Autumn 2025. We – Sam and Danny, Michel and Wille, and Timothy – are travelling to Japan for a quite classic tour of the Land of the Rising Sun. We are flying separately as we used miles. On the planning: Tokyo, Kanazawa, Shirakawa, Osaka, and Expo 2025, Hiroshima, Himeji, Miyajima, Kyoto, Nara, Nagoya, Hakone, and back to Tokyo. Three weeks plus some extra days.
The main reason we travelled to Kanazawa, was to visit Shirakawa and more specifically Shirakawa-gō. Danny booked us a guided tour which include Hida no Sato, Takayama and Shirakawa-gō. Unfortunately, on the day, Danny and Sam didn’t join Michel, Wille and myself.
Hida no Sato
Hida Minzoku Mura Folk Village (飛騨民俗村, also known as Hida no Sato, 飛騨の里) is an open-air museum located in the city of Takayama, Gifu Prefecture. Set on a gentle hillside overlooking the Takayama Valley and surrounding a tranquil pond, the village presents a vivid reconstruction of traditional rural life in the mountainous Hida region. It lies about 2.5 kilometres southwest of Takayama Station and features around thirty carefully preserved farmhouses that illustrate the diverse architectural styles once common in Japan’s alpine communities.
The structures on display range from one to five centuries old. Many were relocated from their original sites to prevent their loss to time and development, and each was reassembled with meticulous care. Of particular note are the gasshō-zukuri houses, whose steeply pitched thatched roofs—resembling hands joined in prayer—were designed to withstand heavy snowfalls.
Other homes feature shingled or board roofs typical of the region. Inside, visitors can explore interiors furnished with period artefacts such as weaving looms, silkworm trays, cooking implements, and traditional clothing, providing insight into the self-sufficient lifestyles of Japan’s rural past.
The museum also includes workshops where craftspeople demonstrate the making of local handicrafts, including woodcarving, tie-dyeing, weaving, and lacquerware, continuing the traditions that made the Hida area renowned for its craftsmanship.
The atmosphere of the village, with its rustic houses reflected in still waters and framed by forested slopes, has earned it the poetic nickname ‘the village hidden in the leaf’.
Four of the houses are designated National Important Cultural Properties, seven are listed as Gifu Prefectural Important Cultural Properties, and one is recognised as a Takayama City Cultural Property. Among the collection is also a rare Western-style building from the Meiji period, registered as a Tangible Cultural Property, offering a glimpse into Japan’s transition from feudal isolation to modernity.
Hida Minzoku Mura Folk Village stands as both a museum and a living preservation of Japan’s architectural and cultural heritage, capturing the quiet rhythms of rural life and the enduring harmony between people, craftsmanship, and nature in the mountains of Hida.
Takayama City
Takayama (高山市, Takayama-shi), often referred to as Hida-Takayama (飛騨高山) to distinguish it from other towns of the same name, is a historic city in northern Gifu Prefecture, situated in the heart of the Japanese Alps. With an area of 2,177 square kilometres, it is the largest city by land area in Japan.
As of September 2025, it has a population of around 82,000 residents. Its high altitude and relative isolation from other parts of Japan allowed it to develop a distinctive local culture over more than three centuries, preserving much of the atmosphere of the Edo period. The name Takayama literally means ‘tall mountain’, a fitting description of its alpine surroundings.
The city lies amidst dramatic mountain scenery, with Mount Hotakadake rising to 3,190 metres as its highest point. The region’s rugged landscape and abundant forests shaped both its economy and craftsmanship: Takayama has long been renowned for its skilled carpenters, known as Hida no takumi, who were prized across Japan for their precision and artistry.
Takayama’s old town retains a beautifully preserved grid of Edo-period streets, lined with wooden merchant houses, sake breweries, and small museums that recall its prosperous past as a castle town under direct control of the Tokugawa shogunate.
Two celebrated festivals, the Sannō Matsuri in spring and the Hachiman Matsuri in autumn, fill the city with music, lanterns, and elaborately decorated yatai floats—some of the most ornate in Japan. Many of these floats are displayed year-round in the Takayama Festival Float Exhibition Hall (Takayama Yatai Kaikan), alongside the Sakurayama Nikkō Kan, where intricate scale models reproduce the famous Tōshō-gū shrine at Nikkō.
