Day trip to Shirakawa-go Oct 14

Today we are taking the day trip to Shirakawago, a small traditional village in Gifu Prefecture.  The village is famous for its steep thatched roofs (gassho-zukri) built to withstand heavy winter snow.  The village is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  

But to accommodate the next day, we shipped our luggage to our next hotel.  Luggage forwarding service in Japan is big business and there are several companies who do this for you.  Our plans for the next day involves a morning tour and then taking the Shinkansen train to Kyoto.  We decide to get our big suitcases to our hotel in Kyoto so that we don’t have to shlep them around that morning.  In hindsight, we could have left the cases with the hotel that morning and taken them on the train that afternoon with us, but it was pretty liberating navigating the train stations without wheeled luggage.  

After breakfast we walked over to the East gate Kanazawa Ekimae bus terminal, which is across from our hotel through the train terminal but we need to navigate a “U” shaped route through the Rinto shopping complex to get to it.  At the station we were pleased to navigate all the signs and information boards to figure out which one of the 11 bus bays was the one for Shirakawago.  The seats are all reserved, so there was no need to be at the front of the line.  The ride is about an hour and 20 minutes and it passes by quickly especially for Judith who napped through much of it.  There over a dozen tunnels that the bus passes through.  The longest one is the Hida tunnel at 10.7km long.  It is the third longest tunnel in Japan.  (12th longest in the world).

Mountain mist on our way to Shirakawago.  

The Ogimachi village is the main destination.  There are over 100 very picturesque gassho-zukuri structures.  We had a route planned which involved taking a small bus to the top of the Shiroyam Tenshukaku Observatory which provides a panoramic view of the area, but the bus line up was long and we skipped this part of the trip.  We entered into a couple of the homes that wee open to the public:  Wada House and Kanda House.  Wada House was the largest of the two structures with two more upper levels.

Wada House.  This is an historic farmhouse that is open to the public.  It operates as a museum showing traditional living areas and the silk cultivation that the family would maintain in the attic space.

The thatch roof is about 80 centimetres thick (31 inches) which suggests there is a very heavy load on the roofs before snowfall happens.  They are very steep at 50-60 degrees and assembled completely without nails or metal screws.  The thatch roofs are completely replaced every 20 - 40 years.  

The attic space of Wada House.  It’s a huge area, about 25 metres (83 feet) long and at least 9 metres (30 feet) wide.  

The big oak beams are lashed together with straw rope or neso (witch hazel).  It’s all very neat with no rope ends showing anywhere.  This provides a flexible joint system that absorbs the stress of heavy winter snow and earthquakes. 

The museum showed how the thatched roof was put on.  This was a communal effort where 100 - 200 villagers would gather to complete the job.  Thatching historically used kariyasu grass that was bundled into rounds about 80 cm thick.  

Thatching begins at the bottom edge and moves upward using specific structural references like the outer edge bundles to get the thatch rows even.  There were easily 50 people on top of the roof at the same time where they layer, trim and pack the grass tightly to ensure water resistance.  

This is the fire pit for the building and located on the main floor near the centre of the building.  The fire place was continuously lit inside the home.  Rising smoke and heat would circulate throughout the thick roof and multi level building.  The soot would blacken the wood and thatch with soot to naturally repel insects, prevent rot and dry out moisture.

I climbed up to a mezzanine level above the upper floor where the silk worm activity would have been carried out.  The picture shows the roof structure from the inside. 

There were informative diagrams and historical artifacts of all the tools and procedures that would have taken place to raise silkworms and turn the cocoons into silk.  

We after leaving Wada House, we walked up the street and came across a “Wood Museum”. I was intrigued by the large cross section of a tree leaning against the wall.

Several trees had grown together to make this giant tree.

We paid our entry fee of 200 yen each ($1.80) and went in to have a look.

There were several massive pieces of exquisite wood.  I wasn’t sure what kind of wood many of them were.  Many like the one in this picture were burls, where the growth is irregular and the grain swirls in chaotic but beautiful patterns. 

There were many pieces of carved wood as well, but they didn’t speak to me like these raw pieces.

Judith ended up being the model in some of these picture.  It’s hard to figure out the scale of these massive pieces without having her playing Vanna White for me.  

After we looked at this floor, we started to leave and the attendant asked if we had seen the second floor.  I didn’t know we were permitted to go upstairs because some of these buildings are still being used as residences.  I did a tour of the second and third floors (Judith opted out on these) and these floor contained large slabs of figured wood.  Some were still raw and many others had been finished into furniture or art.   I took lots of pictures and it inspired me to create some wall art like I saw in this museum.  

We continue walking up the street and seeing all the traditional homes.  About 2/3rds along the length of the road, we find a food market full of grilled meats and seafood as well as lots of dessert items.  I think 90% of everything sold came on a stick from grilled pork, beef, squid, octopus, crab, corn dog looking things, candy and chocolate covered bananas, etc,  I had an interesting time checking out all the stalls, but I wan’t hungry enough to join in a lineup and try something.  

We came across this little fire truck on the side of the main road.  

We walked to the end of the street and then doubled back to walk across the foot bridge.  It starts to rain a bit—it’s the first rain we’ve had on our Japan vacation so we feel lucky there hasn’t been more.  We expected it to rain today, so we have our raingear on.  

Foot bridge (Deai Bridge or Ogimachi Suspension Bridge) over the Sho River (or Shogawa) River.  It’s a pretty solid foot bridge and we went over to explore all the activities on the other side (there weren’t many).  

There was, however, this lonely figure waiting for someone to stick their head through the mouth hole.  I couldn’t convince Judith to be that person so I took one for the team.

We came back across the bridge and decided to walk up the hill to the Observation Deck.  Although the buses were still running we decided get some exercise in so up the hill we went.  There was a great view over Ogimachi.  

 View from the Shiroyam Tenshukaku Observatory Deck. 

And of course, we took a slightly soggy picture before we hiked back down the hill.

We got on the bus to get back to Kanazawa.  We’re a bit tired and decide not have a formal dinner.  We popped into a local convenience store and I get some onigiri and Judith gets some fruit and nuts which we eat it all back at our hotel room.  Onigiri is a traditional rice ball made from plain, lightly salted white rice, filled with meat or seafood, and wrapped in some nori (seafood). It’s usually shaped in a triangular shape and is a staple “grab and go” snack found in all Japanese convenience stores.  My favourite is the tuna and mayo flavour.  Fine dining it’s not, but we both found convenience stores food to fill our tummies.