Shirakawago was designated as UNESCO World Hetitage site in 1995. There are 60 Gassho-Zukuri farmhouses and about 40 Gassho-style storages in the village. The shape of big slanted roofs resembles in the gesture of bringing arms and hands together in prayer. This gesture is called Gassho in Japanese. We will visit Shiroyama observation deck, a typical Gassho farmhouse inside, and stroll through the village.
At your hotel
9:10 Depart Kanazawa
10:35 Arrive at Shirakawago
We take a bus to Shirakawago for 1.5 hours
We walk around Shirakawago
We take a bus back to Kanazawa
I will take you to yout hotel or wherever you want me to drop off.
At your hotel
This tour takes you to UNESCO World Heritage Site "SHIRAKWAGO".
In the Edo period, how people lived in the village surrounded by mountains? How did they make a living?
You can explore traditional thatched-roof houses and enjoy the picturesque landscape. This one day tour takes you to unique gassho -zukuri houses and savor local cuisine. The winter season, with its snow-covered scenery, adds an extra layer of charm to the experience.
The tour would be 7-8hours duration depending on bus schedule you could book.
Guide fee, hotel pick-up
Bus fee (you and the guide): 5,200 yen for roundtrip between Kanazawa and Shirakawago
Lunch: 1,500 - 2,000 yen
Entrance fee: 300 - 600yen, depending on how many house you would visit.
1, This tour basically starts and ends in Kanazawa.
If you like to change the last destination, not Kanazawa, please feel free to ask me.
As your option, I also can guide you Gifu, Takayama, in next day. 1st day: Shirakawago 2nd day: Gifu Takayama
2, The bus going to Shirakawago is very popular. We may need to reserve in advance.
Depending on which bus we could reserve, our starting and ending time would be changed. It is advisable to book at least one week advance to confirm this tour due to the bus ticket's popularity.
On a long trip, we found necessary to alternate big cities (Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka) with medium size city. And Kanazawa was on the map on the loop to go from Tokyo to later visit Takayama region. We booked this tour as we did not have a lot of time (only an afternoon) and Yoji was waiting for us at the station when we deboarded the Shinkansen. A very efficient and wonderful tour of the city, the canals, a beautiful garden and quite a lot of rain that day! Yoji was really knowledgeable and we had a great time discussing many differences between living in Canada and in Japan. The only downside? It was too short!
Thank you very much for great review on Kanazawa and me. I personally enjoyed chatting with both of you. You have lived many countries, so you gave me good advice to me because I would like to move to other countries in the near future. Please stay in touch and see you again!
We enjoyed very much our tour with Yoji. He was very flexible, educated with interesting facts and trivia, and personable about life in Japan. His English was excellent and thus communication was clear.
Thank you very much for such a great review and comment. I had a wonderful time with you the other day. I hope you enjoyed the tour with me and will enjoy the rest of your stay in Japan. Best regards,
Yoji was great. Our first priority was finding my wife's ancestors gravesite in Nodayama Cemetery and Yoji led us all over (it's huge) until we found it and adjusted the schedule to fit our search. He is also very knowledgable of the area and took us to great spots.
Thank you very much for your time making a review and comment on me. I am very happy to find the grave site in Nodayama finally! The day should be played in the documentary. As a clue, we wandered 2 hours but we couldn’t find under raining and many spiders webs. Then we finally found in the afternoon! It was a fantastic experience and memory for both of you! And for me as well. Thank you for letting me be in the moment. I hope you enjoy the rest of your trip in Japan! Take good care!
From the moment we met Yoji at the train station we knew we were in good hands. He is kind, attentive and patient. He spent time prior to our visit contacting the 4th generation craftsman, Yoshinori san, to plan our tour. We stopped along the way at a sushi “conveyor belt” restaurant, which was quite entertaining! Once we got to the Orin workshop it was clear it was a magical place. Yoshinori san explained how he forms the bowls and “tunes” them to the sound they are meant to have. He provides Orin bowls to many Buddhist temples throughout Japan and beyond. We each got to experience a bowl singing around our head and on our abdomen while lying on our backs. We took all the time we needed to select a bowl to take home. It was a very meaningful experience and we appreciate Yoji’s willingness to do the extra work to make it happen and to be our interpreter with the craftsman.
Thank you very much for your review and comment on my tour. I had wonderful day with you. It was my first time to visit Orin bowl factory. He was a professional handcraft man. I was impressed by his work and his attitude towards his work. I hope you enjoyed the day with me. Thank you very much for giving me such a great opportunity and belt conveyer sushi which was very fun! Stay in touch!