Cultural landmarks include the Takayama Jin’ya, a well-preserved Edo-period government office and National Historic Site, and Hida Kokubun-ji, founded in the Nara period and the city’s oldest surviving structure, marked by its ancient three-storey pagoda and 1,200-year-old ginkgo tree.
The Kusakabe Folk Museum and Takayama-shi Kyodo-kan further showcase local history, crafts, and everyday life. A short distance from the city centre lies the Hida Minzoku Mura Folk Village (Hida no Sato), an open-air museum of thatched farmhouses and traditional mountain architecture set around a tranquil pond.
Takayama’s surroundings also offer striking natural attractions, from the scenic Shin-Hotaka Ropeway and Okuhida Onsen area to the peaks of Mount Norikura, a dormant volcano accessible by bus to near its summit.
Local cuisine reflects the region’s mountain culture, featuring sansai (wild vegetables), wasakana (river fish), handmade soba noodles, and the celebrated Hida beef, often enjoyed with local sake or Takayama ramen.
The city is also known for sarubobo charms—red, faceless dolls traditionally given by grandmothers to grandchildren for good fortune—which have become one of Takayama’s most recognisable symbols.
Takayama’s blend of natural beauty, craftsmanship, and living tradition has made it one of Japan’s most beloved heritage towns.
Recognised by Lonely Planet in 2017 as one of Asia’s top travel destinations, it continues to attract visitors drawn to its serene old streets, mountain vistas, and enduring sense of time preserved in wood, festival music, and the clear alpine air.
Shirakawa-gō
The Historic Villages of Shirakawa-gō and Gokayama (白川郷·五箇山の合掌造り集落) are a UNESCO World Heritage Site encompassing three remote mountain settlements—Ogimachi in Shirakawa-gō (Gifu Prefecture) and Ainokura and Suganuma in Gokayama (Toyama Prefecture).
Together, they form a cultural landscape of exceptional harmony between human habitation and a harsh natural environment, nestled deep within the Shōgawa River Valley in central Japan. Designated in 1995, the site covers 68 hectares and is surrounded by a vast buffer zone of forested mountains that preserve its historical isolation and integrity.
Shirakawa is the name of a village in Gifu while Shirakawa-gō is the name of the historic, UNESCO World Heritage site region which includes the main village of Ogimachi. Therefore, Shirakawa-gō refers to the specific collection of traditional villages and farmhouses, while Shirakawa is the larger, modern administrative village that contains Shirakawa-go.
These villages are celebrated for their distinctive gasshō-zukuri farmhouses, whose steeply thatched roofs—resembling hands joined in prayer—are designed to withstand the region’s heavy winter snowfalls.
Many of these houses are three or four storeys high, providing ample space for extended families and for traditional industries such as sericulture (silkworm cultivation) and the production of niter, used in making gunpowder. The upper floors, with their airy wooden frameworks, were used for raising silkworms and storing mulberry leaves, while the lower levels served domestic and agricultural purposes.
The gasshō-zukuri style, found nowhere else in Japan, reflects centuries of adaptation to local conditions. Constructed entirely without nails, the roofs are rethatched roughly every three to four decades through a communal practice known as yui or koryaku, in which villagers gather to help one another.
This system of mutual assistance once extended beyond roof work to include rice planting, harvesting, firewood cutting, and even life events such as weddings and funerals. Although depopulation and an ageing population have made such traditions more difficult to sustain, volunteers and heritage organisations now support their continuation.
Geographically, the Shō River flows through a narrow, steep-sided valley surrounded by mountains rising to about 1,500 metres. Until the mid-20th century, the region’s remoteness kept it largely isolated from the rest of Japan, fostering unique religious and social traditions.
In earlier centuries, the mountains were sacred to followers of Mount Hakusan worship, and the villages later became centres of the Jōdo Shinshū Buddhist faith, which remains predominant today. The landscape’s scarcity of arable land meant that rice cultivation was limited; instead, villagers grew buckwheat and millet and supplemented their livelihoods with papermaking and silkworm production.
