After a delicious Japanese breakfast, I tried to have an early start out of Takayama, but unfortunately I missed my bus to Shirakawa-go for a few seconds (the clock in my camera was slow, so I saw the bus leave the terminal as I was getting in). The good news, is that missing the bus gave me one hour to explore Takayama a bit more. My first stop was the morning market. It's a colorful market by the river where products for the local, as well as products for tourists are sold.
Takayama's mascot is the sarubobo doll, which means happy monkey baby, a simple red doll that grandmothers used to make for grandchildren. It's made very simply, a sphere is covered with red cloth and it's attached to a cushion with 4 horns. From there, there are many variations, including hats, t-shirts, a vest, etc. The dolls are supposed to bring happiness to their owners, so they are a very popular souvenir among Japanese. After my walk, it was time to take my bus to Shirakawa-go. The bus goes via a fantastic highway. During the 50 minutes that takes to go there, we went through 12 tunnels that totaled more than 24km, including the Hida tunnel which is 10,710m long.
Shirakawa-go is definitely one of the highlights of my whole trip. The place is incredible beautiful, but at the same time it's a place where real people live, work, and farm. It was rice planting time, so most fields were flooded and filled with tiny rice plans which provided excellent reflection of the houses.
Shirakawa-go is known for its Gassho houses. Being in the mountains, the town was isolated from modern civilization which preserve the architecture and style of living of the place. The town was rediscovered in the 1930s and then abandon during the war, to be rediscovered again in 1950.
A gassho house has a thatch roof up to 1 meter thick. In addition, no nails are used in the roof construction: it's done entirely with wooden beams, thatch, and straw ropes. Visiting any of the houses open to the public usually gives access to the roof and a small exhibit that explains how the house was built.
Another unique feature is a fire that it's kept burning all the time. The roof can be attacked by insects, and it decays if it gets too wet. To prevent both, a fire runs all the time and the smoke is allowed to go to the roof (through lattice floors) and spread throughout the attic. Without the fire, the roof would last only a season or two. With the fire, it lasts up to 20 years. The sooth from the fire is also collected by placing a big wooden square on top of it and used to polish the wood floors.
To the left is the Buddhist temple of the village (Myozenji Temple). This temple saw very few weddings as Shirakawa-go had a very interesting way of organizing society. Only the elder brother of a family was allowed to marry. He would then inherit the land and the house of his father. Younger brothers were not allowed to marry, but they were allowed to visit "unmarried" women on their homes for small periods of time. Any children fathered by them, would become part of the woman's family, increasing the workforce available for that family. This meant that families were quite numerous, explaining the size of the houses.
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After visiting one of the houses, I took a nice trail to a viewpoint of the hamlet. The official trail is paved, but a beautiful trail parallels through the forest. At the top there is a touristy restaurant (where I bought ice cream), but nearby there are some secluded benches with views of the town.
I ended my stay in Shirakawa-go with a visit to the Folk museum. The museum is a collection of houses that were moved from a different location that was going to get flooded due to the construction of a dam. The museum is a must visit (despite the lack of English interpretation beyond the very basic), to understand better how the houses were built and how the people of the area lived.
If you go to Takayama, don't miss a half day trip to Shirakawa-go, it's more than worth the high price of the round-trip bus ticket to get there (4300 yens, $43). As put by one of the elders of the city in 1930 when it was visited by a German architect:
To live in the steep mountains is to live in Paradise on Earth. Even when the lamplight grows dim, we talk fondly of the unending good old times.
I was back to Takayama relatively early (3:30pm), so I decided to visit the old government house, the house of the Shogun, and later the emperor's administrator that ruled the Takayama's region. The house is beautiful, and there are plenty of English signs everywhere.
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A specially "fun" part of the house was the dungeon where instruments of interrogation and graphics of how they were used are shown.
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From there, I went to the Higashiyana Walking course (a signed walking route). I decided to do it in reverse, so I would end near my ryokan. The tour is 4km long and the TI office advised to allow for at least two hours which given the number of attractions is barely enough.
The walk starts on a steep uphill in Shiroyama park. The park contains many trail and it's quite big for a city the size of Takayama. At the top of the hill, there are the remains (just a few rocks) of the old Takayama castle that was destroyed by the emperor at the end of the Shogunate that ruled this region. The trail basically circles the hill (with the optional side trip to the top) and then drop into a residential area. This area was fun as it was a Sunday and Takayama's people were just relaxing outside. There were several BBQs, kids playing on the street, and even a yard sale. After walking some of the back roads of this residential area (and being stared at by puzzled kids), I got to the temple area.
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There were 8 Buddhist temples and 4 Shinto shrines in this tiny area. Sometimes, I'd walk from one temple to another without even realizing that it was a different temple. I really was getting tired of seeing variations on Buddhist temples, but when that would happen, I'd find a detail, a sculpture, or a group of monks chanting that made the walk fun again.
From the end of the walking course, it was a short walk to my ryokan to have another excellent dinner, connect to the Internet, take a bath, and bed time. Looking forward to the rain ending tomorrow, I hope the forecast is right...
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