Trip to Shirakawa-go and Takayama

Gifu Road trip: approx. 761 km.

My second road-trip for the month (^^)/
This time, we rent the car through Nippon Rent-a-car and got a lime green Honda Fits. Such an eye-catching color!! But it's prolly way better than a boring white anyways. ;-)

Trip member: P'Ton, Mai, Nott, Jae and Kee


We took off early morning of Sunday, June 18, 2006. Got on Meishin Expressway and arrived Shirakawa-go 白川郷 around 1 p.m. We first grabbed famous local food for lunch: Hida Beef Coroquette and Chinese style soba (out of everything, why chinese style?!?!)



Shirakawa-go is a village declared as a World Cultural Heritage on December 9, 1996 by UNESCO because of its old-style house called Gassho. It was way too crowded when we arrived, but the crowd was about gone by the time we were to leave. Everything is back to basic there. It's said that this village was locked out from the modernized and civilized world because of the geographical structure surrounded by high mountain ranges.

Shirakawa Village

It wasn't until the late 20th century that the modernized world brought itself into the village and people started to realize how important it is to adapt themselves to the outside world. Despite that, there are still a large number of Gassho houses restored in the area that are still being used as regular residence even until now.

First floor of Myozenji Musuem, one of the Gassho-houses opened for public.
The amazing thing about Gassho house is that there is absolutely no nail used in building the house. The main structure lies at the supportive roof structure (the A-shape) and that's how the name Gassho's derived. It's amazing that this Gassho style house does not collapse even in the heavy snow and strong winds!

exterior of Gassho-style houses
Another characteristic is the wide attic space which is divided in a few levels used for raising silkworms.Jae and Mai under the attic
The thatched roof is replaced apprixamtely every 30 years and the process is carried out by the whole village members just like ลงแขกเกี่ยวข้าว.
this house just got the roof replaced (this maybe the one in NHK program the other day).
We spent a fair amount of time wandering around the village before moving on to Takayama 高山. We got there just right in time for dinner. Our rest stop for tonight is "Mizuno So", a Minshuku style of accommodation in Ichinomiya area. Jill and N'Bow stayed here when they came during the Golden Week. Our dinner was a fiesta! The highlight was Hida beef shabu shabu, accompanied by homemade tofu, seafood gratan, somen, sweet pumkin, miso soup with little shells, rice with bamboo shoots, etc. Also, some local sake before meal too.

Dinner Fiesta, with Hida beef shabu shabu as a highlight.
Then, we went to a nearby Onsen before coming back to watch Japan-Croatia world cup match with the uncle, the owner of the minshuku. The auntie was so kind to prepare us coffee and tea for our night beverage!

Monday, June 19, 2006

Our breakfast was still a fiesta! haha. I was so happy to get to try the miso on dried leaf (eventhough it was the fake leaf! =P) It was also one of the famous local dishes recommended in the guidebooks.
huge breakfast!
It took us a whole while before we could leave the house. The uncle and auntie were so talkative. The uncle showed us a picture of a Thai actress who came for some sort of program shooting at his house. It turned out to be Tik Kanyarath! The auntie also kept bringing us souvenirs. We got a bag full of things from her. haha. Btw, the auntie is turning 60 this year, but OMG! Her skin is still like a teenage!!!!! (SOOO JEALOUS!!!)

#1 auntie!! ;-)
With uncle and auntie, the owners of Mizuno So.
We parked our car in the heart of Takayama town and started our journey on foot. We first went to Asaichi 朝市 or the morning market along the Miya river. There are a lot of cute stuff there. One of the things we often see around this area is "Sarubobo", the area's most famous Omamori.

Sarubobo
coffee break at Takayama Asaichi
Takayama is a rather cute little town. It's also known as little Kyoto, but I think it's not quite like Kyoto. Takayama has its own charms. It perhaps looks more traditional than Kyoto since there are no highrise buildings at all. We walked up North from the morning markets, passed Kusakabe Folk Museum（日下部民芸館） and Yoshijima Heritage House（吉島家住宅）up toFestival Floats Exhibition Hall （高山屋台会館） where the floats used in Takayama Festivals are kept for display. Takayama Festival is one among the three most famous festivals in Japan (The other two is Gion of Kyoto and I forgot another one -- some festivals in Saitama?). Takayama Festival alone is splitted into 2 parts: Spring and Autumn Hachiman festivals. The floats displayed here are from the Autumn one. The floats for Spring festival are not out for display.

Autumn Hachiman festivals
Then, we stroll down the old private house area (古い町並）. There are lotsa yummy food along this street. Good for 歩き食べ！We stopped by that hida-beef sushi place Jill and N'Bow went before. YUM!!! Loved it there in this house area. Such a cozy little place. Btw, this town is honestly full of cafes! Really cute. :)

the old private house area

Hida Beef Sushi -- really GOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!

more sarubobo
Grilled Danko
Doraemon and Hello Kitty Sarubobo
Our last destination for this trip was Okuhida Onsen Village （奥飛騨温泉郷）. Actually, we wanted to stop at Gero Onsen （下呂温泉） too, but the time was rather tight, so we sticked to only Okuhida Onsen Village. The OkuHida Onsen Village is the collective name for five scattered hot spring resorts: Shin Hodaka, Tochio, Shin Hirayu, Fukuji and Hirayu. We chose to go to Shin Hodaka　新穂高温泉, which is the furthest in distance among the five. But because it is located nearest to the alps, the scenery was just beautiful. We randomly picked an onsen that seems to have a beautiful out-door bath judging from the pictures in the guidebooks. For this one onsen we picked, it looks as if you can be seen when you take a bath. And yeah.. we were right. It's a complete outdoor onsen and you can totally be seen!!!!! Nah.. nah.. the lady's section is still hidden from public sight! =P But the onsen is in a rather remote area, so there weren't people walking around scarying us anyways.


Shin Hodaka Onsen
We started making our way back at around 5 p.m., but we didn't get back to Kyoto until a little after 10 p.m.!!! So yeah.. approximately 5-6 hours drive with only a brief stop for dinner at one of the service area along the highway. Soooooooooo tired. But it was yet another fun trip with great companies. :)

getting gas and cleaning windshield before hitting the road home.

Oh yeah... I think I need to extend my greatest attitude to P'Tik Shiro for producing such a great CD that helped us stay up all the way to Kyoto!! haha =P