Among the three settlements, Ogimachi is the largest and most visited, with more than 100 traditional houses spread across a wide river terrace surrounded by fields and forest. Many of its gasshō-zukuri dwellings date from the late Edo and early Meiji periods, their ridgelines aligned parallel to the Shō River, creating a unified and strikingly picturesque village scene.
Ainokura and Suganuma, smaller and more secluded, preserve an even greater sense of the quiet mountain life that once characterised the region.
The UNESCO inscription recognises these villages as outstanding examples of traditional human settlement perfectly adapted to a challenging environment. They embody a continuity of craftsmanship, communal cooperation, and spiritual harmony with nature that has endured for centuries.
Today, the Historic Villages of Shirakawa-gō and Gokayama remain living communities, where the rhythm of seasonal life and the sight of snow-laden thatched roofs continue to evoke Japan’s rural past with remarkable authenticity.
A rainy visit
It was a rainy day in the area, one of the few rainy dais we had during this trip. Driver and guide Arfa drove through the 11 km-long Hida Tunnel to Hida no Sato, our first stop. The time we got there, was short, maybe too short. But with the distances we had to cover, I understand.
Takayama City was an interesting addition. It was crowded, but it was also a Saturday. We didn’t find a place to sit down and eat in the time frame we had. So, while I’m not a fan, we had street food standing. But that allowed us to see more.
Shirakawa-gō was obviously the highlight of the excursion. It provided with what I wanted: seeing rural Japan, the kind you see in fiction and anime.
I would recommend visiting by car or organised with a bus tour.
2025 Journey Across Japan
- Japan’s Superconducting Maglev train breaks world speed record at 603 km/h.
- Japan’s maglev bullet train delayed to 2035 or later as costs rise to ¥11 trillion.
- QUESTION | Should you be stressed about travelling to Japan, and fear of missing out?.
- Brussels Airport to Milan Malpensa with Brussels Airlines, operated by Air Baltic, ft. the 2025 check-in and boarding software hack.
- REVIEW | Sala Montale Exclusive Lounge and Sala Gae Aulentin Premium Lounge at Milan Malpensa Airport, extra Schengen.
- REVIEW | All Nippon Airways (ANA), Business Class, Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner to Tokyo.
- REVIEW | Toei Animation Museum in Nerima, Tokyo.
- JAPAN | Tokyo Station, its Character Street and Pokémon Store.
- REVIEW | Onyado Nono Asakusa Hotel in Tokyo.
- TOKYO | Asakusa ft. Sensō-ji Temple.
- JAPAN | The Odoriko train from Tokyo to Ito on Izu Peninsula.
- PHOTOS & REVIEW | The Izu Teddy Bear Museum in Izu-Kōgen.
- JAPAN | A visit to Ito on Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka Prefecture.
- REVIEW | Japan’s Saphir Odoriko in Premium Green Car from Ito on Izu Peninsula to Tokyo Station.
- GAY TOKYO | 24 Kaikan in Asakusa (+ Ueno and Shinjuku).
- TOKYO | Sawara in Chiba Prefecture, ‘Little Edo’ beyond Narita.
- TOKYO | Omotesandō in Shibuya – AEON Shinonome – Uniqlo – Muji.
- PHOTOS | The Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum in Koganei Park.
- JAPAN | Solo in Tokyo.
- REVIEW | Brussels Airport The View lounge.
- REVIEW | Qatar Airways Business Class Brussels to Doha.
- REVIEW | Qatar Airways Al Mourjan The Garden Business lounge.
- REVIEW | Qatar Airways Q-Suite Business Class Doha to Tokyo.
- REVIEW | Pullman Tokyo Tamachi.
- REVIEW | The Railway Museum, Ōmiya, Saitama City, Saitama Prefecture.
- TOKYO | Imperial Palace East Gardens – Akihabara – Tamiya flagship store – Skytree.
- JAPAN | Kanazawa Castle – Kenrokuen Garden – Higashi Chaya District.
- REVIEW | Daiwa Roynet Hotel Kanazawa Eki Nishiguchi.