Shirakawa-go is a mountain settlement that is famous for uniquely designed Gassyo-style buildings and registered as one of the World Cultural Heritage sites. In Ogi-machi, over sixty Gassyo-style buildings will welcome visitors. Enjoying the whole landscape of the village from the hill, you will stroll around the village visiting some traditional Gasho-style buildings such as Wada House, Nagase House and Myozenji Temple Museum.
At JR Takayama Station or Shirakawago bus terminal
The observation point on the hill provides you the best place to overlook the whole landscape of the village of Gassho-style houses. You will get the best of photogenic view.
You will enjoy a variety of local cuisine such as Hida-beaf, Gohei-mochi and Japanese backwheat noodles etc.
This is the largest three-story Gassho-style house in the village, which was constructed in around 1800. The second floor and some parts of the first floor are open, and a variety of artifacts and traditional daily-life items are exhibited.
This is one of a few five-story houses and the big thatched roof is impressive. Visitors can see the footage-video of re-thatching roof and learn the details of the process with some documents and pictures.
The Gassho-style buildings of Buddhist temple are open for visitors as a museum, consisting of three parts; residence, main hall and bell tower gate.
This shrine enshrines the general god protecting Shirakawa-go. The site of the shrine is very calm and good place for travelers to take rests, not disturbed by other travelers.
At JR Takayama Station or Shirakawago bus terminal
Guide fee and hotel pick-up
Transportation(bus) fee about 5,200yen/person for both guests and guide
Lunch & coffee fee about 2,500 yen/person for both guests and guide
Entrance fee about 1,200yen/person only for guests
I can guide in Kyoto in case you support transportation fee.
1) If you stay in Kanazawa, it is possible to meet on the Shierakawago and start the tour.
2) If you want, it is possible to arrange plans including visiting Takayama city.
Tetsuji is a patient, knowledgeable guide who managed to fit all the highlights of two towns into a relaxed-feeling day. He introduced us to many under the surface aspects of local culture that we would have overall missed. And he made us feel comfortable traveling with children with constant food and bathroom needs. A five-star guide and great person!
Thank you for excellent praise for my tour. I am very happy to hear that you are satisfied with my guiding. I hope you could come back to Japan again and enjoy traveling around my area with me. I believe you still have a lot of places to visit and know the details. Please give my best regards to your family members.
We had a wonderful day with Tetsui who guided us through Shirakawa-go, the site of traditional gassho-zukuri houses. Tetsui was a terrific guide, providing a wealth of information on the traditional houses, but also any number of other topics related to Japanese culture along the way. He made helpful suggestions and adjustments to respond to our interests. Tetsui also handled the logistics extremely well, taking away any worry about our day. He even made bus reservations for us in advance to help us with a somewhat complicated day for us, as we were not familiar with the reservation process. We traveled with him from Takayama to Shirakawa, then we continued on to Kanazawa while he returned to Takayama. I thoroughly enjoyed his company and highly recommend Tetsui as a guide for a tour in Japan!
Thank you so much for your high praise. I am very happy to hear that you are satisfied with my job. I hope next opportunity could bring you back to Japan and give me a chance to help you traveling again. Please give my best regards to James.
We spent a really wondeful time with Tetsuji during this one-day hiking tour. He picked us in the lobby of the hotel and guided us very efficiently all day long (peace of mind for the whole family). He gave us all sorts of explanations during the hike and answered all of our questions (and we had a lot) about the place but also japanese culture and traditions. Having with us someone this knowledgeable, kind and professional made this day very special and one of the best moment (if not the best) of our stay in Japan. We can only recommend you contact him if you want to discover the Nagoya region !
I am very honored to have joined your family-reunion-journey in Japan. A friendly atmosphere of all a member of your family made me relaxed and enjoyed hiking while guiding. I hope you could visit Japan and spend happy times with me again.
Tetsuji was punctual, friendly and knowledgeable with a great command of English. He picked us up from the lobby of our hotel and took care of us until our train back to Nagoya. He made good preparations for our tour, having gone to recce the area prior as well as having found out which places might be closed. Although not everything went as planned, he was quick to find alternatives and make arrangements. Our only regret was not having a longer tour with him!
Thank you for so much praise to me. Now, I have a dream that I could have a chance to see your ceramic masterpieces in Singapore someday. Please give my best regards to your friends.