The first order of business next morning was to head to the morning markets. We went to the one by the river. Many stores along the market walk open only for the morning market hours from 7 am to 12 noon, and there are also many vendors who put up little stalls and tables to see local produce and crafts.
We headed to the train station, which has the TIC and bus station directly opposite it. We had booked tickets in advance for the bus journeys for the next two days from Takayama to Shirakawa-go, and onward to Kanazawa, and we decided to change our ticket for today for a later bus, so that we could have lunch at Takayama before heading out. After changing our ticket, we headed back to collect our luggage from the Rickshaw Inn, and stopped for a quick lunch at a new Italian place on one of the streets leading down from the train station called Enoteca. After a great meal, we headed for the bus.
The bus journey takes about an hour and mostly goes through a lot of tunnels, the longest one was 12 km ! We arrived at Shirakawa-go bus station and made our way across the bridge spanning the river to the village on the opposite side. When we reached our accomodation for the night - the Yokichi house, no one was at home so we went to a shop next door and they kindly called the owner, who had stepped out for some last minute dinner shopping. We were shown our cute little room with a view of the river.
After dumping our luggage, we set off back across the bridge to the bus station side of town, which is also where the open air museum is.
Shirakawa-go is known for its gassho zakuri houses, which is the name given to the architecture that involves building the steeply sloping thatched roofs which allow for heavy snow, which the region is known for, to slide off without accumulating. A Unesco World Heritage site, Shirakawa-go's houses are very old, and every year enough money is raised to re-thatch about 5 houses. The houses double as shops, yards, storage, museums and little cafes.
The Open Air Museum is a collection of some of the oldest and best preserved houses. Some were used for living, others for storage and other activities such as water mills. Most houses would cultivate silkworms right at the top, since the heating of the house by lighting fires on the ground floor would make the heat rise and allow for comfortable rearing of silkworms.
After our visit to the museum, we stopped at a couple of shops. Most shops here carry these small faceless dolls called "sarubobo", they are a local good luck charm.
We decided to take a walk around the village before heading back to Yokichi for dinner.
Knowing beforehand that a veggie dinner would not be possible, I opted to stick to my quick fix ramen cup noodles while Gordon indulged in hearty home fare.
One of our fellow travellers was Eliza from Greece and we really hit it off. After dinner we went for a walk through the village in the moonlight in our yukatas and getas, and chatted in our room long into the night.
On cold nights, the irori or stove is the one thing that never sleeps in any house at Shirakawa-go.
Our hostess, Seiko-san, who welcomed us into her home.
We finally went to bed, lulled to sleep by the sounds of the river nearby.
