Sakura season arrives in mid April and blooms until early May, and rice planting gets kicked off at its own little festival in late May. July and August is best avoided, as the whole nation seems to come out for summer
vacation and overruns the little village.

The biggest crowds of the year congregate in mid October for the Doburoku festival, when the unfiltered wine is poured out for everyone, the village swells to several times its normal population, and TV crews from all over Japan comes for the footage of the good natured chaos that ensues. The Autumn foliage season arrives early amidst the cool mountain air, and comes into a full display of colours around late October. The first snow usually arrives in mid to late December, in case you're hoping for a white Christmas.


TRANSPORTATION

It used to take days to get through the treacherous mountain passes to reach Shirakawago, until modern engineering blasted Highway 156 through this region in the 1950's. Even today Highway 156 still gets closed off a few times a year due to heavy snowfall. So this should give you a rough idea of the advance planning it typically takes to get to Shirakawago -- most tourist would need a half day just to get here, stay overnight, then take another half day to get back to the rest of civilization.


That has changed since July 2008 with the completion of the Tokai-Hokuriku Expressway, effectively halving the travel time into the region. Though I would NEVER recommend it ... it's now possible to make Shirakawago a day-trip destination from either Takayama (50 minutes by bus) or Kanazawa (75 minutes by bus), both world class destinations in their own rights. IMHO the best route would be to do Takayama -> Shirakawago -> Kanazawa (or vice versa) as part of a grand tour of Central Japan, if you can afford the time and budget.


From Takayama / Kanazawa

The Nohi Bus company operates the excellent bus route from Takayama through Shirakawago to Kanazawa. English timetables are available from their new English website.

From Takayama, there are at least 4 daily buses that don't require prior reservation, plus more buses on weekends, holidays and the summer high season. 2400 yen (CAD$24) one-way; 4300 (CAD$43) round trip.

From Kanazawa, 3 daily buses depart from just outside the JR Kanazawa Station, costing 1800 yen (CAD$18) one-way, 3200 (CAD$32) round trip. But note that this bus is by reservation only, through Hokuriku Railway's reservation centre (Tel: 076-234-0123).

Bus Reservation in Japan It's not as difficult as it sounds. This is how we made made our bus reservations: 1) We reserved bus tickets through the Internet by registering as a member at the J-Bus reservation site, in Japanese ... you'll need to negotiate through the Japanese webpages, but it's the safest way as you get a confirmation page for printing out. 2) The easier, but slightly tricky way is to ask the Tourist Information Centre at your airport of arrival to make this reservation for you, providing you get to the Information Centre between 09:00 and 18:00, the typical business hours of most bus companies. If you arrive outside of these hours, you'll need to go to your local Tourist Information Centre and hope the staffs speak reasonable English. 3) Or as a last resort, you can make a reservation for the next day when you get to the bus station, though this is getting real risky in case you get there on a national holiday or during some local festival.

From Nagoya

The only direct bus route is operated by Gifu Bus, which costs 3500 yen (CAD$35) and depart daily at 09:00 from the Meitetsu Bus Centre, which is the next building from the JR Nagoya Station. This is also the quickest route, taking less than 3 hours. However, this bus operates only from April to November, and there's only one bus per day. Oh, and this bus is by reservation only.

If that doesn't work for you, your best bet would be to take the JR Train or the cheaper Meitetsu Bus to Takayama first, then follow the above instructions to get to Shirakawago.

JR's Express Train (nicknamed Wideview Hida) departs hourly, and gets you to Takayama in less than 2.5 hours comfortably for 5360 yen (CAD$54). Alternatively the Meitetsu Bus departs costs only 2900 yen (CAD$29) and takes slightly longer (2 hours 45 minutes), departing outside the JR Nagoya Station. Nohi Bus operates part of the route, so you can also go to its English site to get more information. Note that this bus is also by reservation only.



From Tokyo

Again you'll need to get to Takayama first. Easiest way to get to Takayama from Tokyo is by Nohi Bus's express bus route, departing outside Shinjuku Station's West Exit and gets you there for 6500 yen in 5.5 hours. There are 4 daily buses, and ... you guessed it ... this bus is also by reservation only.

Alternatively you could take the Shinkansen bullet train to Nagoya, then the JR Express Train to Takayama and get there in less than 5 hours. But this would cost more than twice the bus fare, and thus makes sense only for JR Pass holders.


From Osaka

You should know by now ... get to Takayama first. Nohi Bus operates two daily buses from Osaka, taking more than 5 hours and costing 5500 yen (CAD$55). This is also a reservation-only bus route. Again, JR Pass holders can simply take the bullet train to Nagoya and transfer to the hourly-departing Express train to Takayama.

MY WIFE'S CORNER Shirakawago belongs to the historical province of Hida, a mountainous region with its own peculiar food culture. One of its signature culinary practices involves the use of magnolia leaves (Hoba) for wrapping sushi and as a dish for grilling meat and vegetables in Miso paste. This Hello Kitty cellphone pendant is titled simply "Hida-ji" (Hida Road) Edition, with Kitty dressed in the region's traditional outfit and wrapped in a Hoba. It can be purchased from any of Shirakawago's local souvenir stores for about 450 yen.