Shirakawago - The most beautiful villages of Japan

We started our journey to the historic villages of Japan at Shirakawago in the morning itself.The way to this villages seems to be not having much traffic at all, and moreover the road lies parallel to the  river  all over the way to Shirakawago once we reached almost near to the villages. We once got out from the car to enjoy the beauty of the river that passes aside our way. We took some snaps from there and spent some minutes at the bank.It is really an artistic view of the river with the green shadows of the big mountains getting reflected in the glass-like river water.

A view from the river bank on the way to Shirakawago

The Historic Villages of Shirakawa-gō is located in the Shogawa river valley of Gifu Prefecture, Japan. This place was also recognized as one of the world heritages by UNESCO in 1995.  Shirakawago is one of the most scenic places in Japan. Besides the scenery, the unique Japanese- thatched roof farmhouses are the center of attraction of this place. In this beautiful village, they preserves the old houses of Japan. Apart from other parts of Japan , where modern houses are seen all around, throughout this village of Shirakawago, we could see the old community houses of Japan with all its eternal beauty blending with the nature. The houses of these villages  with their steeply pitched thatched roofs are  the unique of Japan`s. There are about 180 farmhouses, sheds and barns in Shirakawago. The residents of this place live in small villages. The most popular village for the visitors is the Omigachi which was declared as the World  Cultural and Heriate site in 1995. The landscape here is untouched by modern human activities. 

In Omigachi village...

Getting out of the car, at a parking centre situated inside the Omigachi village, the beauty of the nature made us think of having a rural liffe here in this village-enjoying the beauty of nature - the mountains, flowers, paddy fields, the river and the beautiful houses. We walked through the small streets of the village and reached the hanging bridge above the Shogawa river. Crossing the bridge, we reached the river bank filled with big round rocks. 

The hanging bridge across Shogawa river

After having the lunch that  we had bought with us, we started our walk towards the view-point of the Shirakawago.

 On the way, we could see amazing architectural miracle of the ancient houses of the Japanese community. Some houses are big and multi-storeyed. in between these houses, as we could see at any other tourist places of Japan, there are a lot of shops with the traditional Japanese items of that particular place. 

The Japanese thatched roof villages of Shirakawago.

A shop of Shirakawago.

Since we went there during the early summer period, the paddy cultivation has just started and we could see the  farmers planting the small paddy seedlings. It is very interesting to watch the skillful planting o the seedlings by the farmers. Just like they have calculated and drawn some imaginary straight lines in the field, they are planting each seedling in its proper position as e engineers need rulers and other equipments to draw such a neat long line. Also we find so many vegetable gardens and green houses there. 

Farmer planting seedlings in a paddy field

We got some very interesting snaps throughout our way - houses behind the paddy fields, gardens and the trees , those behind a pond of red lotus and so on.

A house behind garden and rice-field

Houses behind a pond of red lotus.

The Minshuku(Japanese style arm houses) will allow the visitors to stay one full night inside it and  not more in the same house.

 As the place is surrounded by mountains, obviously the view-point is situated on a hilltop where we were walking to. In the beginning it seems interesting for me, but after climbing a few steps we all got  tired.  Our Japanese friend, Yoshimi  got tired first and refused to walk all the way up while her boyfriend Mr.Sam tried to encourage her. We felt funny about them even though they managed to climb with all their efforts. Me and my husband climbed up enjoying the beauty of the nature of Ogimachi. After sometime, I was totally tired and got scared looking up to the view-point which as situated even far away from where we have reached till then. Somehow we people crawled all our way to the mountain top and reached the destination.  

Oh! So amazing was the sight from there. We could see the entire village of Omigachi with more than 50 thatched roof houses from the Shiroyama viewpoint which is the north of the village center.　The beautiful houses, rice-fields, trees etc. surrounded by pine tree covered mountains. The scene of the village that we get from there resembles some beautiful paintings that had seen somewhere before. We spent about half an hour enjoying the beauty of the village from there and then walked down the valley.

Omigachi village from the Shiroyama view-point

In the easiness of getting down the mountain, I realized the fact that there is not much distance we had climbed to reach up. :)